Top 20 CV Tips

Page Overview:

At Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment, we bring you our Top 20 CV Hints & Tips to help your CV cut through the noise and deliver maximum impact. This page distils our years of recruitment insight into actionable guidance, from what to include (or exclude) in your personal information to formatting, language, and tone. Whether it's whether to list your address or how to position achievements, these tips make crafting or updating your CV faster, smarter, and more effective in landing interviews. Use this checklist to ensure your CV truly reflects your potential, resonates with hiring managers, and avoids common pitfalls.

Simple CV Tips to help increase your chances of being selected for an Interview

1. HOW LONG: Try to 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, a 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 the advice would be to avoid it 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. 
3. 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)
4. PERSONAL PROFILES:  The world is split on this one - some people love them, and some don't even read them!  Why not detail a short paragraph detailing your key skills and traits, core values and passions.  Try out our free online CV Builder.
5. 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.
6. LIST OF SKILLS: All recruitment companies and many employers now use CV parsing software that 'auto-reads' your details and populates the database fields.  The very latest software matches CVs to job specifications in an automated process, providing a shortlist and a percentage match to the specification. This is achieved through 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 a job board. 
7. EDUCATION/QUALIFICATIONS/PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS: Detail your highest level of education first. Next, list other formal qualifications, education, and Professional Memberships/Affiliations in the order you deem most relevant to your sector. If you are a recent graduate, please 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/.GCSEs/A-Levels/CSEs, etc. - detailing your passes in the core Maths and 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.
8. OTHER INFORMATION: Don't detail your marital status as you don't have to.  This is unless you are married, happily single, or feel it wholly appropriate to the application. Note that it is actually illegal to discriminate based on 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 you are 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 not to put their age and date of birth on their CV - don't feel that you have to.
9. NATIONAL INSURANCE NUMBERS: Do not ever, ever, ever put your National Insurance number on your CV!  By including your name, address, date of birth, and employment information, you are leaving yourself open to significant identity fraud.
10. SHOULD YOU PUT YOUR ADDRESS? This is a debated one, but generally just putting your general location can be the best route. Read here for a full breakdown of whether you should include your address on your CV.
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 details 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!

11. 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 an interview.

12. 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 carefully about the words you use.  Read it aloud. Can anyone outside your industry understand what you did and what you sold?  People tend to dislike reading more than three sentence paragraphs, so consider using 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, driven down supplier rates, etc.  Particularly use facts that you can back up at interview with evidence - case studies, testimonials, league tables, P60, etc. (many employers will expect to see proof of your claims at the interview stage, and it is imperative that you know your own facts and figures at interview).

13. 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 a more detailed explanation and some neat tricks, check out writing your CV for a job board. 

14. 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.

15. REASONS FOR LEAVING: Detailing reasons for leaving, however valid, usually comes across as excuses. It is not necessary, so don't bother.  If a prospective employer wants to know more, they can ask you at the interview.

16. 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 as a backwards step.  If it is a 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.

17. 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 and expanding upon it, i.e. reading 1950s crime fiction novels.  Do not ever detail an interest that you are not knowledgeable about - it really, really can backfire!

18. REFERENCES: If you do not wish to detail your references, don't even waste valuable CV space on 'References: Available upon Request'

19. FONTS AND TEXT: Ensure the CV looks 'tidy' and you have all the CV in the same font and text size, as it shows you take pride in the appearance of your CV.

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, and is it relevant? Links to companies that you've worked for and projects that you've completed will certainly not harm.