Applications and interviews

CREATING THE
IDEAL CV

Get to interview via your CV.

argeting the information in your

CV to a particular type of work
is essential in catching the
recruiters eye. This means that
there is no general CV: each time you
apply for a job you need to tweak it to
fit the job role. How do you do that?
The place to start is the person
specification on the job description,
as this tells you all you need to know
about the type of person the employer is
looking for. Sometimes this is laid out
separately from all the other information
given; other times its a bit more subtle
and you have to read between the lines.
One useful tactic is to look at how the
company talks about itself: they will
probably want you to have the same
traits. Your aim is to make your CV
match all of the criteria.

Test yourself using this sample job ad

How many skills can you find in the
internship advertisement on the right?
(Answers at the bottom of the page.)

Essential information
Personal details
Name, address, telephone number, email
address.
Make sure you have a professionalsounding email, such as your full name,
rather than a nickname: if necessary set
up a new account.
Education
University education
A levels
Number of GCSEs (or equivalent).
Work experience
Include both paid and voluntary work and
any part-time or on-campus work youve
done.
Feature the skills that are most relevant to
the job you are applying for. You can split
this into a first section Relevant work
experience, outlining directly related
experience, and Other experience, listing
everything else.

Skills
IT, languages (including the level of
competency) and any technical skills
for example, lab techniques.
Positions of responsibility
This is optional: include it if you have any
relevant responsibilities.
Interests
Leisure activities, club/society
memberships, travel.
References
If you do give references, then a good rule
of thumb is to include one employer and
one academic referee for jobs and two
academic referees for courses.
Length
Most employers will expect the standard
UK CV length of two pages.
Academic CVs are often longer as you are
required to include presentations,
publications etc.
CVs for banking jobs should be no more
than one page.

Summer Internship Programme

1. reach their capabilities, skill ambitious/driven;

2. responsibility, skill responsible; 3. contributing members of
a team, skill teamwork and communication; 4. learn from
leaders, skill ability to learn quickly; 5. mentored by your team
leader, skill interpersonal and relationship building skills;
6. motivated people from the firm, skill self-motivation.

Answers:

24

ed to helping our people reach their

At Diamond Plus Bank, we are committ
offer students real responsibility. You
capabilities. Our Summer internships
as you will be fully contributing
will need to be able to learn quickly,
r skills for the financial industry. You
members of a team and develop you
leaders within finance and be
will work alongside, and learn from,
ugh working with other bright,
mentored by your team leader. Thro
undertaking responsibility you will
motivated people from the firm and
to help you in your future career.
gain valuable insights and experience

THE CAREERS SERVICE GUIDE London 2014

www.careers.lon.ac.uk

Applications and interviews

Its obvious this is a CV as it starts with

their name as a title.
Begin with the most recent events and
include current education.

This CV is written for the summer internship with Diamond

Bank. Notice how it gives examples to demonstrate all the skills
on the internship advert on the opposite page.

Flags up a skill
outlined in the
job description.
Uses numbers
to provide
specific
information,
increasing the
impact of her
writing.
Summarises
GCSEs.
Includes any
relevant careersrelated courses.
Lines between
sections,
capitalised titles
and bullet points
make it easy to
read.

Includes extracurricular careersrelated activities.

Include full
references if you
want. If you run
out of space then
it is fine to write
Available upon
request.

Samantha Chester
41 Station Road, NW1 8QP
hester@yahoo.co.uk
Mobile: 07797 345621 Email: sam.c
EDUCATION & COURSES

rsity of London
BSc economics, Queens College, Unive
20112014
ess and microeconomics.
busin
and
mics
econo
in
ods
meth
Modules include: mathematical
part of microeconomics.
through study of financial markets as
Commercial awareness developed
nting to peers and lecturers
prese
gh
throu
ence
confid
and
skills
Improved oral communication
and individually.
seven times, both as a group of four
dary School, Poole
Secon
Hart
2011
2004
ology (B)
studies (B), biology (B); AS Level: psych
A Levels: mathematics (A), business
(A)
h
Englis
and
10 GCSEs including mathematics (A*)
arket Bank, onsite.
Jan 2011, Principles of Trading, Haym
gh 1 day introduction to trading.
throu
ness
aware
ercial
comm
Increased
WORK EXPERIENCE

s Training, London
P/t Administration Assistant, Nexu
Sept 2011Present
ity of online enrolment and resources
viabil
g
rchin
resea
of
ity
nsibil
respo
Entrusted with additional
to put job out to tender.
ing
agree
team
nt
geme
mana
r
senio
was
needed, which resulted in
group to ensure an efficient service
client
se
diver
cally
ethni
with
ps
Built successful relationshi
ly.
quick
ered
answ
provided and queries were
ule, demonstrating self
often completed tasks ahead of sched
Worked largely unsupervised and
motivation.
ng participants onto courses and
for 50 training courses, such as booki
Organised all administration work
work.
paper
completing all the related
nted to senior
ack forms to produce reports and prese
Regularly recorded and analysed feedb
management team.
P/t Sales Assistant, Currys, Poole
June 2008Aug 2010
uter systems and to keep uptodate
out training on various internal comp
seek
to
ive
Took the initiat
reading magazines, websites and
gh
throu
,
visual technology
with the latest developments in audio
participating in online forums.
hes and head office and dealing
liaising with colleagues at other branc
Utilised interpersonal skills when
with external suppliers.
ngup late deliveries or
assertiveness through regularly chasi
Improved communication skills and
.
es and complaints
payments and handled customer queri
levels and order products.
used organisational skills to track stock
Dealt with financial transactions and
POSITIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY
seven, through weekly
ber: Worked closely with a team of
careers events
Economics Society Committee mem
organised and ran social and finance
17%;
by
ip
bersh
mem
ty
socie
se
s/trips off
event
l
meetings, to increa
socia
three
ran
and
ised
a team of three, organ
and liaised with the department. In
one.
each
at
4050
of
ut
campus, with turno
es, teaching, motivating and
: Organising training and weekly match
Football coach for local youth team
e necessary.
wher
line
discip
le, as well as providing
encouraging a squad of 15 young peop
OTHER SKILLS & ACHIEVEMENTS
Challenge. This involved
s in the Queens College Enterprise
and
Achieved 2nd place out of 27 team
ability to learn new concepts quickly,
the
ring
requi
,
hours
three
in
plan
developing a business
try.
indus
from
ts
exper
pitching it to a panel of
, Access and Powerpoint.
IT: Intermediate level Word, Excel
Languages: Conversational German.

Includes a couple of
modules which give
relevant knowledge
for the job, along with
further details on
content.
Draws out the
transferable skills
outlined in the job
description:
responsibility,
interpersonal/
relationship building
ability, selfmotivation.
Uses examples to
back up the skills:
avoid at all costs just
listing your skills.
Again, draws out
transferable skills
outlined in job
description: ambition,
interpersonal skills.
Uses this section to
again show skills
outlined in job
description:
teamwork and
interpersonal skills.
Choice of title
highlights ability to
take responsibility.

REFERENCES
Available on request

Further information
See here for the following resources
www.careers.lon.ac.uk/cep
How to write a CV, The Careers Group
2010 (leaflet)
CVs for PhD Students,
The Careers Group 2010 (leaflet)
Medical CVs, The Careers Group 2010
Your Careers Service also holds
reference books on CVs.

www.careers.lon.ac.uk

A final checklist
Does it look professional and can the
reader find the information they need
easily? Make your section headings stand
out, using bold and a larger font.

Present your information, such as

date layout, in a consistent way.

Check for spelling and grammar

errors. Dont rely on a computer
spellchecker!

Use good-quality white or off-white

paper and put each page on a
different sheet rather than back-to-back.

If you are sending out your CV

speculatively (not in response to an
advert) send it directly to the manager of the
department you are interested in and not HR. If
you know someone in the organisation find out
if they will pass your CV to the relevant person.

Include a covering letter. See the next

section for advice.

THE CAREERS SERVICE GUIDE London 2014

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