Tips for Writing a CV
Writing a high-quality CV is one of the most important steps that you as a job seeker can take in the UK in order to give yourself the best chance of success. It is the first contact that you will have with most potential employers so it pays to make sure that it is well-structured and only tells them what they need to know, rather than a whole pile of superfluous fluff content.
There is no nationally-recognised way to write a CV and yours won't automatically be discarded if it doesn’t fit a certain type of template but there are some ways that are better than others. Some of the tips below can make a real difference to your chances of success, particularly the use of grammarly.
Follow the guide below to present yourself and your achievements in the best light and to maximise your chances of getting the job.
Include Your Contact Information at the Top
This may sound like something very basic but with the advent of online jobs boards, where people can input their contact details separately and upload a CV as a pdf document, this is an important step. The information that accompanied the CV can go missing and you may miss out on the job of your dreams for no better reason than they couldn’t figure out how to contact you. For this reason alone, it is worth ensuring that your contact information is at the top of the CV.
Introduce Yourself - Tell Employers Who You Are
This is your chance to show your individuality and showcase your unique skills and experiences that will sell you to a potential employer. Be sure to tailor this closely to the job that you are applying for and ensure that the skills you highlight are a close match for those required by the employer.
A CV shouldn’t be a static document that you use for each job application, it should be changed to reflect each job you are using it to apply for, in order to give you the best chance of success.
The ideal length of a CV should be around 500 words, as a potential employer will receive a great many CVs and will simply not be able to take the time to read everything. If your CV is well-formatted and concise, they are likely to look upon it more favourably. A CV should be no more than two A4 pages in length.
Give a Brief Summary of Your Skills / Experience
This can be a bullet pointed list and should relate directly to the job that you are applying for. Ideally, you should have read the job specification thoroughly and be seeking to meet as many of the requirements mentioned there as you can, whilst remaining honest. Don’t claim to possess skills that you don’t. You will be quickly and surely found out, so stick to emphasising those that you have.
Highlight Any Relevant Experience
You should highlight any relevant experience by listing the jobs and voluntary work you have done, in order of most recent. If you are able to do so, you should highlight personal victories you have had in the course of these. Highlight any challenges that were tackled either individually or as part of a wider team within the organisation. This helps to show that you are both a team player and can also succeed individually. There are both qualities that are in high demand in a competitive jobs market. A good way to show the skills you have learned at particular jobs is to use keywords underneath.
Gaps in Your Employment History
If there are gaps in your employment history, be prepared to address these with honesty and without any concern. If you are truthful about difficult things, this can give the impression that you are trustworthy and honest, and this will stand you in good stead going forward.
There is nothing worse than being caught in a lie because this will cause you reputational damage going forward that is simply impossible to ever really scrub away.
List any Training and Education Courses
Ensure that you list your educational qualifications from most recent to furthest away. This lets the employer see at a glance what the highest level of education that you achieved was. Include any qualifications or accreditations that are relevant to the job you are applying for. If you were applying to become a diving instructor, you would mention your PADI certification as well as your academic qualifications.
List Any Interesting and Relevant Hobbies
If you have any hobbies that are relevant to the job you are applying for, be sure to include them on your CV. If you are the Captain of your local Cricket Team, for example, this shows that you have maturity and leadership skills, so is well-worth being included in your CV.
Use Grammarly Before Submitting Your CV
There are some truly excellent free tools now like Grammarly which will allow you to not just spell check but tone check and ensure that the grammar used is correct. These tools can suggest better words to use in certain contexts and ways of wording things that just scan better.
Nobody should submit a CV with poor grammar nowadays and many employers will immediately discard any that fall into this category, considering it to be a lack of effort on the part of the applicant.
References
References are an important part of your CV so that your employer can very easily check with someone else that what you have told them is the truth. References are a vital part of the recruitment process and you can sometimes find out more about someone from their references than from their CV.
If you are unsure of who your referees will be, or if you don’t want to disclose it at this stage, just write “references are available on request” and this will suffice for the time being. References are rarely followed up with unless you are in pole position to be offered the post.
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