CV Tips

The purpose of a well written CV is to get you into the interview room. The average recruiter will look at your CV for about 20 seconds. If the information is not well structured, the reader may disregard it and quickly move on. The structure of your CV may also cause the reader to make certain assumptions about your presentation & document writing skills, written English and attention to detail. A well thought out CV is an important tool in helping you secure the job you want, and is therefore worth working hard on. It should be neither too long nor too short, and neither too self-congratulatory nor too modest.

It is important that the following key information stands out:

  • Your location and ability to relocate
  • Current job title with dates of employment
  • Current Employer
  • Mobile phone number and email
  • Degree and professional qualifications (with results)

A well written CV should also subtly draw attention to your plus points. It should be well laid out, accessible and compelling.

Key Tips

  • Keep the length to a minimum. It is not important to keep it to 2 pages.
  • Don’t bunch up the text too much. Make it easy to read and spaced out in a readable font.
  • Make headings clear and bold, and make sure that all paragraphs are consistently aligned.
  • Make sure all events are dated including qualifications and employment.
  • Tailor your CV to the role that you’re applying for, particularly your summary.
  • Avoid writing in long chatty prose. This is a punchy document, not a biography
  • Don’t list irrelevant personal details, such as number of children, etc.
  • Avoid making sweeping statements about how great you are - good people skills etc.
  • Ask a friend to read it through it and give you honest feedback. And always check for spelling mistakes.
  • Don’t lie. There's no point in saying you've spent the past three years working for a top US Pharmaceutical Company if you spent that period on a beach in Thailand. Even if you get through the interviews, references are always checked upon placement.
  • Avoid very long and excruciatingly verbose sentences of the kind that require considerable effort to decipher but ultimately communicate very little, if anything, of any real importance.

Recommended CV structure:

Personal Information

Full name, address, Telephone numbers, E-mail address, work permit / visa eligibility.

Summary / Personal Statement

This is your opportunity to summarise your career to date and to state what sort of role you are looking for in a couple of sentences. If you include the broad key words for the type of role you are searching for, this will make your CV more searchable on recruitment databases. You could also use bullets to give the reader a bite-sized summary of your skills.

Qualifications

List your degrees, professional qualifications, associations and work related training. Remember to include the dates, names and locations of all academic institutions. A-Level subjects and grades may be important if you are a junior candidate, but individual GCSE results are not necessary.

Employment History

  • Put your employment history in reverse chronological order, including dates, responsibilities and achievements.
  • Allocate the most space to your most recent or most relevant jobs. Be sure to include a thorough bulleted list of all responsibilities and achievements.
  • If you do not work for a well known company, it is worth including a paragraph to explain the nature of the business.
  • Make sure there are no time gaps in your CV and that all work and travel is accounted for with corresponding dates.
  • Do not embellish your CV or be economical with the truth (i.e. overstating your experience or accomplishments)

Interests

Be brief in listing your interests. Team sport activities and achievement of personal goals may say something positive about you.