Content

An employer will expect to find information covering the following areas:

• Personal details - include your name, address, phone numbers and email address. You may wish to add details of your nationality, birth date and driving licence, but this is not obligatory.
• Work experience - list the most recent experience first, as it brings to the fore the most recent and, often relevant and responsible work. Describe your work experience in short sentences using straightforward, positive language. As well as describing the job, point out any general qualities that arose from the work such as ability to manage staff or work to tight deadlines.
• Education - list brief details of qualifications - GCSEs, A-levels, degree - along with grades attained. Applicants looking for their first job since school college or university can include their education information before work experience.
• Skills - include specific skills such as IT skills or languages.
• References - it is usual to provide the names and contact details of two referees, one of which should be your most recent employer. Graduates and school leavers with limited work experience can nominate college lecturers, teachers or managers during work experience. Be sure to tell your referees in advance, so they will be prepared.
• Hobbies - including details of your interests away from the workplace is optional. By adding details of specific hobbies, you are giving an employer a more rounded picture of your personal qualities, don’t overdo it. Do not use a long list of hobbies to cover up a lack of work experience.
• Summary - List your major skills, strengths, personal qualities and achievements. Be specific, for example: good team player, excellent written skills, versatile, able to motivate others, etc. If you are lacking in ideas, look at your staff appraisals or at your references.

Presentation

Ensuring your CV is well presented and easy to follow is as important as including all the relevant information. Most employers see hundreds of CVs and yours may get less than a minute of their time.

The layout of your CV is very important. Even though the wording you use may be correct, if people cannot find the information they want quickly they will move on to someone else's. You should use plenty of 'white' space in your CV and appropriate headings and section breaks.

It is usually best to try and keep your CV to two pages of A4, unless someone specifically asks you for a longer CV. Employers do not want to know your whole life history - just enough to decide whether they should interview you or not.

If your CV is not well organised then the reader will find it hard to follow and will not be able to build up a picture of you quickly. Keep your paragraphs short and to the point. List achievements in bullet point form. This will create for quick and easy reading.

Do:

• Use a confident tone and positive language.
• Concentrate on your achievements not your responsibilities. This means listing things you have done - such as products launched, sales increase, awards won - not rewriting your job description. Quote figures whenever possible.
• Make your most relevant experience and skills prominent to encourage the employer to read on.
• Keep it to the point and concentrate on the quality of your achievements, not the quantity.
• List other skills that could raise you above the competition such as languages, driving licence, IT skills.
• Be ruthless with yourself and keep it to a maximum of two pages. Only very senior, experienced, executives have more.
• Check thoroughly for correct spelling and grammar - spotting errors is a quick and easy way of weeding out weaker candidates when faced with a mountain of CVs to read.
• Get a second opinion from someone you trust.
• Include examples of your work, if appropriate.
• Use good quality paper - white is usually best.

Don't:

• Leave any gaps in your work record - employers may assume the worst, for example that you were sacked.
• Lie - many employers use information service companies or sophisticated new software to check CV details for accuracy, including educational qualifications, places of study and the veracity of job references.
• List all the one-day training courses you have ever been on.
• Include a photo unless you know the employer wants one.
• Fax it without sending a copy in the post as well.
• Use elaborate fonts, or colours – keep it simple.
• Forget it's just a tool for getting you an interview. The CV will not land you the job alone, the rest is up to you!!
  

For further information on how we can help you find that perfect job, please contact us on recruitment@elitep.co.uk.