CV Writing Tips

Your CV is your personal sales brochure and it is essential that it is clear, concise and contains up to date relevant information. More importantly, it needs to be an accurate and honest reflection of your education and work attainments to date.
Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned is that any CV must be concise. With this in mind we have identified below the key areas that are essential for CV creation.
Font
We suggest you use a single font, like Verdana or Arial, which are both very legible and work well in small sizes. It's easy for the eye to focus on (research tells us) and nice round letters make the reader tune in. Italics are the most difficult type of font or character type to read. Keep it simple. Everything you can do to help the reader will be useful. Rather than use too many different sizes to highlight and make an impact, use the bold command instead.
Format
Keep your CV to a maximum of three pages (the reader will tune out after that) - two pages would be better - and fill it with information that is relevant to the job.
Content and Structure
Make sure your CV has a clear structure - include career overview, skills overview, qualifications (education/professional) and employment history.
Employers often make up their mind from reading the initial summary and key skills. Create a compelling summary on the first page and include a list of your key skills and key applications in bold. Note the quantity of experience you have for each key skill.
Bullet points break up a CV well. Employers want to get straight to the salient points so direct them there. Important information should stand out but avoid using just one or two words.
Each bullet point should give the reader a feel for:
When you instigated a particular idea or project -(self-starter).
When you are or were responsible for a particular task - (primary influence).
When you assisted on a particular task - (secondary influence).

If you have been personally responsible for substantial revenue growth; and/or cost reduction; share price improvement; team building, opening new branches, markets / countries; or increase in the number of profit-generating customers, make this clear in your CV.
Give the reader a feel for the type of tasks and responsibilities that you can cope with and how proactive you have been.
Think about how you can break down projects you have worked on into specific tasks. Give examples of any ad hoc projects and the issues they tackled.
Your CV and interview are the only chances you've got to advertise yourself. Make sure you stand out. First impressions last.

CV DO's and DON'Ts
DO's
Ideally your CV should be no more than two pages. Think quality, not quantity. On average a reader will absorb 60% of the first page, 40% of the second and very little, if any, of a third. Any pages after a third are generally a waste.
Communicate your strengths, your achievements, your initiative and your personality; in short, your credibility and suitability.
Put the greatest emphasis on your most recent positions. Summarise older roles. Include dates and months of employment for each.
Include your competence in foreign languages (basic, good, fluent), but be honest.
Be positive - don't be too modest and don't lie about your experience.
Tailor your CV to each job application. Tailor the CV to the company/department and position whenever possible. Although this may be time-consuming, it could just help you clinch that job! You could include a 'position sought' section in your CV for this purpose.
DON'Ts
Don't make false or exaggerated claims; honesty is always the best policy.
Don't provide personal information such as weight, height, and place of birth. You can include information about your interests, but keep it short.
Don't enclose a picture.
There is no need to include your 'hobbies'. If you have some outstanding achievements, such as 'Olympic Athlete', there is clearly no harm in mentioning this: it may enhance the interview.
A badly prepared CV undermines the credibility of its contents. If you cannot produce a professional document about yourself, an employer may conclude that you are unlikely to have the competence to fill an important job.

Write a Great Covering Letter

A great covering letter can differentiate your CV from the countless others that pass across an employer's desk. Make sure yours stands out.

When responding to an advertised job vacancy, whether via letter, email or fax, you should always include a CV covering letter. Treat it as a vital part of your personal marketing literature, which merits attention and consideration. A cover letter introduces you and your CV and is your first chance to make a good impression on your potential employer. Aim to make it entice the reader to take those few extra minutes to consider you against other applicants. Your CV should not be sent without one!Below are some basic guidelines to help ensure you receive a positive response from your initial contact.

Appearance and layout
Ensure your letter is neatly and clearly presented with no grammatical or spelling errors. Emails should be written in a common font with standard formatting and should emulate a handwritten letter in terms of style.

Content
The content of your cover letter should be brief and structured, avoid lengthy repetition of information covered in your CV. (Unlike a CV, it is acceptable to write a covering letter in the first person.)

In particular:

Your letter should address the relevant contact, whose name often appears in the job advert. Avoid Sir or Madam if possible.

If you are replying to an advert, say so. Mention job title, any reference number and where and when you saw it.

In some cases an advert will indicate a more substantial letter is required. Always follow a specific instruction and include any information if it is particularly requested, for example, current salary.

Briefly outline your current situation and why you are seeking change. Include current or last job, qualifications and professional and academic training, tailoring your information to make it as relevant as possible to the organisation or job applied for.

Tell the potential employer a little about themselves to demonstrate you have properly read the advert and that you have done some research into the organisation. Also, state why you are interested in them as an employer

You need to succinctly emphasize why an employer may want to meet and employ you.

Highlight your transferable skills, achievements and versatility; what you can contribute and what makes you different. Mention personality traits relevant to the role applied for, taking care not to appear too subjective.

Ensure that your CV covering letter flows freely however and does not slavishly match every point on the job description. The reader should be left with an overall impression that you are a potentially valuable addition to the workforce.

Negative information of any sort should be avoided in your covering letter as well as CV.

Close your letter with a polite expression of interest in further dialogue with the recruiter. Do mention that you would like the opportunity to discuss your suitability further at an interview and that you await a response in due course.

10 Things Recruiters Do Not Wish to See

Recruiters can spend less than 10 seconds reviewing a CV and therefore it is important not to let yourself down at the first hurdle. Research has shown that recruiters top 10 pet hates are, in reverse order:

10 – Personal Info Not Relevant to the Job
Not only is including personal info that is unrelated to the job a waste of space, but it can actually hurt you. Recruiters do not need to know your age, height, weight, martial status, sexual orientation, religious or political affiliations, or even about your hobbies. They are trying to fill an open job requisition, not match you for a blind date.

9 – Candidates Who Apply to Positions They are Unqualified
In order to gain experience in an area, you need to start out somewhere, and recruiters understand this. Recruiters do not have time to sort through hundreds of resumes that are in no way a match for the requirements they are trying to fill.

When someone submits an obviously unqualified resume, the person receiving it resents them wasting their time. It also delays the consideration of other applicants who ARE qualified.

Recruiter Tip: The easiest remedy is to provide a simple introductory statement ‘while my qualifications do not match your requirements, please accept the attached for your files in anticipation of future, suitable opportunities’".

8 - Long Paragraphs
Recruiters want a résumé's details to be short, concise and to the point. No recruiter has the time to read long paragraphs, which look like a narrative out of War and Peace.

Make sure you quickly get to the "meat" of what you are trying to communicate about yourself. Your resume should be easy for the reader to "scan" your text for your skills and accomplishments. Consider using the following formatting techniques:
· Use blunt, paraphrased bullet-points
· Use appropriate amounts of "white space" to help guide your reader

7 – Long Resumes
A CV should never be more than 2 pages. Situations that usually contribute to long resumes are; too many jobs; a career that is not focused, an inability to be concise, written communication problems, or something similar. All of which make for an 'UNPLACEABLE' candidate.

No matter how tempting it is to go into detail about the first job you had 25 years ago, don’t! Instead, let your resume showcase your most recent accomplishments. Recruiters are only reviewing the last 5-8 years of your career, 10 tops.

If you are a recent graduate with limited professional work experience, your resume should be only one page. If you are from academia, but are seeking a position in industry, do not include every publication or journal paper you have ever presented.

Recruiter Tip: For employment beyond 10 years ago, create a "Previous Employment" section. You can quickly list your older assignments by simply including title, company and dates.

6 – Functional Resumes
A very good way to NOT get your resume read is by sending them a "functional CV”.
Recruiter Tip: At the top of your resume, always include an easy to follow general/functional summary. Use bullet-points that can be easily customised to match what the employer is seeking. Hand your reader what they are looking for on a silver platter. Find out what are the “hot buttons” of the employer and make every one hit a home run. Immediately following your summary, provide your reader with an easy to follow chronological history of where you worked and when. It is here you need to detail your accomplishments.

5 – Poor Formatting
It is paramount that your resume is clean, clear and not full of major formatting errors. Most candidates are unaware that many formatting features will not view well on a computer screen, and more importantly, will not download properly into many HRIS recruiting systems or job boards.

Recruiter Tip: To see what your WORD document resume will look like as a text file, take it and paste it into NOTEPAD. You can then make any minor formatting changes as necessary within NOTEPAD.

3 – Dates Not Included or Inaccurate Dates
A resume that does not include dates sends up "red flags" about a candidate’s background and is immediately tossed out. The obvious assumption is that the candidate is trying to hide something. Furthermore, be honest about your dates of employment.

Recruiter Tip: When providing dates, work history should be in reverse chronological order. The general consensus among recruiters is to place the employer info, title and location to the left hand side of the screen. Your employment dates should be aligned to the right so that your reader can easily “skim” down the page. And if you have a proven track record of staying with a job for a while, absolutely make sure that your employment dates JUMP out at your reader. This is a real selling point about you as a candidate.

2 – Too Duty Oriented
The second most common complaint among recruiters was reading a resume that is "too duty oriented." Resumes need to describe more than just job duties. A good resume must also detail your accomplishments. Mention the business benefits and results attributable to your direct effort, involvement or leadership.

Also, do not just rely on long lists of buzzwords to describe work or accomplishments. Not only are you risking "burying" the important details from your reader, but also doing so often makes a resume appear too generic.

Recruiter Tip: "Do not separate your skills and accomplishments from each position. Someone should be able to look at it and know what you did at each job, and how long you were there. Make sure to provide specific examples of how the company benefited from your performance. Accomplishments should be quantified in pounds or percentages, for example, (Increased productivity of department). From what to what...1%, 10%, 90%?

1 – Spelling Errors, Typos, and Poor Grammar
In the world of technology and ‘Spell Check’, you would be amazed at how many resumes come through with errors! Candidates need to remember that their resume represents them! If there are careless errors, it directly reflects on the candidate.

The general consensus among recruiters is that your resume will more often than not be your one opportunity to make a first impression. You need to make it a positive one!

How to assess your CV

If your current CV or resume is not generating the interview offers you want, it is time to start assessing it. Check to see that the following descriptors apply:

Begins with a succinct, clearly stated career objective tailored to the particular job for which you are applying.

Highlights how your skills and qualifications match the company's specific needs.

Employs appropriate titles for previous jobs to demonstrate clearly that you are suitably qualified for the advertised position.

Gives a concise description of your previous employers - their products, services, industry, etc. - and your role in the company.

Uses PAR statements to describe your accomplishments. P identifies the 'problem' you faced; A describes the 'action' you took to solve the problem; R describes the 'result' of the action you took.

Quantifies your accomplishments using numbers, percentages, etc.

Makes effective use of the key words and phrases contained in the job advertisement to describe your skills and areas of expertise.

Every sentence starts with an action word, for example: "increased production by 20% while saving £200,000 in operating costs" Examples of effective action words are: compiled, conducted, created, designed, developed, established, implemented, introduced, invented, maintained, negotiated, operated, organized, produced, and published.

Explains how, in your previous jobs, you increased sales and profits, improved productivity, saved time and costs, and established good customer relationships.

Provides evidence of the competencies most valued by employers, for example: your communication and interpersonal skills, flexibility, initiative, organisational ability, and teamwork.

Includes any pertinent awards or honours you may have received.

Provides your educational history and details of training related to the position you are seeking.

Employment history is logical and consistent; and gaps of more than one year between your jobs are clearly explained.

The layout is neat and uncluttered, with an easy-to-read sequence of sections and no large blocks of text.

Contains no errors in spelling or grammar; and all unnecessary words have been eliminated.