Within this competitive job seeking market, a tailor-made CV and cover letter are vital to increase your chances of reaching interview stage.
Follow this step by step guide to ensure your CV reaches the interviewers desk.
- Start by choosing a readable font such as Arial, Calibri or Veranda using bold and italic occasionally to highlight dates and job titles, using bullet points to make relevant information stand out rather than long paragraphs.
- Verify all dates and qualifications
- Explain any gaps that you might have such as travelling or staying at home to look after children
- In general your CV should be no longer than 2 pages
- If possible, research the company and job duties before submitting your CV so you are able to tailor each section to the role you are applying for, keeping it relevant
- Keep the CV layout simple with continuity in chronological order
- Be honest and accurate
- Complete a spell and grammar check and where possible ask another person to read through it to check any errors
Name and Contact Details
Include your name and contact details at the top of the CV including, mobile and home number, address and email.
Profile
This section should be 2 or 3 sentences outlining your key skills, what you’re looking for in your new role, what you can bring to the company and the role, it’s your opportunity to sale yourself.
Employment History
This should work backwards from your most recently or current role. Highlight your job title and dates worked for each company, briefly describing your main responsibility, duties, and any achievements met such as sales targets or KPI’s. Ensure your experience is relevant to each role your applying for.
Education
This should again read backwards starting with the most relevant, such as financial qualification if you are applying for a finance related role.
Professional Qualifications and Skills
List any other skills that are relevant to the role applying for and your IT knowledge (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) as well as any languages that you speak fluently.
Interest and hobbies
This provides the interviewer with an insight to your personality, try to be clear if you like a particular music band or support a football team. You may have common interests with the interviewer, which could be a great talking point.
At this stage you don’t need to disclose references so it is acceptable to state “Available on request”.