What does Curriculum Vitae mean – “the course of your life” Employers spend on average 20 seconds deciding whether your CV goes into the ‘Yes’ pile, ‘Maybe’ pile or ‘Bin’, so its vital that your CV creates a good impression to a potential employer and avoids the CV cull.

Why not use the following simple tips as a guide?

Presentation

• Avoid italics and decorative fonts, you want to be noticed for what you say, not how you present it
• Ideally, format your CV in Arial or Times New Roman font size 10/12
• Use bullet points, bold and underlining and avoid lengthy paragraphs of plain text which are hard and tedious to read
• If you are emailing your CV, send as a Word document
• CVs should be written in the past tense, avoiding the words ‘I’, ‘he’ or ‘she’

CV Content Personal details

• Name
• Address
• Home and Mobile Number
• Email address

Profile

• Write a captivating profile which will entice the employer to read on
• First, highlight your past experience. For example “With 10 years’ experience as an IFA ….”. Don’t go into detail, this comes later in your CV
• Next pinpoint some key skills and abilities
• And lastly state what you are looking for. "seeking to develop career within ….."
• Now you have the bare bones of your profile, you can add a little flesh. Think of some adjectives to strengthen the message

Education

• List your academic qualifications in chronological order, starting with the most recent qualification first (i.e. Degree / A Levels / GCSEs)

Professional Qualifications

• List your professional qualifications in chronological order, starting with the most recent qualification first

Skills

• Software skills etc

Career History

• Always start with the most recent role first
• State company name, dates to and from and your position
• List duties, responsibilities and achievements
• Highlight your successes and the contributions you have made to the business

Double check and Proof read

• Check your CV carefully. Even better, ask a friend to check it too. Mistakes are not always as obvious to the person who made them

10 tips for producing a better CV

• Keep it concise, short and clear
• Write in the past tense
• Make it look good
• Most recent first
• Include many facts
• Not too many lists
• Breathe some life into it
• Be accurate
• Adapt it
• Be truthful

Things to avoid in your CV

• Photos
• Any sort of failure
• Every vacation/Saturday job you’ve ever had
• The words ‘I’ ‘he’ or ‘she’
• References
• List of all your schools
• Salary information
• Patterns, borders and graphics
• Very personal information
• Jargon and abbreviations
• Mistakes and typos
• Excessive wordiness
• Negatives
• Never leave gaps unexplained
• Large passages of unbroken text

If you have any questions, you can always to speak to your Consultant.