15 Essential CV Tips

Mairead1975

Seen as it's fairly topical, Ive just put together some really practical CV Tips. I hope you find it of benefit..............


1. Add your personal details as a header to save space for themore important details

2. Your personal statement should be no more than 60 words. It needs to be unique to you and your experience. Always tailor it to the role you are going for and do not use a list of stock phrases eg “ looking for a new challenge”

3. If you are a Senior level jobseeker leave your education at the end of your CV

4. If you have completed a thesis / dissertation, add the title of the thesis. It maybe really relevant to the organisations current challenges

5. Always include your grade (2:1 etc) and if you won any awards in college

6. Work Experience. Always remember it’s your 2 most recent jobs that are likely to get you your next job, so provide the most amount of detail on these roles

7. Put yourself in the position of the person reading your CV. Always include a background to your organisation ( not a web address ), size, nature of the business, products, turnover, who you reported into and how many your managed. This sets the scene for the person reviewing the CV . You should be able to include everything above in roughly 3 lines.

8. Divide each position you've held into responsibilities and achievements. Always provide what you did and not what your organisation did. Always make yourself unique – what did you do that is above and beyond every other person / jobseeker working in your field. At a Senior level your CV should only be achievement based.

9. Remember that many in-house and agency recruiters search their extensive databases using the google “word search” technique. If the keywords aren’t on the CV, it will not be found!

10. Include at least 7-10 bullet points outlining your responsibilities and at least 3 achievements or projects that you worked on

11. Always outline the “results” of your actions. Quantify how your actions were of benefit to the businss eg. Introduced a which resulted in a 10% cost saving for the business

12. Do not go into too much detail on roles you were involved in 10 years ago

13. Ideally keep your CV to 2 pages or 3 pages maximum

14 Interests and hobbies - always remember the role that you are applying to. Keep your interests brief . How relevent are the transferable skills gained through your interests and hobbies. For example, if you play chess, the skills acquired would suit the role of trader

15 Referees - always make them "available on request". It's really important that your referee has the heads up in advance of anyone calling them for a reference.:)

MysticalRain

Good stuff. There's a few points in there that I hadn't thought of myself.

pog it

Do you recommend putting an introductory paragraph about yourself at the top of the CV? Even if you have a cover letter? Or is it important anyway to include that? If so, what is the guide-line length of this, and what should you be stressing?

greendom

16. Don't put CV or curriculum vitae as the title - it wastes space and it's pretty self evident what the document is.

Sabre0001

Trying to jiffy up my CV but I run into the problem of length (and would like a couple of other pointers perhaps :?). I have heard people say "DO NOT run onto three pages" and I don't. However, it's there or there abouts.

My layout has my name as a header (instead of where most people put CV - I heard it was a good tip). Using Times New Roman (12).

Personal details (4 lines - 2 columns)

Relevant career history - Two jobs listed and main duties for each (About 20 lines in total between the two).

Education - "Bachelor of Business Studies; Marketing major, Entrepreneurship minor. I have graduated with a 2.1 class degree. Then just a list of all the modules that I undertook (About 10 lines)

Leaving Cert - Recevived xxx points (;) ) including x, y and z (4 lines).

Skills and Awards Received (About 10 lines). Then underneath I have three paragraphs listing skills that may be worth highlighting for the position - A heading and two lines on each.

Other work experience - a table of any other job I have held and the years thereof (6 lines).

Hobbies and Interests (2 lines)

References and contact details (6 lines - 3 columns).



My other issue is that I work on something that has developed skills from college and that could be relevent to the position in question - work on a website dedicated to a niche hobby Not sure where to include it or how to highlight it. Cover letter in a paragraph of skills?

Reading these guidelines...and ones I have seen elsewhere - I don't have the space for a "personal statement" or multiple bullet points. Graduated last year so that's why the college part takes up quite a lot - did not get a "career" job but have been working.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

KarlDrake

Sabre0001 wrote: »

Trying to jiffy up my CV but I run into the problem of length (and would like a couple of other pointers perhaps :?). I have heard people say "DO NOT run onto three pages" and I don't. However, it's there or there abouts.

My layout has my name as a header (instead of where most people put CV - I heard it was a good tip). Using Times New Roman (12).

Personal details (4 lines - 2 columns)

Relevant career history - Two jobs listed and main duties for each (About 20 lines in total between the two).

Education - "Bachelor of Business Studies; Marketing major, Entrepreneurship minor. I have graduated with a 2.1 class degree. Then just a list of all the modules that I undertook (About 10 lines)

Leaving Cert - Recevived xxx points (;) ) including x, y and z (4 lines).

Skills and Awards Received (About 10 lines). Then underneath I have three paragraphs listing skills that may be worth highlighting for the position - A heading and two lines on each.

Other work experience - a table of any other job I have held and the years thereof (6 lines).

Hobbies and Interests (2 lines)

References and contact details (6 lines - 3 columns).



My other issue is that I work on something that has developed skills from college and that could be relevent to the position in question - work on a website dedicated to a niche hobby Not sure where to include it or how to highlight it. Cover letter in a paragraph of skills?

Reading these guidelines...and ones I have seen elsewhere - I don't have the space for a "personal statement" or multiple bullet points. Graduated last year so that's why the college part takes up quite a lot - did not get a "career" job but have been working.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

A very simple technical point would be if you're using times 12, use 10 for the gap lines.
Should keep you on two pages, but the caveat is to keep it consistent otherwise the reader will get a "brain itch", won't know what it is, but will subconsciously react to inconsistencies in layout. Feel free to PM if you need more technical advice like that.

Mairead1975

pog it wrote: »

Do you recommend putting an introductory paragraph about yourself at the top of the CV? Even if you have a cover letter? Or is it important anyway to include that? If so, what is the guide-line length of this, and what should you be stressing?

Hi there

Sorry for the delay!!

Yes - I would include a personal statement, but make sure it's not waffle. Just a few points on it.....

• Tailor your statement to the job you are going for EG if you were a PA things like organised, reliable, engaging are probably quite important
• Do not just use the normal stock phrases....."looking for a challenge, great interpersonal skills" etc
• You need to demonstrate what YOU will do for their company and how you have proved yourself in the past EG if you're a salesperson " exceeded revenue goals by 30%" . Cost savings / improving efficiencies and things like that are important and you can get these on the personal statement
• No more than 50-60 words

Cover Letters - personally I never used to read them. It's the CV that's important. Nearly everyones CV can be worked on - content is key.....if you arent able to articulate yourself well, get a friend or professional advice. It's vital in totdays market that the CV is good - it;s your route to interview

If you're applying for something totally unrelated to your experience then it maybe worth doing a cover letter, but I think if any recruiter is honest, they dont read them!!

Hope this helps.
Let me know if you need any further advice

Mairead Griffin

Kaybe

Sabre0001 wrote: »

My layout has my name as a header (instead of where most people put CV - I heard it was a good tip). Using Times New Roman (12).

Personal details (4 lines - 2 columns)

WRT personal details being 4 lines this can be reduced as follows.

I have my name, address and contact number as the header on my CV e.g.

Kaybe Murphy
Anytown
Co. Wherever
(087)1234567 / (01)12345657

and then go straight into my CV.
There is no need to say
Mobile number...1234657 or Home = 01-1234647 (eveyrone knows which is the landline and which is the mobile.
There is no need to include date of birth
There is no need to include gender
There is no need to state that you are married to the lovely Kate with son John (aged 4) and daughter Mary (aged 1.5)... (Yes, I've seen it!!!) I'm sure Kate and the kids are lovely, but they don't need mention on the CV

WRT your degree - I don't think there is any need to list all the modules you studied. It's a standard business studies degree, and if I'm looking for a candidate with a marketing degree I have a pretty good idea of the modules you covered - those 10 lines on your CV could be put to better use.

WRT you L.Cert - I don't think there's a need to use 4 lines talking about your L.Cert, unless you have just left school. The fact that you got a degree will tell me that you got a good enough leaving cert to get into the marketing degree course, I don't need to see 4 lines telling me the subjects you did in L.Cert.

WRT references.. no need for 6 lines wasted... just simply state "References available upon request" and leave it at that.

There ya go - that's probably cut about 20-25 lines on your CV ;-)