Constructing a brilliant CV
- A great CV will highlight your achievements and gain you interviews
- A poor CV will guarantee no interview
Your CV is your sales brochure. Here are some dos and don'ts
Construction
Dos:
- Strive to keep it to two pages
- Use a sensible font and size- Arial size 11 is always good and is a standard font so everyone can open it
- Highlight your achievements
- Use bullet points, not long sentences
- Tailor it to the job you are applying for. Put relevant points at the top
- If it is printed, use good quality paper
Do nots:
- Use italics, unusual or mixed fonts, sizes, colours and underlining
- Enclose a photo unless specifically requested in the job advertisement
- Use decorative borders
- Have any grammatical or spelling errors
- Cram the content in by reducing the font size - if you really can't keep to 2 pages, then it is better to use 3 than to make the text too small to read.
Content
This is what you should include:
- Full name and title (Mr/Ms/Mrs etc)
- Postal Address
- Email Address
- Phone Numbers - including a preferred daytime contact number if possible
- Qualifications: Include A level grades, degree classification and any professional accounting qualifications gained, including where and when these were taken. State that you have achieved First Time Passes if appropriate.
- Foreign languages
- Record of Employment: Start with the most recent. Include for each company: company name, what the company does and its turnover. Always put down your job title(s) at each company. Include at each company key achievements and responsibilities - ensure these are as tailored as possible for the position you are applying for.
- Computer skills: if your Excel skills are to macros, include this.
- Outside interests: keep this brief and try to include things which are particularly relevant to a work situation such as being captain of a sports team, which show an aspect of your personality perhaps not evidenced by your work experience to date.