CV Writing Tips - Get Your Ideal Career
Your CV (curriculum vitae) or resume is a snap-shot of who you are and what you offer a prospective employer. These tips will help give it the greatest effect.
1. Presentation. This is not the time for fancy fonts and graphic design. Clean, crisp presentation is required. A simple font, plenty of line gaps and paragraphs to break up the page will all help. Numbered bullet points or paragraph headings keep things clear and encourage the eye down the page.
2. Personal details. The must-have information needs to be at the top. Name, address and date of birth are crucial. Highlight your contact details to make it easy for them to call you back. Include a reasonably formal photo. This is not a social exercise but it helps people to see the face.
3. Personal qualities. You might want to write this last but it is a summary of what special characteristics you bring to the market-place. See where your CV leads you to on this and bear in mind what your prospective new employer is looking for.
4. Job history. List this in reverse order-latest first. Keep the dates to the left and start each paragraph with the name of the employer, job title and duties. Discuss the duties with relation to what the employer is asking for. Also relate these duties to aspects of your personal qualities. If the new employer is looking for a self-starter, you need to mention this is your personal qualities and point out a previous job where you had to take the initiative. You can put in reasons for leaving, especially if you have had a few jobs. Some employers get suspicious if you seem to change jobs too often or too quickly.
5. The next area should be your educational history. Put in the exam results and names of establishments. You need more detail on this if you have a short employment history. People with a longer history can just summarize the results and spare more details.
6. Finally, you need to show you are rounded and interesting person. What hobbies and interests do you have? Do you have an odd skill which may not suit the workplace but might make you fit in better socially? Do you have an award you are proud of? Share these briefly. They may make the difference and employers like to have something interesting to ask about in interview.
7. Keep it all on one page if you possibly can.
Follow these tips and your CV will be giving you the best chance of getting the interview for that new job.
About the Author
James Copper is a writer of articles for Concrescent Press on various topics and news
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