Writing the Perfect CV. At Cititec, we’ll help you put together the perfect CV that will show you at your best to businesses. Here’s our comprehensive guide to creating that all-important first impression.
Formatting and Layout
- Include a succinct personal profile at the top . Employers often have only a short time to review CVs, so it’s important that they can immediately understand your keys skills and what you have to offer.
- Do you have several highly technical skills? Web developers, for example, may have worked with several programming languages. If so, create a skills table outlining your proficiency and experience in each.
- Keep it concise and relevant. Two A4 pages is preferable, and three is an absolute maximum. Many people have lots of varied career experience, and the way to keep it concise is to focus on only those aspects relevant to the job. Tailor your CV to the job.
- Keep the format simple – a clean layout with white space looks professional. For nearly all business areas, avoid colour or wacky fonts of any kind. Be consistent with your formatting throughout the document.
- Check your SPAG – that is, spelling, punctuation and grammar. We can’t emphasise this enough. If an employer has rafts of CVs to sift through for one job, the decision to interview may hang on a typo. Even if your written skills are excellent, have someone else check your CV for you, as it’s all too easy to miss little mistakes.
Functional or Chronological?
We often hear that you should list employment in chronological order on a CV, however, there are two types of layout, functional and chronological, and you can pick one depending on your employment history and the type of job you are going for.
In a chronological CV, career history is presented in reverse date order. In a functional CV, achievements are grouped by theme and relevance. A chronological document is usually best, but use a functional CV if highly relevant experience is located further back in your job history.
Content
- Make sure your contact details are correct.
- Quantify your achievements. This means that, for example, if you increased efficiency in your last job, you should say how you did so and by how much. These details are the things that really hook in an interested employer.
- Explain any gaps in your CV in a positive light.
- Avoid clichés such as ‘self-starter’ and ‘good team player’. Instead, you can demonstrate these qualities through your experience and skills.
- Unless it’s specifically relevant to the role (which would be unusual), don’t include your age, marital status, children, religion, or political affiliation. Similarly, don’t include lists of hobbies unless they are specifically relevant.
- Do include any relevant external positions you hold, as well as any publications you’ve written for.
- Read through the job description and make sure you have matched your skills to each specification as much as possible. Don’t forget the skills you’ve gained outside of formal employment, either in your personal time, at school or college, or in a voluntary setting.
- Don’t list languages that you speak unless you are prepared to have a conversation in that language at the interview!
Captivating Cover Letters
While CVs need to be kept concise and to the point, the cover letter can go into a little more detail. It’s your chance to forge a personal connection with a potential employer – grab their interest here to get your CV read. Emailed CVs should include a cover letter – include them as an attachment as they may be printed off to be read by more than one person. They body of the email should still include a short and polite message.
- So, how long should it be? Four short paragraphs is a good guide. Paragraph 1 should be an opening statement about who you are, the second paragraph covers what you have to offer the business, the third paragraph explains exactly how you would be of value, and in the closing paragraph, sum up and say when you would be available for interview.
- Try to avoid too much use of the word “I” at the beginning of paragraphs. Focus on the businesses requirements – refer to the job specification as you did when writing your CV.
- Again – focus on spelling, punctuation and grammar. It’s as important here as it is on your CV.
