The
Curriculum Vitae or Résumé is an advertisement for the individual, whose
objective is to show what you have to offer in a compact and
easily-digestible form.
The
principal purpose of a CV is to secure a job interview but it can also
provide a useful structure for the said interview.
A good CV is your primary marketing tool.
Your CV is a sales document, you are the product
and the employer is the consumer. You are aiming to market yourself and
your skills.
How to Produce a Winning CV?
Although there are some common formats, there is no set layout or order
you have to follow. You should include relevant information in
sufficient detail to provide evidence to support your application and
choose a layout that works for you. Remember, an employer is
likely to be scanning your CV very quickly, so put your best stuff near
the top of the CV to entice them to read on.
Common CV formats include chronological, skills-based and academic.
Sample CVs are available on the website. They exist to give you ideas
about layout and style but should not be copied. All styles of CV
should include:
Personal and contact details:
Name, address (home and term time), telephone number, email
Do not feel obliged to include other personal details (e.g. marital
status, age) that are not relevant to the job
Education:
Higher education – institutions attended, dates and course of study,
actual or anticipated result, examples of modules and projects (expand
if relevant)
Secondary and/or further education, dates and qualifications
Work experience/employment history:
Employer, dates, job title, brief description of duties if relevant,
transferable skills developed, achievements.
Similar items can be grouped together to raise their profile e.g.
Legal Work Experience
If the employment history is long, you can bring similar
non-relevant jobs together under a group heading e.g. "retail experience
with a variety of employers including……." particularly if the job was
some time ago
Skills and experience :
Demonstrate the match between your experience and the employer’s
requirements by building in a major emphasis on skills.
Illustrate relevant skills with examples from your education, work
experience, outside interests
Alternatively, build these skills into each section of the CV or
create a separate section listing the skills relevant for the job and
giving good examples of where you have demonstrated them
Other interests
Leisure, voluntary and other activities. Make it clear where you
have taken on additional responsibilities and what you have achieved
Referees
You need at least two referees. Your Faculty Office will tell you
who you should use as an academic referee
Only include as much detail as is relevant for the application. Your
CV is a sales document not a personal history. However, there should
not be gaps in the dates.
Be positive, personal and specific. Say what you achieved in each
role.
Use reverse chronological order throughout - most recent first.
Consistent, attractive layout
Use positive, active words or power words.
Usually no more than two sides of A4
Use model CVs for ideas but do not copy them
Be original and creative but avoid gimmicks
Send with a covering letter
Detailed Analysis
The CV Problem
Major employers receive dozens of CVs every day by post, fax and e-mail.
Being largely unsolicited, most of these are not 'filtered' to match any
specific vacancy.
To read every one 'from cover to cover' would be physically impossible so
it is crucial for the employer to grasp the essence of what you have to
offer within a few seconds.
If interest is aroused during the critical 'first pass', they are likely
to read further.
Visible Reams of Support
The readability of the CV is very much related to length so it needs to be
short but not obsessively so.
A 15-page CV defeats the reader at the outset and is likely to be
discarded.
The fashionable one-page 'consultancy' CVs tend to hide more than they
reveal making it difficult to 'get a handle' on what the candidate is all
about.
Remember - The principal object is to present your experience effectively
- Not to get it all on one page.
There is nothing wrong with a three or four page CV provided that page one
generates enough interest to encourage further reading.
The crucial point is to include all of the essential details on the first
page.
Professional CV Writing:
CVs with a certain style
Obviously, CVs should be neat and presentable but there is a balance to be
struck between design and content.
Possession of the latest spiffy desk-top publishing package does not
actually make you 'artistic' and most employers prefer candidates who are
'businesslike' rather than 'cool'.
With anything involving design, 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' and
there is no 'ideal' layout for a CV - Indeed, a reasonable degree of
individuality can make the document more-interesting.
As a good starting point, the document 'templates' available in MS-Word
and other word processing software provide smart and professional-looking
resume formats without excessive 'frills'.
Content
The Curriculum Vitae should ideally be a self-contained document including
your contact information, a summary of your experience and full supporting
details.
Some items, such as salary required, might well be included in a covering
letter and agencies will often prefer to remove your contact information.
It is important to state what you are looking for in a positive manner -
Some candidates are quite strident in stating what they don't want.
Nationality/Age/Sex Issues
Some politically-correct people consider that these items of information
are 'not relevant' but the potential employer decides what is 'relevant'.
Despite claims of being 'negotiable', employers tend to have a fairly
clear idea of what they want to pay and the term 'negotiable'
realistically means plus or minus 10%.
Like it or not, most employers are quite fussy and have an ideal 'profile'
in mind which thy use as their basis for filtering candidates 'on paper'.
Your CV should include any information which has a bearing on the decision
to progress your application further.
Summary Justice
Prominently displayed on the first page of your CV should be a few
paragraphs summarizing the 'essence' of what you have to offer and what
you are seeking.
This statement is probably the most important item in the CV and needs to
be written as 'tightly' as possible.
This is not the place for a detailed list of all software used or roles
performed so just emphasize your main current skills and recent
experience.
A useful technique is to write your 'first draft' and then eliminate as
many words as possible without reducing information content.
Aim for a maximum 10 seconds reading time which is about 50 words.
Education
Apart from recent school and university leavers whose academic
qualifications are their main selling point, general education is
'background' information which can be summarized towards the end of the CV
along with 'hobbies' and 'interests'.
However, relevant professional education should be mentioned prominently
on the first page.
For those working primarily in technical roles, the main skills should
also be mentioned in the summary with the rest listed towards the end of
the CV or within individual job descriptions.
It is particularly important to give a clear indication as to the 'level'
of technical expertise so that time is not wasted on 'fruitless'
interviews.
Employment Summary
Having read about your background in summary, most employers will still
want to assess the 'depth' of your experience by considering the evidence
of where and when it was gained.
It has now become fairly traditional to summarize jobs in reverse
chronological order giving employer name, job title, start/finish dates
and a brief description of duties.
The employer is primarily interested in the last 5 years or so and
anything prior to that can be dealt with briefly, either job-by-job or
summarized into a couple of paragraphs.
Many computer people seem to think that any non-IT background is
'irrelevant' but employers increasingly realize that technical skills need
to be accompanied by an understanding of the 'business' problems to be
solved.
So do let them know about your non-technical skills as well.
Other information
There are several less-important items which might be included in your
resume such as hobbies, references and details of general education.
If you are an accomplished athlete or have an interesting hobby, for
example, this might just give you an 'edge' with an employer on the basis
of a common interest.
Similarly, if you went to a very well-known school or college, this might
'ring a bell' with some employers although we 'hoi polloi' should just
stick to listing our main educational qualifications.
It is all a matter of balancing the value of the information against the
space taken-up.
Let's get Digital
Most employers will be happy to receive your CV as an original copy
through the post though this may well be discarded immediately if you are
rejected for the current vacancy.
You didn't really think that they filed them neatly for future reference -
did you?
Although fax transmissions are also generally acceptable, they can produce
a variety of problems including lost pages and poor-quality copies which
will not be so impressive as your 'pristine' original.
Recruitment Agencies, on the other hand, will want to keep your CV for
long-term use in a form which is accessible, easy to update and in a fit
state to be sent out.
Essentially, this means that they need it on a computer as a Word or text
file rather than fax or scanned-in images which are not easily searchable
or updateable.
As most CVs are now prepared on a computer, it is
a simple matter to send copies on a floppy disk or by e-mail. (Let
20,000 HR Managers and Recruiters see your resume.
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e-mail is a great tool for keeping in touch with agencies.
It is cheaper than phone, fax or post and will transmit a pristine copy of
your latest CV in seconds.
MS-Word documents are generally acceptable though a rich text (RTF) format
gives more universal compatibility.
Useful Tip: Agencies get a lot of
files named 'CV' - Try using your own name.
Final Polish
CV spelling mistakes stick out like the proverbial 'sore thumb'.
Furthermore, typing errors with valid spelling will not be spotted by your
WP spell-checker.
Because the author of any document tends to see 'what they expect to see',
it is always beneficial to have the CV proof-read independently.
Finally, always keep your CV up-to-date so that you can respond instantly
to job opportunities.
