CV Advice
In such a competitive, candidate-driven market place only the best CV’s will be selected to interview for the best opportunities.
If you want to make it to the interview stage then your CV must be professional, relevant and represent you effectively. It must be concise, easy to read and effectively market all your relevant skills, qualifications and experience for the job role.
In some cases in the interim / temporary market place a good CV can actually secure you the role without an interview!
In our opinion there is more than one way to write a good CV but it must fulfil two distinct purposes.
- It must get you the interview. Once at the interview, it must then prompt the right questions, enabling you to promote all your relevant skills, experience and achievements to demonstrate that you are the best candidate.
- Have the impact to quickly demonstrate on page 1 why you are a good candidate for this role!
Length - Keep the cv to 2 pages or a maximum of 3.
Format - Use one type face and keep the page clean and uncluttered. It must be easy to read. Do not include a border or format in anything other than a simple A4 portrait document.
Be Concise - Think about the relevance of the content. If it is not relevant then do not include it.
Salary & Reasons For Leaving –Do not include this information on the CV.
Referees – Do not include your referees on your CV, these will be requested further down the interview and selection process.
CV Structure
- Structure your CV in a way that will promote you to your strengths.
- Tailor the CV for each application so that it is relevant e.g. if you are a recent graduate then your CV will be biased towards your academic achievements and successes outside of the workplace.
- Know your strengths and weaknesses for each application and make sure that the CV communicates and promotes your strengths early on.
The structure should include:
Personal Details – Keep it simple just your name, address, email and a day time telephone number.
Education & Qualifications – Highest Qualification first with the subject, grade/s, date and the name of the institution where you studied. Also add any professional qualifications here which are relevant.
Profile – This is your chance to add your personality, concisely summarise who you are and what you have done in your career so far. We suggest you include what you are looking for from your next move. Almost like a mission and vision statement but for you and your career. This is where you should be passionate, strong and exciting.
Experience – Our preferred style and the most common method is to present your work history in reverse chronological order. In reality an employer will be far more interested in your recent experience so it is essential that you dedicate more page space to all recent and relevant work history. We suggest for each employment you break it down into 3 sections particularly for more recent experience:
CV Content
Section 1 – Company - This should be in paragraph format
The reader may not have heard of the organisation that you work for, so it is important to explain and promote the company including:
- Nature of the company and overview of what they do; products and services.
- Size of company; turnover, number of employees.
- Clients they serve.
- Locations.
- Culture, Unionised.
- Generally a more detailed ‘About Us’ on a company website.
Section 2 – Role & Responsibilities - this should be bullet pointed
The reader will need to know how senior your role is and where you fit into the business. It is also key to define your role responsibilities including:
Date From – To Job Title Reporting to; [Director] Responsible for; [functions, people, projects] What are your goals and objectives? [Why are you in the business? What is your purpose?]
Section 3 – Achievements – this should be bullet pointed
This section should enable you to promote exactly what you have delivered for the business to meet and exceed the expectations of your role. It must be tangible and include £, %, increases, decreases and improvements. If you were going for a pay rise or a promotion this is the information you would be telling your manager to justify your performance.
- Key Performance Indicators – KPI’s.
- Project Deliverables.
- What have you delivered for the business.
A good technique is to discuss a ‘before’ versus ‘after’ to compare what you have achieved in terms of KPI’s.
NOTE - You should repeat all the above for each company and role that you have had. If you have had more than 1 role in a company then obviously just include section 1 once!
Hobbies & Interests – Keep this section very brief and concise. People can judge you by your hobbies, so think about the relevance.
