Writing your CV

A good starting point for writing a CV is to do a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) on your relevant skills and experiences. This will highlight your ‘selling points’ and identify any gaps.

Match the requirements

The key skill to a successful CV is to make sure it is geared towards the position that you are applying for. Recruiters will judge your CV on how well you match their ‘wish list’ of skills and experience. Therefore, it is important to study the advertisements and read between the lines of what is given to you. You should also make yourself familiar with any other recruitment literature available and the company website.

Broad requirements such as ‘excellent communication skills’ need to be broken down by thinking about how you will use them in the job.

Getting noticed

You should choose a layout for your CV that will draw attention to your positive attributes. If you lack some type of work experience but have beneficial skills from university activities, jobs and so on, then you should focus on a more skill based CV rather than a chronological one. Your choice should also depend on the employer and where your strengths lie, for example, for a law firm you want a traditional CV and for a marketing company, a more creative style CV would be suitable.

Your CV should normally cover: personal details, education, work experience, skills, interests and references. You can also use headings to draw the employers’ attention to your strongest selling points such as:

·        Positions of Responsibility – highlights informal leadership positions as well as official roles.

·        Additional work experience – can be used to identify casual work from professional and career related experience.

·        Education and awards – use this to tell of any prizes won, scholarships and/or employer sponsorship.

·        Additional skills – here you can bring together languages, IT, driving licence and any other relevant qualifications.

In general a reverse chronological order for education and work experience is used and most space is devoted to what is most important. This generally means 1 or 2 lines maximum for GCSEs and including relevant details about your degree in.

Looking suitable

A CV must look professional and be easy to read. Employers scan through them quickly so having clear headings, well aligned tabs and a minimum size font of 10 will work to your benefit. In addition, make sure you use good quality paper for hard copies. Use simple direct language and ‘action words’. Proof read you CV and have someone check for spelling and grammar.