Writing a Brilliant CV

First Impressions Count

You only get one chance to make a first impression. The same goes for your CV. Curriculum Vitae, literally translated, means the story of your life, and should be regarded as the key to unlock the interview door. Once you are through the door your personality, confidence and interpersonal skills take over and your CV has done its job, but it’s your CV that makes the first impression on your behalf. You may the best interviewee in the world, but without making the right impression on paper, you may never get your chance to shine in person. A recruiter may only spend a minute or two on each CV before he or she makes the first cut, so yours needs to stand out.

What the Recruiter Wants to See

Details of hobbies and interests are all well and good, but they are not likely to get you a job or an interview. Your interests may indeed individualise your CV and convey part of your character but may be more relevant later on. What a recruiter really wants in a CV is to see evidence of how you can do the job they’re recruiting for, and this comes for your career history. Your aim with your CV should be to get to the relevant part, ie your career history and actual experience, as soon as possible. This means you will stand out to the employer as a ‘good match’ for the job straight away, rather than them having to trawl through a couple of pages before they even get to your work history. Your CV should be well laid out, in reverse chronological order, easy to read and consistent throughout.

General CV Tips

Provided your CV is easy to read and concisely conveys your personal details, qualifications, skills and achievements then you have probably provided a good CV. However, you may find the following tips useful and we also have an example CV on this website for you to either browse or download to use as your own template.

Try and limit your CV to 3 pages.
For positions you held more than 10 years ago, less detail is needed.
Ensure there are no spelling or punctuation errors.
Make it easy on the eye and use a professional/standard font.
Keep the layout clear and consistent.
Use the bold function to highlight titles and headings.
Ensure you list all your educational and professional qualifications, but you don’t need to be too detailed.
If you decide to list training courses, only include relevant courses.
Include any personal skills such as languages.
List your career history in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent position first.
Use bullet points. This makes your CV easy to read and reduces ‘waffle’.
Include specific dates (at least month and year) for each employment.
Fill in any gaps. If you took year out to travel for example, account for this year rather than just leaving a gap.
Be honest. Lies or inconsistency will come to the surface sooner or later.
Use professional business language and avoid conversational or humorous tones.
Should you wish to include hobbies and interests, include these towards the end of your CV and only include them if they will have a positive impact on the person reading the CV.