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Mastering your CV

Your CV will be the first impression of you to a prospective new employer, it's critical you get it right. To help improve your CV, click on the hotspots below to find out how to make it shine. You can even download a CV template here.

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Profile

You don’t have to add a profile, but it can be a useful place to grab the reader’s attention and get them to read more. Only add a statement if you feel comfortable with it and read it out aloud to yourself to make sure you don’t sound like David Brent.

• Do: Make it unique, totally succinct and fact based
• Don’t: Use corporate waffle that could be anybody
Key Achievements

You can add this as a separate section upfront or include your key achievements within your work history, but make sure you prove to the reader what a great job you’ve done. Go you.

• Do: Make your key achievements fact based, e.g. ‘increased turnover by 20% in 12 months’ or ‘delivered £67,000 to the bottom line’

• Do: Use bullets to make it punchy

• Don’t: Waffle about non fact based achievements
General Points

• Do: Keep to two pages (or an absolute maximum of three), save the rest for your autobiography; try using bullets and getting rid of waffle to make it shorter

• Do: Use one consistent font and size

• Do: Use bold and/or capitals to highlight some key points; just don’t do the whole lot in bold capitals. You’ll look like a psychopath.

• Do: Spend that extra ten minutes having a good check over for spelling mistakes, correct dates and errors

• Don’t: Use boxes or fancy pants formatting like tables and boxes as they don’t work well on job boards and portals

• Don’t: ‘Bolt on’ your current role to an old CV to save time; always try to rewrite your whole CV to reflect you today
Work History

Here’s your opportunity to show off, you need to let the reader know exactly why to hire you; you won’t earn any extra brownie points for modesty.

• Do: Add a description of the company if you feel readers may not know the organisation

• Do: Make sure you use clear headings and dates, including the total time with the employer if you have carried out a number of roles
Qualifications

• Do: Start with your most recent qualification and work backwards

• Do: Put in any vocational qualifications, e.g. MBAs

• Don’t: Add every certificate you’ve ever had – you can probably leave out your ’20 metres underwater’ badge

• Don’t: Go into too much detail. Unless you’re the next Brian Cox the reader probably doesn’t want to know that you got a C in music and an A in physics. Just ‘8 GCSEs (2 As, 6 Bs)’ should suffice.
Personal

You don’t have to add any personal details or interests, especially if CV space is at a premium, but it can be a good opportunity to show that you’d be a good fit to the reader’s team.

• Do: Make it unique and personal to you

• Do: Keep it brief and only add if you think it adds value to your CV

• Do: Use humour if you think it’s appropriate

• Do: Make it interesting, most people like to socialise with friends but it doesn’t add much value to a CV

• Do: Add details about your family e.g. spouse and children, if you feel comfortable doing so

• Don’t: Just list the things you’re interested in, e.g. ‘golf, rugby, reading, socialising’, instead add specifics, e.g. ‘I play golf at socially at Rushton golf club and have a handicap of 4’

Download our CV template