CV Hints and Help
Need Help to Revitalise your CV?
We have put together the following information as a guide to help you present your CV in the best way possible. Remember that this is your first and best chance to sell
yourself to a prospective employer!
Your CV must convey a lot of information in a few words, enabling the employer to instantly judge your suitability. To do so, it must be clearly focused on your
abilities, addressing the employers job requirements, if known, and highlighting your specific suitability for the type of role you are seeking.
Format
Firstly avoid using too much formatting. CVs prepared as a PDF are not generally popular as some companies insist on a Word format. Excessive use of tables and
colours is not recommended and try to keep your CV down to 2 pages whilst using the entire width of the page. Keep skill set summaries brief, to avoid repeating information in your qualifications.
The information is best laid out in the following order:
Contact Details
A potential employer must be able to contact you, so include your name, address, phone number(s), and email address.
Job Objective/Personal Profile
A brief, 3-4 lines, job objective or personal profile is optional. This is your opportunity to convey your focus, areas of work interest, and express your personality.
Your objective should explain the kind of work you want to do and match the position you are applying for!
Key Accomplishments
You may add a section that highlights your key accomplishments and achievements.
Education
If you are recently qualified, this should be quite detailed (current qualifications first). If you have work experience, this section can be preceded by Work
History. This section should include schools(s) attended (including years of attendance) and qualifications awarded. If you have carried out a final year project, include a title and short description with key techniques used.
Work History
This should be in reverse chronological order (current role first). Each position held should include company name, job title and dates
of employment including the month if each year.
For companies with whom you have spent a long time or where there has been a takeover, buyout, spin-off or change of name, please ensure that your length of service is quite clear to see.
This may be best achieved by an umbrella statement of your length of service and then detailing below the various roles, company changes and any other relevant information.
It is important for all roles to state what products or markets you were involved with, who the main customer segments were, and for international experience state the main countries or
parts of the world.
|
