A Curriculum Vitae (CV) is a document which represents you to your potential employers. It is an important document because this will normally be the piece of paper which decides whether or not you will get an interview with the company that you have applied to. It is therefore important to ensure that your CV represents you in a positive and appropriate way.
- Word Processor – Your CV should be created or drafted using a word processing program that you are familiar with. Open up your choice of word processing software (Word, Open Office, etc) and check to see if the program you are using has any templates available. If you use a search engine such as Google, you should be able to find some CV or resume templates for Word and other processing programs.
- General Information – Enter your general information, such as your full name, local address, e-mail address and phone number under a subheading of ‘Personal’ or ‘General Information. Ensure that you include your country’s international dialling code if you are applying for a job abroad.
- Education – Create a new subheading to outline your education and qualifications. In this section you should write down the information regarding the education that you have received, including the name of your school, college or university. You should include the dates of when you started and left each school – years are fine; there is no need to worry about writing down the specific dates. Write down information about any qualifications you hold such as a degree or any A Levels or GCSE’s. You should write down the grades that you received for each subject and the year that you obtained the award next to the qualification.
- Work Experience – If you have completed any previous work experience (whether paid or not) you should write this down under a new heading. Here you should list where you worked, how long it was for and what tasks you had to carry out. Using action words such as ‘developed, planned and organised’ will make your tasks look much more worthwhile and more impressive to a potential employer. Mention any team work that you did and try to relate to the skills needed for the job in which you are applying. For example a finance job would involve lots of mathematics and numerals, so try to relate to this if you are applying for a job in finance or banking.
- Interests – The next section should be about your personal interests and achievements. It is best to keep this section short and to the point in order to keep interest. Try to show a range of interests to avoid coming across as narrow; you should also be wary not to note too many solitary hobbies as you may be perceived as lacking people or social skills. You can also mention any achievements that you have received outside of work or training hours, such as participating in charity events, having a book published or completing a marathon.
- Skills – Now that potential employers know about your history and qualifications, why not tell them about any skills that you posses which could help you in a work situation? Good skills to mention on a CV include language skills (basic French, fluent in Spanish, etc), computer skills (good knowledge of Microsoft Excel, efficient in HTML editing, etc) and also information about any licences you posses (full clean drivers licence, bike licence, etc) should also be included, especially for jobs where you may have to travel.
- References – Many employers will want to contact either your previous team leader or employer from your past job, or even your old school teachers to get to know a bit more about you. At the bottom of your CV you should include at least two referees who will represent you to a future employer. One referee should be from your academic background, maybe a previous tutor in a relevant subject or your year leader, and the other should be someone from your previous job; this could be your boss or colleague. When choosing a referee bear in mind that the person you choose could be speaking to your future employer, so be sure that you choose someone who is reliable and remembers the good traits that you showed. Another option is to tell your potential employer that references are available if required, instead of just putting them straight onto your CV.
- Spell Check – Be sure to spell check and proofread your CV for any mistakes. Having mistakes in your CV is almost guaranteed to get your job application rejected or overlooked. You should try and get a friend or family member to proofread your CV for you, just to be sure that you didn’t miss any details or mistakes.
- Addressee – Ensure that you know the name of the person who you should hand your CV to. Many CV’s and job applications end up being sent to the right company, but the wrong individual. This shows that you didn’t read the instructions on the application correctly and is certainly not professional.
Always remember to back up and update your Curriculum Vitae on a monthly basis to reflect any new milestones in your life, such as completing a new course. When sending a printed version of your CV it is important that you keep the document protected, so that it doesn’t bend or crease in the mail.
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