Top 20 Hints and Tips for CV’s including ‘Do’s and Don’ts’
1. HOW LONG: Try and keep to two pages (three pages as an absolute maximum). If
you feel it will support your case for a specific application attach a separate document
as an appendix, separate attachment of case studies or detail specifics in the cover
letter.
2. GRAPHICS AND PHOTOGRAPHS: Personally, I quite like photos – most hate them! It
is a reason for people to make assumptions about you so advice would be don’t bother
unless it is relevant to the application. Use a subtle graphic or watermark if you
choose to do so BUT keep it simple and appropriate, less is more!
3. PAPER: If posting your CV, which together with a handwritten cover note is still
quite expected for the most senior roles, invest in some decent weighted paper rather
than the thin stuff that you borrowed from the photocopier at work! Occasionally
some candidates put a background to their electronic CV to give the appearance of
paper but beware – many firewalls will not let it through, the file will be large
and many recruitment software products will not accept it.
4. CONTACT INFORMATION AT THE TOP (WITHIN THE HEADER): Put your name and contact
details at the top of the CV or within the ‘header’ (however some recruitment software
is unable to read headers)
5. PERSONAL PROFILES: The world is split on this one - some people love them, some
don’t even read them! Why not detail a short paragraph detailing your key skills
and traits, core values and beliefs.
6. CAREER OBJECTIVE: Do not use specific job titles unless you are tailoring your
CV to each and every role. i.e. “Graduate Aerospace Engineer seeks career role within
a growing aeronautical organisation” could mean that you are discounted from the
ideal graduate engineer role with an F1 team that you’d be ideal for! Use generic
career objectives if placing your CV on a CV job board or with a recruitment consultancy.
7. LIST OF SKILLS: All recruitment companies and many employers now use CV parsing
software that 'autoreads' your details and populates the database fields. The very
latest software matches CV’s to job specifications in an automated process and provides
a shortlist and a percentage match to the specification using a combination of keyword
matching, artificial intelligence and an algorithm that predicts suitability. Trust
me it is unbelievably quick AND accurate. Detailing core skills is therefore a must
in this digital age. See writing a CV for the Digital age)
8. EDUCATION/QUALIFICATIONS/PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS: Detail your highest level of
education first. Then detail other formal qualifications, other education, Professional
Memberships/Affiliations in the order you deem most necessary to your sector. Name
your University and your classification if 2.2 or above (if you don’t all employers
will assume you failed or got a third class degree!) If you are a recent graduate
detail your core subjects and dissertation title. Unless you are a recent graduate
do not waste valuable CV space going into the depths of detailing the individual
grades of your O-Levels/.GCSE’s/A-Levels/CSE’s, etc – detailing your passes in the
core Maths, English subjects will suffice. i.e. Achieved ‘9 GCE ‘O-Levels’ at Grade
C and above including English and Maths’. NB Some employers pay more credence to
your ‘A-Level’ grades than your degree! If they’re good – detail them! Do not under
any circumstances tell a mistruth about your education or memberships – they are
incredibly easy to verify which is a standard step in any requirement process nowadays.
9. OTHER INFORMATION: Don’t detail your marital status unless you are married, happily
single or feel it wholly appropriate to the application NB It is actually illegal
to discriminate on the basis of marital status. Detail your driving status if it’s
a requirement of the role or if you have a full clean driving license. Detail your
eligibility to work in the EU for any employer or your visa/passport status if from
outside of the EU. Do not put your passport number on your CV for reasons detailed
in point 10. Due to recent age legislation more and more people are choosing to
not put their age and date of birth on their CV – don’t feel that you have to.
10. NATIONAL INSURANCE NUMBERS: Do not ever, ever, ever put your National Insurance
number on your CV! Together with your name, address, date of birth and employment
information you are leaving yourself open to significant identity fraud.
11. THE DANGERS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING: More and more offers of employment and offers
of second interviews are being withdrawn as employers can find out more about you
searching through your social network ‘footprint’. The famous example was the retraction
of a job offer for a high flying city lawyer who boasted on his ‘blog’ that he did
nothing at his employer but shop on the Internet, pick up a six figure salary and
regularly partake in recreational pharmaceuticals. Particularly if you have an unusual
name, amazing detail of your lifestyle, behaviour and beliefs can be uncovered with
one Google search. Companies will not admit to doing this as part of their recruitment
procedure – But, be warned, THEY DO!
12. DETAIL YOUR CAREER IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER: Do the first job first and
work backwards. Your most recent experience, the last 5 years, is perceived as most
important and is given the highest ‘weight’ in deciding whether to invite you, or
not, for interview.
13. USE SHORT PARAGRAPHS AND BULLET POINTS: Be succinct – do not waffle or pontificate
and definitely don’t try to make your sales job more exotic by preposterous waffle,
i.e. ‘initiating strategic partnerships and management process initiatives aimed
at restructuring procurement decisions in the favour of my organisation’! Remember
this is your sales tool – use it to sell yourself – think careful about the words
that you use. Read it aloud, can anyone who doesn’t know your industry understand
what you did, what you sold? People don’t like reading more than three sentence
paragraphs so use short paragraphs and bullet points. The average recruiter will
skim read CVs looking for applicable points and experience. Decision makers want
to read facts – how have you increased sales, decreased costs, improved systems,
increased customer satisfaction, built a database, increased investment, drove down
supplier rates, etc. Particularly use facts that you can back up at interview with
evidence – case studies, testimonials, league tables, P60’s, etc. (many employers
will expect to see evidence of your claims at interview stage and it is imperative
that you know your own facts and figures at interview)
14. KEYWORDS: By thinking of the kind of keywords that recruiters and hirers will
use to find your details before writing your CV you will have a dramatically more
successful experience. Detail your skills, client accounts, different terms for
your role, etc. For greater explanation and some neat tricks view <Writing your
CV for the digital age>
15. JARGON: Do not use jargon or abbreviations. Even abbreviations such as KPI’s
and TQM, whilst widely used in business are not understood by everyone.
16. REASONS FOR LEAVING: Many employers like to be able to see why you have taken
logical career steps to this point. However if it is not a pretty story don’t bother!
17. CURRENT SALARY: Again many employers like to see this progression; however it
can work against you. For instance if you were in a £45K international sales development
role and left to take a £30K UK based salary to breathe life back into your work
life balance it may be perceived or assumed as a backwards step. If it is continuous
progression then detail it. Don’t overstate your earnings as many employers require
P60s as part of their referencing process and they will see your earnings YTD on
your P45 anyhow.
18. INTERESTS/HOBBIES: Many books and CV advice sites say that this is superfluous
information. However I use it extensively as a hirer to get a ‘flavour’ of a person
and start every interview with a discussion around the hobbies/interests to put the
candidate at ease. DO NOT solely detail ‘reading and socialising with friends’ but
I would advise detailing one intellectual interest, one team sport, perhaps another
sport and perhaps an art/creative interest. If you are interested in reading expand
upon it, i.e. reading 1950’s crime fiction novels. Do not ever detail an interest
that you are not knowledgeable about – it really, really can backfire!
19. REFERENCES: If you do not wish to detail your references don’t even waste valuable
CV space on ‘References: Available upon Request’
20. LINKS TO PUBLICATIONS/WEBSITES: It is becoming more popular to attach links
to personal websites, blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, articles published, publications,
etc. This is absolutely fine but think about the content – does it portray you in
your very best light (particularly your FaceBook wall)?!?! Links to companies that
you’ve worked for and projects that you’ve completed will certainly do no harm
