CV Tips
The Curriculum Vitae.
Or CV as most normal people tend to call them. In our humble opinion there’s no perfect way of constructing a CV – if there was then all CV’s would look exactly the same. However, we’ve put together a few tips to point you in the right direction and make a bit of an impact:
The Start
Most CV’s start with personal details. We can’t argue with this, but just try to make sure you don’t get too caught up – no MD’s going to be swayed by the fact you have a pet hamster called Jules.
Qualifications
Remember what we said about keeping it simple? Well that applies here too. Start with your most recent qualifications and work backwards. If you can speak a foreign language, let them know, but you can probably leave out the “20 meters underwater” certificate you got at school.
Be Yourself
Your personal profile is your chance to sell the real you. Be strong, be exciting, be relevant and be concise. Be enthusiastic, be passionate, be interesting, but most of all just be you. And remember, trying to sound exciting doesn’t mean you should end every sentence with an exclamation mark (!).
Work Experience
Now’s the time to let them know why they should hire you. Show them what value you can bring to their company. Show them your class and experience. “Show them the money”. (We don’t mean your salary demands – it’s just a term for your potential.) Oh. And show them in a clear, chronological way, starting with the most recent.
At the risk of sounding repetitive, keep your hobbies/outside work interests brief. And relevant. You know why. Referees can simply be available on request.
Unless you don’t regard yourself as much of a professional (in which case we can’t really help anyway) then your CV needs to look professional. And you don’t need to be an expert in design to do this: keep it simple (as if we need to remind you) with one typeface, and don’t over-crowd the page. Feel free to bold a few key points or, if you’re feeling daring, try using a few capital letters. Just don’t do the whole lot in bold capitals. You’ll look like a psychopath.
Remember
Your CV is your carrot to dangle in front of the company. Make sure it’s a big, juicy carrot that you’d find in some organic vegetable growing competition. Not one of those comedy carrots you get photos of on the internet. Keep asking yourself the ‘so what’ question when you’re writing it – it’ll help keep it concise, relevant and easy to read.
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