Candidate Help

Your CV is your ultimate selling tool. If you want to be selected for interview, this is your opportunity to showcase your skills and experience. It can be challenging to get through this first hurdle as employers hiring often receive hundreds of applications for each job advertisement. Have this in your mind when preparing your CV as you’ll need to be both succinct and relevant to grab their attention.

What to include on your CV

Contact details

Put your contact details first so recruiters can easily find your email address or phone numbers.

Personal statements

This should be a short statement or ‘summary of experience’ and include relevant information about your skills in relation to the job ad.

It should be tailored to the role rather than a general statement, such as: ‘I’m a results-driven professional with excellent communication skills.’

Career history

Start with your most recent job, work experience or voluntary placement and work your way back. List your job title and the dates you were employed. All the dates should match up; this is something a recruiter will look for. If there are gaps, make sure you can explain them. Remember to write about more than just the duties or responsibilities you held in each role and include any key achievements along with figures and statistics if you can. This shows how you added value to the company and that you’re results-focused.

Qualifications, training and education

List your education (school, college or university) and relevant training. Some roles will require specific qualifications, so highlight those on your CV.

What can make the difference?

Each role is unique and therefore your CV will need to be adapted for each application.

You can use the job description or advert to match your skills against the role.

Take out any unnecessary information – this just takes up space

The basics

Formatting Highlight titles and main headings in bold. Use a standard font such as Arial or Times New Roman and don’t be tempted to make the font size small to fit more on the page. It must be easy to read. Fancy borders and formatting can take the focus away from the important part – the content.

Length and order

You have about ten seconds to grab the recruiter’s attention, so make sure you put the important work experience first.

Aim for two pages or less and include only what’s really necessary to get you the job. Use simple, plain and positive English with clear and concise content.

Always thoroughly check your spelling and grammar and ask someone else to read your CV before you send it. Nothing looks more unprofessional than a CV with lots of errors.

Here are a few things you can remove because they’re just not essential for your application; driving licence – unless the role specifies you need to drive, photograph, date of birth, references – just state: ‘References available

Finally 

Before you send it anywhere, check it for grammar and speling. Then check for spelling again! Then get someone else to check it.