CV Advice

Top 5 Tips

Your CV is a vital tool in the jobseeking process. It’s your first chance to impress a prospective employer, providing details that underline your suitability for the role. On average, recruiters take just eight seconds to decide whether or not to keep a CV, so you need to be on the ball. Our following 'top five tips' will give your CV maximum impact:

 

1. Keep it concise
Recruiters are often faced with mountains of CVs and don’t have the time or patience to trawl through a rambling document. Remember that your CV is only the first step, a way of getting your foot in the door, so keep it punchy. Make it no more than two sides of A4 paper and save the real detail for your interview.

 

2. Tailor your CV
Take time to adapt your CV for each individual role you apply for. Research the company and use the job ad to gauge what it is looking for in an employee. Link your skills and experience to the requirements of the role. Similarly, if you are logging your CV with a job site database, look at the sort of jobs on the site and the employers who are advertising, and rework your CV accordingly.

 

3. Dont leave gaps
Gaps invite the recruiter to guess what you were up to, so instead of allowing them to make their own assumptions give them the details. Even in time out of employment you can develop soft skills such as communication, teamwork or project management. You should update your CV regularly, regardless of whether you are actively jobseeking, to avoid having to recall distant points in your career.

 

4. Ensure it’s free of errors
One of the easiest ways for recruiters to weed out weaker CVs is to scan them for errors. If you fail to check your CV for basic spelling and grammatical mistakes, you are setting yourself up for a fall at the first hurdle. Most errors can be rooted out using your PC’s spell-checker, but you should also ask someone else to read your CV and give you their opinion.

 

5. Tell the truth
It’s one thing to highlight the positives on your CV, but telling blatant lies is a bad idea. You are highly likely to be caught out and your application rejected. Many companies check the facts – such as qualifications – that candidates supply. And a good interviewer will soon spot any inconsistency in your story, even if it concerns your leisure activities. It would be hugely embarrassing to be caught out by an interviewer who’s an expert in your half-baked hobby.

 

Creating your perfect CV!

On average, a recruiter will spend just eight seconds reviewing a CV, so it’s important to get it right. If you follow a basic structure, you can present the information in a clear, concise and persuasive way:

Personal details
Include your name, address, phone numbers and email address. You might also wish to include details about your nationality, age and driving licence, but these are not essential.

 

Work experience
List the most recent experience first, continuing in reverse chronological order. Describe your work experience in short sentences using straightforward, positive language and highlight your key achievements.

 

Education
List brief details of your academic and professional qualifications along with the grades attained. Applicants looking for their first job since leaving education should include this information above their work experience.

 

Skills
Include specific skills such as IT packages or languages and state whether youre at a basic, intermediate or advanced level.

 

References
it’s not necessary to note the details of your referees on your CV, but you should state that details of references are available on request. If this is your first job, it is a good idea to nominate tutors or mentors. Do not forget to ask your referees first for permission to cite them.

 

Hobbies
Including these is optional, but keep them short if you do. If your skills haven’t already persuaded recruiters to offer you an interview, the fact that you enjoy a round of golf won’t change their mind. The idea is to give the interviewer a more rounded picture and, perhaps, something more personal to discuss with you.

 

Presentation
Keep your CV to two sides. It should look clean and tidy with no frills or fancy attachments, and all the information should be clearly signposted. If you are printing and posting your CV, stick to good quality white paper.