The CV
Your CV is an important document as you will use it to market yourself
to future employers. It will be updated as you progress through
your career, so it’s a good idea to keep it on a separate disk.
Starting at the beginning of the recruitment process, you need
to consider:
Will Your CV Be Read By The Person You Send It To?
Your CV may arrive on the recruiter’s desk along with 50 others!
All CVs will be glanced at briefly, then put through the following
process:
1. Bin/reject it or put it on a pile to . . .
2. ’Glance at again later’ then put it on the reject
pile or . . .
3. ‘Read thoroughly’ then reduce the remaining pile to
‘Invite for interview!’
Very large employers will employ scanning devices to reduce the
initial pile of CVs to a manageable number to be read by human recruiters!
However, it is important to state that there is no such thing as
a PERFECT CV. Of the hundreds of books and websites that exist to
advise you on this topic, all will differ in their advice in some
way! The following tips and hints should ensure the design and construction
of a ‘widely-acceptable’ CV that will get yours at least
to the ‘Read thoroughly’ stage above.
Tips And Hints For CV Construction And Design
How Long Should The CV Be?
Although the UK convention is two sides (pages) of A4, a one-sided
A4 CV, provided that it doesn’t look cramped, is also acceptable.
The occasional employer asks for a three-sided CV which follows
their preferred format, so read recruitment literature carefully.
What Information Should Be Included
Your CV should aim to create a ‘word-picture’ of you
to a person who has never met you. It should be interesting, easy
to read and well-designed.
What Shouldn’t Be Included?
False qualifications; work experience or interests; unexplained
gaps in dates - you’ll be found out! Photos, unnecessary use
of fancy graphics, fonts, boxes etc. - keep it plain, simple and
truthful.
What Sections Or Headings Should You Put On Your CV?
Using the two-sided CV as our norm, let’s look at a sample
outline:
Side (page) 1
Centre your name, in capitals, as the document title, don’t
write ‘CV’ as title ie
JAYSHREE BLANKTON
PERSONAL DETAILS
Essentials:
- address(es) (term-time and home)
- telephone number(s) (term-time and home)
- e-mail address
- gender
Optional:
- age/date of birth
- marital status
- nationality (unless non-EC student, as it is important
for the employer to know that you will need a work permit)
OPTIONAL SECTION
Either
| Career Objective |
Or |
Skills Profile |
| Write 2-3 sentences to indicate your chosen
area of work, if you are sure of what you want to do. |
|
Bullet-point 3-5 of your most important
key skills (see Step 2 of this section) especially those
relevant to career area/job. |
EDUCATION
Starting with most recent (university) and working backwards:
- Give university name, course dates then a 1-3 line summary
of your degree/other course, referring to any specialist
project or dissertation. If still a student, give predicted
degree class/course grade.
- Next, summarise A levels/or equivalent.
- Then GCSEs or equivalent, following above procedure.
Include all academic/vocational qualifications in
this section.
------------ Side
(page) 2 ------------
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Most recent first.
Summarise for each PAID job in 1-3 lines: dates, employer,
location, job-title, skills used/developed
Include all the jobs you’ve done, including ‘casual’
work such as babysitting and bar-work
VOLUNTARY WORK/ WORK EXPERIENCE
(IF APPLICABLE)
Follow the same procedure as for paid work, above.
OTHER SKILLS
Remember (see Step 2 of this section), skills are things you
can do. They are different from INTERESTS (below), because
you can be interested in something without being proficient
at it!
Include here, in bullet-point form, skills such as the following
examples:
- Languages: Bi-lingual English and Greek
- Clean driving licence
- IT: expert user of Microsoft Word, basic knowledge of
Excel and Access.
INTERESTS
Bullet-point 3-5 of your genuine current interests only ie
- Sports: active member of university swimming team
- Cinema: great fan of Tarantino
REFERENCES
If you have space list side-by-side:
1. Academic reference
2. Employment reference
If you’ve run out of space, put ‘Available on
request’ under heading.
|
Summary: Ten Golden Rules For CV Writing
- 1 - 2 sides (A4 pages)
- Present information in clearly-defined sections
- Design it so it’s easy to read with ‘white space’
between sections
- Sell/market yourself in a positive light
Match your skills to the career area/job (see step 2 of this section)
Use ‘dynamic’/’active’ vocabulary.
Any book on CV writing will include a page devoted to the issue
of using active or dynamic words in place of passive ones ie ‘initiated’,
instead of ‘did’, or go to www.ucl.ac.uk/careers/
click on ‘Action words in applications’.
Remember - some large employers use CV scanning devices that search
for certain keywords considered to be ‘dynamic/active’
vocabulary.
- DON’T FALSIFY INFORMATION
- DON’T LEAVE UNEXPLAINED TIME GAPS
- PRESENT INFORMATION IN SECTIONS IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL
ORDER (most recent first)
Finally, the content/order/size of your CV will vary slightly if
you are:
A Mature/Older Student (30+)
See Section for Older/mature students: ‘tips for getting the
career you want’.
Ph.D Student/Graduate
For hints and tips on writing ‘academic’ CVs, see ‘Moving
on in your Career. A guide for academics and Postgraduates’
by Graham and Linda Ali or look at the following website: www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/college/careers/hphdskll.htm.
Applying For Jobs Outside The UK
For CV conventions in EU countries, see: www.eurograduate.com
or read, ‘Euro-challenge: International Guide for students
and graduates’ (Staufenbiel).
For jobs in the States, sample US-style CVs are shown in ‘Work/travel
USA’ by CIEE: www.ciee.org.
Cvs For Other Parts Of The World
Ask in your university careers information library for country-specific
information.
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