CV Tips
Your CV is your personal sales brochure. The purpose of your CV is to ensure you get an interview. The quality and presentation of your CV is vital when selling yourself. The appearance of your CV indicates to a prospective employer the type of person you are.
On average, potential employers will spend less than a minute looking at your CV. It therefore needs to be clear, concise, complete, and up-to-date. You should also personalise your CV for the job you are applying for, ensuring you highlight anything that is particularly relevant for that position.
Profile/Summary
This should be a short summary of your experience, skills and abilities, and be contained in four to six lines of text. Only list the attributes that will be of interest to your next employer; do not include irrelevancies.
Achievements
List 3 to 6 achievements which you feel will be in line with your next position. Do not list achievements which are not in line with what you want to do next. Bullet point your achievements to make them stand out. Start with the strongest point in your favour and then work backwards from there.
Experience
This should be in reverse chronological order starting with your most recent job and working backwards. You only need to include the year you started and the year you finished each job. You do not need to include the month or day, e.g. put 1993 - 1995 rather than 1.8.1993 - 4.6.1995..
When you are describing your experience for each position you should start with the strongest point in your favour and then work backwards. If you have a lot of points to put under one specific job you may want to break this description into two or more sections. You could break up this section into responsibilities and achievements or you could break it up into specific functions, e.g. management, sales & marketing; the choice is yours.
Training
Only include the most important training courses on your CV. You may not want to bother with a section on training or you may combine it with Education/Qualifications depending on how much space you have on your CV.
Education/Qualifications
List the most important qualifications. List O’Levels/GCSEs, and grades gained. You may want to put this section before the Training Section. Unless you have just completed a degree or MBA, this section should go after work experience.
Additional Information
Include any additional information, such as whether you have a driving licence - if you have a clean driving licence, say so. Date of birth(voluntary), marital status and nationality.