Get Yourself Noticed, and Hired
A professional CV can help you promote yourself. It summarizes your qualifications so that employers know what you can do and where you’ve worked in the past. Many employers will also use it as an interview tool, as a way of asking you about your experience and abilities. You can use this to your advantage, by putting the things on the CV that you want to highlight and talk about in an interview.
What information should a CV include?
There are many ways to structure a CV, but all should include the basic information about your career and education.
Personal details
Most CVs start with these but take care to avoid unnecessary details, such as religious affiliation, children’s names, and so on.
Education and qualifications
Take care to include the names of institutions and dates attended in reverse order. If you attended college, you don’t need to include your high school experience.
Work experience
The most widely accepted style of employment record is the chronological CV. Career history is presented in reverse order beginning with your most recent experience. You should summarize your achievements and responsibilities for each role, and your recent experience should get the most prominence.
A functional CV can sometimes be more appropriate — if you have held a number of unrelated jobs, for example. This type of CV emphasizes key skills, grouped together under the appropriate headings. Career progression and the nature of the jobs you held can be unclear with this type of CV, however.
Skills
Include computer skills, foreign language skills, and any other recent training or development that is relevant to the role you are applying for.
Tools
List the applications you know how to use well, like Photoshop, Illustrator, Excel, etc.
Hobbies and Interests
Keep this section short. This section can show that you’re a well-rounded, interesting person. If you can, emphasize hobbies and activities that support your suitability for the position.
References
These can simply be “Available on request.” The order in which you present these, and the emphasis which you give to each one, will depend on what you are applying for and what you have to offer.
To see an example of a good, professional CV, look at this PDF: CV Template.pdf
General Tips
Your CV should be laser-printed in black ink using a plain typeface, on good quality A4 white or cream paper. Don’t use a decorative border or a photo of yourself.
- A good CV should be no more than two pages long, unless you have a truly substantial – and impressive – amount of experience and education
- The writing style should be clear, concise, and relevant. Delete unnecessary words. Using bullet points rather than full sentences can help minimize word usage.
- A good CV needs to be tailored to each job application.
- The completed CV needs to be checked carefully for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes — and to ensure that it makes sense. Ask someone knowledgeable to review the whole document before it is sent out.
- Remember that a CV is a marketing tool and that a potential employer will use the details to form interview questions. It should be clear and easy to read. Falsehoods and inaccuracies must be avoided at all costs, and you should be prepared to explain any lengthy gaps.
- There is no reason to include your reasons for leaving each job on your CV, but be prepared to disclose these during an interview
- Current salary details should not be included
A good cover letter should always accompany your CV.
