What is a CV?

Curriculum Vitae (CV) means "course of life" in Latin. A Curriculum Vitae is a brief summary of the basic
information of a potential job applicant which includes contact information, education, work history and
achievement.

Successful CV Writing

Your CV is your personal sales document which is essential for you to ensure it is well-written and
professionally presented. It is the only tool you have to get to interview stage so investing time and
effort is extremely important to give yourself the best opportunity of selling your suitability for the
position. Many jobseekers do themselves a disservice by not giving enough importance to this factor and
unfortunately, will not get far in the recruitment process despite whatever outstanding achievements
they may have accomplished.

4. The three types of CV

4.1 - The Chronological CV

The chronological or performance CV is the most traditional and widely used format. This type of CV
basically outlines your work and educational history and is ideal if you have stayed in the same career
for most of your working life, steadily working your way up.

This kind of CV focuses on presenting the candidate's experience on an employer-by-employer basis,

with the posts being listed in reverse chronological order. Chronological CVs should also contain a brief
personal statement at the front which sets out the key skills and strengths of the candidate. This is the
most common type of CV.

How to structure a chronological CV

A chronological CV typically uses the following structure:

• Personal Details (i.e. name and contact details)

• Personal Profile (i.e. sets out the key skills and strengths of the candidate) Or Career objectives

• Career History (experience) in reverse chronological order unless you are a graduate or you have
very little work experience, in which case, it may be best to start with your Education and
Qualifications

• Education and Qualifications

• Professional Memberships (if any)

• Other Information/Additional information (skills)

• Interests/Hobbies

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 • Reference

Advantages (or when applicable)

• Particularly useful for those applying within the same industry as it will demonstrate your career
progression (highlights career progression in one chosen field and you are looking for promotion
or better conditions).

• It is the favourite format for most employers, who simply want to easily identify the roles and
responsibilities in each job

• If you do not have many achievements or significant highlights across your career, taking a job-
by-job approach can detail your main responsibilities and take the emphasis away from key
achievements which is more expected in a functional CV (i.e. it is most preferable if you want to
highlight where you have worked rather than what you have achieved).

Disadvantages (or when not applicable)

• If you have gaps in your employment which you would rather not highlight, a chronological CV
will make them more obvious.

• If you are changing career direction, a chronological CV may not be so relevant to a recruiter
who will be more concerned about the transferable skills that you are bringing rather than the
detail of your experience in an unrelated sector.

4.2 - The Functional CV

This type of CV focuses on and highlights the skills and achievements that you have gained throughout
your whole working career irrespective of where and when you acquired them. This is useful if you do
have gaps in your working career or if you want to change career completely.
Although not generally the preferred choice by most recruiters, some senior executive positions would
require that a functional CV accompany a chronological one so that their key skills and achievements can
be clearly identified.

How to structure a functional CV

A functional CV typically starts with a personal profile which highlights the achievements, skills and
personal qualities that you possess. This is then followed by a succession of sections, each relating to a
different skill or ability. These should be ordered in decreasing order of importance. Instead of
focusing on any particular job, you should describe your experience in its entirety. Since you are not
detailing any specific role, this means you can include any skills or experience gained in voluntary or
unpaid work.

Advantages (or when applicable)

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 • If you have changed jobs frequently, or your experience is a combination of seemingly unrelated
posts or if you have several career gaps, a functional CV will help place the emphasis on what
you have to offer as a whole rather than your career progression

• If you are changing industry, a functional CV will help the recruiter focus on your transferable
skills

• If you are a more mature applicant, a functional CV will take the spotlight away from your age

• If you have little experience due to just starting out or just finishing college or university but you
want to show a prospective employer that you possess the correct skills for the job even
though you do not have experience in that field.

Disadvantages (or when not applicable)

• If you do not have much work experience, you may struggle to highlight achievements in a
separate section

• Most employers do not like this type of CV as they prefer to clearly see what the candidate has
done and it also raise questions around whether the candidate is trying to hide something

• A functional CV will not enable you to highlight consistent career progression. If you wish to
convey career progression, you should adopt a chronological format

To conclude the CV, you should list your employers with the employment dates, as well as a section on
your qualifications. The final section should focus on any other relevant information and
hobbies/interests.

4.3 - The Hybrid/Combined/ Chrono-functional CV

A combined CV follows both the chronological and functional format, which makes the CV slightly longer
than normal. However, it does offer the best of both types of CV and is becoming a more popular
structure to use.

Advantages (when is applicable)

• Perfect format if you have a strong career progression with many achievements.

• Enables you to sell your strengths as well as your experience (it’s the best if you want to show
that not only do you have the right skills for the job, but also the work experience).

• If you want to emphasize skills that one may not have used for a while.

• If you would have used a chronological CV but want to highlight your skills too.

• When applying for managerial or executive positions.

• If you have plenty of experience in the chosen field.

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Disadvantages

• Lengthier than a functional or chronological CV, so it consumes time.

• Not suitable for those with little experience or achievements

• Not suitable for those with employment gaps

1. Making the right first impression

Making your CV stand-out is not about creating an outlandish document that catches the recruiter’s eye
for the wrong reason! It needs to be aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-read; and whilst there is not a
hard-and-fast rule for how you should present it, the following guidelines will provide you with the
general criteria which you should aim to incorporate in your layout.

1.1 - Appropriate typeface and font

The most commonly used styles of typeface are Arial and Times New Roman as they look professional
and are the fonts that most recruiters would expect to see on a CV. There may be some exception to this
in creative roles but even then, you need to bear in mind that if the typeface is too difficult to read, it
could be frustrating for the recruiter to attempt to decipher it and they may just give up! Use your
common sense in making your CV appropriate for the role in which you are applying. It is best to keep
the font size to either 10 or 11 and this should be consistent throughout your CV.
1.2 - Headings

Headings should be written in a larger and/or different font to make them stand out and should equally
be consistent. Using bold/and or capitals in headings and job titles is the best way to make them stand
out on your CV. It is the only place you should use capitals, everything else should be in lower case.
Italics should be used sparingly as it is more difficult to read, but it is acceptable to use for naming
publications.

1.3 - Spacing

To keep your CV easy-to-read, you want to ensure there is sufficient white space to break up the text
which maximizes the ability to clearly read your CV. Although the recommendation for the ideal length
of a CV is two pages, it is best to create an additional page rather than cramming everything into two
pages which then becomes difficult to read due to too much text on each page.

1.4 - Margins

Quite often space is wasted on a page because the margins are too wide – your left and right margin
should be approximately 2cm, the top margin 2-2.5 and the bottom margin approximately 1.5-2cm.

1.5 - Footers

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Allow at least 1cm from the bottom of the page for your footer as anything lower may be missed off
during printing. It is very worthwhile making use of footers which should state your name, ‘Page 1 of ...’.
This makes it much easier for the person printing off your CV as pages could become lost or muddled up
and having a page numbering system would allow for easy collation of your document.

1.6 - Formatting

To ensure your CV is absolutely perfect, check the formatting of it when complete as it should be
consistent throughout the document. There is no any point in writing a great CV to be let down by poor
presentation, so be sure to take your time before printing it off to check for inconsistencies such as
change of font or size, even spacing, bullet points which line up together. It is best to fully justify your
CV which gives the document a finished and professional look.

1.7 - Bullet points

To make your CV more readable, your CV should have bullet points within each role to highlight key
achievements or responsibilities. This breaks up the text and helps the recruiter to be able to skim-read
your CV and quickly determine your key achievements which is of great help when they have many CVs
to look through. They can include arrows, dots, or squares but stick to one type throughout your CV.
Also note that as they are not grammatical sentences, they do not require a full-stop after each one.

1.8 - Photos

Whilst in other countries the use of photos in CVs is widely acceptable, it is definitely not expected or
recommended in some countries like the UK. The only exception to this would be when applying for a
role which requires it because the job is based on how you look e.g. a model or actor.

The reason for its non-use is because of anti-discriminatory laws – the potential employer only needs to
base their opinion on your professional background and therefore having a photo which could influence
them either way would potentially deter them from this so keeping your CV neutral gives everyone the
same fair chance. Although this point goes against the main issue of making your CV stand out, even if
you do look like Angelina Joseph (beautiful), it will not help you to flout this in the initial stage, and
particularly if the decision-making person is female!

1.9 - Exceptions to CV length

As already stated, in the main it is best to try to keep your CV to two pages, three as a maximum and
you should be discriminatory as to what to take out of it if you go over this. If you have worked in a lot
of interim/temporary roles, it may be best to structure your CV to a functional or combined one to make
it more skills-focused rather than a chronological CV.

The exception to this would be for a number of professions where it is expected that your CV would be
much longer than this e.g. academic and scientific roles, for which you have to write in detail about your
research and publications, and for medical CVs.

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1.10 - Sending by post

Whilst it is widely acceptable for most CVs to be sent by email, there are still some who may request
that your CV be posted instead. You should use good quality, cream, white or off-white paper, A4 size,
not overly thick but more substantial than standard photocopy paper (the quality that most letterhead
paper is printed on). If possible, try not fold your CV, it should be kept flat and therefore you would
require an A4 size (C4 for envelopes) to send it. However, do remember it will be classed as a large letter
by the Royal Mail so the postage will be more costly and it will not be delivered with a regular first class
stamp on it. If you do have many CVs to send out and you are trying to keep down your costs, it is also
acceptable if you need to fold your CV once and send it in a smaller C5 size envelope but certainly no
smaller than that as your CV can start to look untidy if it has too many folds. If possible, use a matching
envelope to complete the finished look.

1.11 - Printing

You should print off your CV using a good quality laser printer which will always look more professional
than a photocopied version. Do avoid double-sided printing as this does not look good on a CV – use a
sheet of paper for each page. Once printed off, you should attach the pages by a simple staple in the
top left-hand corner which is preferable to using a paperclip whereby the pages can separate and
become lost.

The print colour should always be black which is the most easy-to-read and best for photocopying and
scanning.

2. The content of your CV

2.1 - How much detail should you give?

Most employers are only really interested in the last 5-10 years of your work history so the details of the
what you did in your more recent employment are much more significant than what you did 20 years
ago – this will also help in keeping down the length of your CV. For example, it is not required to list all
your CSEE subjects and grades if they are more than two or three years ago, you could summarize this
by writing ‘8 CSEEs including English and Maths’. If you have a degree, it is not required for you to list
your A level grades unless they were particularly outstanding.

Ask yourself the relevancy of revealing certain information and whether stating particular facts will
have any influence on the recruiter taking your application any further. Equally, neither should you
give anything away that does not really do you any justice such as mentioning that you got a 2:2 GPA in
your BA rather than merely stating you have a BA in Marketing.

There is some information you most certainly should not state and yet it is still very commonly seen on
CVs. Firstly, it is not required to state your reasons for leaving against each job, particularly as some of
your reasons may be quite personal and fundamentally, just isn’t necessary. One of the main reasons for
people leaving their job is because of poor management or just having a personality clash with their

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manager. However, it will not help to mention that you left due to being ‘unable to see eye-to-eye’ with
your superior or that you thought your department lacked structure and clear direction.

Stating such reasons would only create a negative picture of previous employers and this is strongly
advised against even if true as it would make the prospective employer doubt you on two counts;
firstly, that you could be a difficult person to manage as you have clashed with previous managers and
secondly; that you could say something negative about them when you leave. Or worse still, would be
to admit that you were dismissed from your last job. Of course, if this were the case, it may need to be
discussed in the interview depending on the reference you have agreed with the employer (see section
on References).

Most often, your reason for leaving previous employment is brought up in the interview so should only
be addressed then, but even so, you would need to apply a positive spin on it. It is also unnecessary to
state your salary details as this can be quite sensitive and mentioning your salary in advance can
potentially serve to weaken your position when it comes to negotiating the salary package you wish to
attain. If an employer has asked you for it, that would be the only time you give such information but
even then, you could be slightly vague as to your yearly take-home figure which is based on the whole
package. This may be dependent on bonuses, profit share etc. or other additional benefits you currently
get which may have a monetary worth.

2.2 - The use of descriptive language

Your letter/CV should be written using action verbs and positive adjectives. The action verbs are used to
describe your achievements and the positive adjectives give a more descriptive account of your qualities
e.g. adaptable, enthusiastic, innovative. It makes for more interesting reading if you are able to vary
your wording throughout the letter/CV and use a wide vocabulary rather than repeating the same words
throughout.

Examples:

• "Part of team responsible for the success of a business case on the setup of a new unit" does not
sound as good as "Drafted business case for a new unit".

• "Interested in the development of my team" does not sound as good as "Helped develop my
team by setting up personal development plans and an appraisal process".

2.3 - Quoting specific details

You should attempt to be as descriptive and accurate as possible when quoting your achievements and
responsibilities to create a strong impact, e.g. quantify how many employees you supervised, the
number of clients you handled, how much money you saved the company, and most importantly, by
what percentage you increased sales or profits. Using terminology such as ‘significant increase in
profits’ does not mean anything in itself as it is without context so does need to be backed up with an
actual achievement which explains the outcome and benefits to the organization.

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Numbers are best quoted as figures rather than being written in full so that they are easy to read.
Percentages should be shown using the ’%’sign.

Wherever possible, try to quantify your claims into numbers or percentages which actually helps to
bring the statement to life e.g. ‘winning Employee of the Year Award’ sounds good but out of how
many? If you state ‘winning Employee of the Year Award out of 100 employees’, that is starting to sound
impressive! Using facts like this is a great way to sell yourself without coming across as boastful as you
are merely stating the facts that in itself, will do the job of selling you.
2.4 - Writing in third person

Your CV will look more professional if written in the third person rather than stating “I possess, I
achieved, I negotiated, etc”. Some people don’t like writing their CV this way as it can seem as if it isn’t
written by them but all professional CV writers would recommend this approach:

Example:

A results-focused, quality driven professional Senior Buyer and Merchandise Planner with extensive
experience in buying, merchandise planning with excellent forecasting and analysis skills. Advanced
presentation skills at CEO and board level with relationship-building abilities with a track record of
improving sales performance to ensure profit turnarounds. High level interpersonal and negotiation
skills.

2.5 - Common spelling and grammatical errors

It is vitally important to get this right and yet people do make some very costly errors, even those in
senior roles. Even though Word has the facility to pick up spelling and grammatical errors, it won’t pick
up linguistic errors so you need to make sure you read and re-read your CV again to ensure it makes
sense and that there are not any grammatical errors or sentences which do not read properly. English
grammar can be quite complex so if you are unsure, try to get some help from someone whom you
know has a good command of the English language and can help you in perfecting your CV/letter.

Some common mistakes for words which sound the same but have different meanings are:

• your/you’re

• its/it’s

• they’re/their/there

• effect/affect

• principal/principle

• accept/except

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 • practice/practise

• advise/advice

• complementary/complimentary

If you are unsure which version to use, check each definition in the dictionary. The misuse of
apostrophes can totally change the meaning of a sentence but there are three uses which should be
understood; firstly, to replace a vowel; secondly, to demonstrate ownership or possession; and thirdly to
show plural forms. This can be quite a lengthy subject so it may be worthwhile reading on this subject
through the internet or books on basic grammar.

3. Problem areas in CV writing

3.1 - Embellishing the truth

Understandably, it may be tempting to adapt your CV which either adds information which is untrue or
embellishes job roles in order to sell yourself to get to the interview stage, but even more than being
immoral, you are making false claims about your experience which can backfire when in a job which
really is out of your league (quality or ability). It is far better to mention the achievements you have
gained so far and that your objective is to climb the career ladder and that you are now keen to take on
a more challenging role.

Finally, you should NEVER be tempted to lie about your qualifications and state a higher grade on the
basis that it is unlikely to be checked, as again, you could be in for a nasty surprise if an employer does
contact your university. Therefore, you would need to ask the question ‘Is it worth the risk?’

3.2 - Dealing with gaps in your CV

Other difficulties that arise with CV writing is how to address gaps in your CV. Some gaps are quite
acceptable e.g. maternity/paternity leave, caring for a relative, travel (although it is useful to mention
skills acquired through travelling such as cultural experience and any temporary work undertaken) and
voluntary work.

However, there are more difficult areas to address which may include long periods of ill-health, unable
to find work or imprisonment. One way to get round this is to avoid months/year of employment and
simply write only the years which allows for short periods of time without work to be less noticeable.
Again, at the interview stage, if it is questioned, you would need to tell the truth but make as positive as
possible e.g. if you were out of work for six months and actively job-hunting besides attending evening
classes to gain further additional skills, you should focus on those extra skills you acquired in that time
to demonstrate how you used your time productively to further enhance your employability.

As long-term sickness and imprisonment are more delicate subjects and give cause for concern to an
employer, it is not necessary to make a point of this on your CV. There is always the chance that the gap

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may not be noticed (particularly if it was a long time ago) but if it is, there is nothing much more you can
do except deal with it in an interview situation if it arises.

3.4 - Dealing with minimal work experience

This can apply to newly qualified graduates or school leavers who feel their direct lack of work
experience makes it difficult to compete with others.

As you need to bring attention to your skills, one way of addressing this is to have a section entitled
Core Strengths following your personal profile which highlights key strengths you feel you can offer.
Do think broadly about all the skills you might have acquired through voluntary work, part-time jobs
or clubs and societies and focus on drawing out any key achievements or responsibilities e.g. if you
worked part-time in a shop whilst at university you could mention whether you achieved your sales
targets, were involved in training other employees, how you improved your communication skills by
dealing with difficult customers. Ultimately, it is important to focus on what you have got and make the
most of your experience even if it is not directly related to your career.

Finally, a one-page CV is perfectly adequate for someone who has just finished studying.

3.5 - Concerns about age discrimination

Of course, some recruiters would welcome a slightly older applicant because of the wealth of
experience, maturity and expertise you could bring to a role and with the working age limit constantly
increasing, employers are realizing that even for people in their fifties, they are likely to have a
considerable length of working time ahead of them. However, as stated earlier, why give away
information that may not potentially support your application? For example, if you have over twenty
years’ industry experience, mentioning the year you took your ‘O’ levels does not in any way enhance
your CV as it has no bearing on how well you could do the job presently. It is best to keep it relevant to
any professional qualifications achieved in the last 10-15 years.

Another way to obscure your age is to only mention dates of employment up to approximately 15
years ago and then list previous job titles along with employers’ names and locations without stating
dates. If what you have written in your recent job roles has impressed them, this should take the
attention away from what you have done over 15 years ago.

And finally, do not give away anything in your CV that indicates you are older such as stating in your
profile that you are only looking for a part-time job as you currently also look after your grandchild
(even if you are a very young grandparent!) or mentioning in the Interests section that you are a
regular traveller with Saga (over 50’s) holidays.

3.6 - Falling short of the stated criteria

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Admittedly, it can feel frustrating when you are convinced that you do have the skills to do the job
advertised but if the recruiter is asking for someone with a particular industry qualification (such as CPA
in Accountancy) that you do not have, it would be too much of a long-shot to send your CV in the hope
that they choose to interview you based on your enthusiasm and willingness to study!

A good Job Specification will usually have an ‘Essential’ and ‘Desirable’ criteria so this should help in
ascertaining what is the bare minimum required for the role and you would then need to decide
whether you could meet their needs so that it is not a waste of time for everyone. However, do also
consider that a Job Specification is sometimes an employer’s wish list so they may be trying to raise the
level of applicants by having such strict criteria but that they would, in fact, be willing to compromise for
the right person.

An example of this may be where you do not quite meet the specified number of years’ experience
required by one or two years or do not have a short qualification that could be easily achieved through
an evening class. If this is the case, you would want to compensate for this by mentioning additional
skills and experience that you could bring to the role over and above what they have requested so that
you can offer them something equally valuable, e.g. if the role has advertised that it is a growing team
with scope to become involved in supervising others and you have already managed a small team, this
benefit could outweigh the experience/qualification that you do not have.

Overall, this is an area which you have to gauge accordingly but of course, always remaining reasonable
as to whether you have a realistic chance of being interviewed and more importantly, whether you
could really do the job.
3.7 - Dealing with redundancy

Nowadays, there is absolutely no stigma associated with being made redundant as many companies
have been forced to make redundancies due to falling profits, increased competition, rising business
costs, etc. Even those in high-level senior posts are witness to having to go through the process so once
you have recovered from the shock/upset (or delight in a redundancy package!) you need to update
your CV accordingly with a sentence or brief description explaining that you were made redundant from
your role.

4. Structural layout of the CV

4.1 - Personal Details

Name

It is crucial that a recruiter can easily find out how to get in touch with you and this should be laid out
very clearly at the top of your CV. Your name should only include first and last name (middle names not
necessary) and should be the name you wished to be called. Sometimes, people find it easier to change
their name if, for example, it is difficult to pronounce or spell - this is acceptable as long as you inform
the prospective employer of your official name for the legal employment contracts that would follow
upon acceptance of a job.

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Address

This is followed by your address on the next line which should be written in full so that the recruiter can
see where you live. Although some people will travel a long distance to reach their workplace, it should
be a reasonable distance unless you are obviously stating that you would relocate for the role. Even the
most willing may get despondent for a 2-hour one-way journey on a minimum wage and recruiters know
that those who say they will travel any distance are unlikely to be long-term employees if they believe
they live too far away.

Phone

The next line should state your telephone details with international dialing codes if you are based in
another country (mobile and landline if you wish to use both but note that if there is a possibility of
someone else picking up your landline phone in a less than professional manner, you may want to steer
clear of this option!) Equally, it is not advisable to use a work phone number unless your current
employer is aware that you are looking for work and makes allowances for this (in the case of
redundancies whereby the company actively help and encourage you to find other employment). If this
is the case, this should be made clear to the recruiter as you do not want to start off on the wrong
footing and appear to be less than professional by using your working hours to find another job.

Email

Most people will have an email address, but in case you do not have one, now is the time to set it up as
employers will expect those job-hunting to be reachable this way. Do note that some email addresses
are best kept for personal use and should never be sent to a prospective employer - the message this
gives is that you are unprofessional and less likely to be taken seriously which is not a good start at such
an early stage in the recruitment process! It would be in your interest to create a suitable email account
purely for job-hunting purposes. As with giving out your work telephone number, you should consider
carefully before giving out your work email address as to whether it is appropriate.

Unnecessary Information

Date of Birth

Whilst it used to be commonplace to expect to see individuals' date of birth, at times it is not required.
The purpose of removing the date of birth is to prohibit employers unreasonably discriminating against
employees on grounds of age. Although it is not too difficult to work out if dates are given against the
Education and Qualifications section. There is also an added security risk of identify fraud in revealing
such confidential information alongside other personal details and it is too easy for such information to
be misused, particularly in the current technological age whereby thousands of CVs are uploaded daily
on to job websites.

Marital Status/Children/Nationality

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As with the above, this information is unnecessary and is absolutely not required when applying for jobs
unless required. Do you really want a potential employer to know that you have two children if it may
raise their concerns that you are less likely to be prepared to work long hours or be "one of the team"
and become a regular fixture on the Friday night drinking circuit?! Even if you think it best to write
"single" against marital status because you feel it could benefit you based on the culture of the
organization, always omit this information as again, it gives way to potential discrimination and is a
further risk for identify fraud.

4.2 - Professional Profile

Starting your CV with a punchy, descriptive synopsis of yourself is a good way to catch the attention of a
recruiter.

Once you have established what to write in this section, it can be useful material in preparation for the
common opening question during interviews, “Tell me about yourself”, which is actually the spoken
version of your professional profile (it is not about what you enjoy getting up to at the weekend!) This
process allows you to focus on career highlights, specific achievements and experience that you have
acquired throughout your career.

As with your cover letter, your professional profile should be tailored to the particular role you are
applying for so that you are highlighting relevant key skills and strengths. The difference between your
profile and cover letter is that your profile should only be one paragraph, approximately 5-8 lines in total
so it needs to be concise and to the point. It does not require bullet points but rather a series of
statements joined together as a block of prose.

Your professional profile is best written in third person without pronouns (as if someone else is talking
about you) which reads much better and comes across as less boastful (see CV examples). It may take
some time to get it just right and is often best left to write once you have completed the rest of your CV.
The reason for this is because you will have had to give a lot of thought to the skills and experience you
have acquired throughout your career so by the time you are summarizing yourself in your profile, you
should have a clear picture of what your main strengths are that you want to convey.

To help the recruiter to ascertain the type of role you are now looking for, you can add an extra
sentence at the end of your profile which explains your current motivations and future job aspirations
(if you have no a current objective section on your CV). This would be particularly useful if you wish to
have a career change and want to make very clear that your objective now is to work in a different
industry.

Another option could be to create a heading above your personal profile stating your job title or
starting with "Seeking………" and a few key words about your industry experience/or quotes that have
been said about you. It is purely another way to make your CV stand out and personal choice about
whether this style suits you.

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As with any major piece of writing, it is best to write a first draft and make it as long as you need to as
you can then edit and re-edit to shorten it and fine-tune the detail. If you feel you do not have a natural
flair for writing, get some help with the composition from someone who has a good command of the
English language or simply some feedback on how it reads. There is nothing wrong in getting advice
about your CV to give yourself the best possible chance of securing an interview as long as you are
comfortable with what is written and you can talk freely about it as it will be you in the interview seat
and not your co-writer!

Below are some ideas of phrases you might want to incorporate into your profile:

• Decisive and determined; uses initiative to develop effective solutions to problems

• Entrepreneurial and driven with a keen business mind

• Meticulous organizational and planning skills

• Identifies and develops opportunities; innovates and makes things happen

• Exceptional interpersonal skills; naturally builds productive internal and external relationships

• Talented and skillful negotiator with an exceptional track record in developing new business

• Self-starter; proactive in seeking new openings and opportunities

• Results-orientated; applies a creative and innovative approach to problem-solving

• Attentive to detail; applies a methodical approach to achieving tasks and objectives

• A strategic thinker; able to inspire and influence others

• Excellent time-management skills; clearly priorities and multi-tasks

• Conscientious and diligent with a high level of integrity

• Flexible and adaptable team player; pro-active member of teams

• Proven track record in developing and managing successful teams

• Thrives in pressurized environments and delivers under pressure to schedule

• Critical thinker with strong analytical skills

• Financially astute with strong understanding of accounting systems

• Empathic listener; adopts a caring and compassionate approach

• Consistently strives for quality; reliable and dependable

• Leads by example; motivates and encourages others to achieve success

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 • Effective communicator and creative networking skills; able to develop mutually beneficial
partnerships

• Emotionally mature and understanding; calming and positive temperament

• Tenacious and persistent; able to meet and exceed demanding sales targets

Example of a weak Personal Profile:

I am a recent Masters graduate with excellent finance skills and am very good at making important
decisions as I have experience of trading to supplement my degree. I also feel I am a skilled
communicator and effective organizer and work well in a team as well as working on my own initiative. I
am punctual and reliable and am always willing to support my team members. I speak French, German
and Spanish to a high level. I am now looking for a challenging role with a reputable bank to utilise my
skills and progress my career.

Example of a good Personal Profile:

Ambitious finance professional and recent graduate, with an MSc Finance and Investment (Distinction)
from Southampton University, and a BSc Economics from the University of Milan (scholarship). A self-
starter with entrepreneurial determination; achieved financial success through self-learning on the
trading market while studying. Quick and keen to learn, works well on own initiative and thrives in
pressurized environments. International finance experience and strong client-facing skills. Tri-lingual with
cross-cultural expertise. Now seeking a front-office role in a top-tier investment bank.

4.3 - Areas of Expertise/Key Skills/Core Strengths

While this is the most important aspect of a functional and combined CV, it does not need to be as
detailed for a chronological CV as the key skills should be identifiable in the achievements relating to
each role.

The most effective way of bringing immediate attention to your skills for a chronological CV is to create
a bullet-point list of short statements or words which summarize your experience and expertise. Exactly
how you lay it out comes down to personal choice and it can take up extra valuable space, so it would
depend on how much space you have available as to whether you choose to include it as you may feel
there is sufficient information in the Personal Profile.

However, for the purposes of the functional CV, you would need to create a Key Skills section that is
tailored to the job role which would demonstrate how you meet their criteria. Ideally, you should
mention approximately 4-6 skills to make it comprehensive and fill most, if not all, of the page. The
following are some commonly used subject headings:

• Administration • IT skills • Project

Management
• Account Management • Languages

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 • Analysis • Leadership • Public Relations

• Communication skills • Management • Recruitment

• Consulting/Counselling • Marketing • Research

• Customer Service • Negotiation skills • Sales

• Designing • Organisation • Secretarial

• Editing • Planning • Strategy &

Development
• Event Management • Problem-solving
skills • Training
• Financial planning
• Procurement • Technical skills

• Writing

For example, if you were applying for a job in retail, some of the key skills would likely include:

• Customer Service

• Sales

• Communication skills

• Supervisory/management experience

• Artistic flair (if applying for fashion retail)

It would be best to use bullet points to highlight key achievements under each skill so that each point
stands out. For example, under the subject heading of "Sales", it might look like this:

• Consistently met and exceeded monthly sales figures by an average of 30% in current role
achieving personal and team bonuses

• Pro-actively contributed to merchandising ideas at team sale meetings and praised for
innovation and using initiative

• Highest achiever in team for in-house training course "Retail Selling Principles" whilst working at
Passion for Fashion

• Organized sponsorship for charity event whilst at Dress Me which raised brand profile and led to
a sharp increase in sales over the next few months

4.4 - Career History

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This is the most important section of your CV and should be listed in reverse chronological order (most
recent job first). If the title does not suit because you are a graduate or have minimal work history, you
could head this up as Work Experience which may be more appropriate but it should still include the
responsibilities, skills and achievements you have achieved through temporary/part-time roles.

Firstly, it should be very clear as to the company name including location (but not full address), your job
title, employment dates and a short description of the organization (if you feel it helps to explain the
type/scale of the company).

Your job title and dates of employment need to be accurate as this can easily be checked up on. Even if
your job title does not reflect the tasks you were undertaking in your role, you cannot make up a more
appropriate job title for yourself but what you can do, is emphasize those more challenging tasks you
were responsible for stating clear achievements that you can then expand upon in the interview.

In the main, an employer will be concentrating on your last couple of roles, so you should elaborate in
some depth on your responsibilities and achievements and then summarize more on previous roles. Try
to draw out the skills and qualities that are listed in the job specification and tailor your CV to ensure
that you can demonstrate how you meet their criteria, bearing in mind the level of importance of a
particular skill. For example, if the advertised role was an Events Co-ordinator, they will most certainly
request excellent organizational skills as one of the main key requirements. Therefore, you need to
emphasize your successes in the events you have organized, explaining what they were, the size of the
event, etc.

This is the main reason as to why you should never send out the same standard CV to every role you
apply for as each may have a different emphasis and therefore, you need to think about selling your
experience as closely as possible to the job being advertised.

Do also include relevant voluntary work/short term roles that may further enhance your CV, particularly
if you have gaps which you can fill in e.g. by undertaking voluntary, part-time office work for a charity
after being made redundant demonstrates that you are being productive and keeping your skills
updated while potentially developing them further in other areas.

4.5 - Achievements

Many people have not given sufficient thought to their achievements or don’t feel comfortable in boldly
stating them in black-and-white for fear of appearing too boastful. Ultimately, they are failing to sell
their successes in the best possible way. While of course, listing responsibilities is important to
understand the day-to-day tasks that someone does, it is the results that they can fundamentally
produce that is of greater interest to the recruiter. In their mind, they are asking the question, "How will
you be able to benefit my business?" The recruiter is looking for real, tangible evidence that can be
quantified in terms of the value you have brought to previous employers.

The simplest way to integrate this in the career history is to bullet-point your achievements so that they
clearly stand out. In order to save space and to create a great a strong, visual impact, it can look

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effective to write your responsibilities as a block of text using a semi-colon between each point and only
use bullet points to list your achievements.

However, the above may not work well if you do not have many key achievements to list and you would
prefer to highlight your responsibilities using bullet points and a short "Achievement" section detailing
significant results that you have accomplished across your career. Some roles will be easier to write
using the former approach and should most definitely be applied for any intermediate/senior level role
but with some creative writing, there is no any reason why all CVs cannot be written this way.

Example 1:

Responsibility
Provided management and support to sales team to achieve team targets
Achievement
Led team of six to meet and exceed sales targets with 25% increase in sales turnover in the first year

Example 2:

Responsibility
Played a key role in organizing the office filing system
Achievement
Devised and implemented a streamlined filing system for the office; praised by colleagues and manager
for reducing hours of wasted manpower

How to write an Achievement

You should aim to use a variety of action verbs to make your CV sound interesting. Do try to be a little
adventurous in attempting to use a new word that you might not have used before so that you avoid
repetition of the same words and keep the reader's interest.

Do ensure that you keep it succinct; a bullet point does not warrant a paragraph of prose - it should
simply summarize your achievement by stating the contribution you made by offering substantiating
evidence. It is perfectly acceptable to mention joint achievements that you have accomplished through
working with others, e.g.

• Played a pivotal role in the team towards developing and implementing new design network

You should think about the qualities listed in the job specification and the types of achievements that
would appeal to that employer e.g. a banking environment will be interested in hearing about how you
will have increased turnover, reduced wastage while a teaching environment would be more
interested in how you improved pass rates, organized end-of-year events.

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The following is an example of how a specific job role could be expressed which includes both career
history and achievements:

RICHARDS GROUP PLC 2007 - 2011

Finance Officer

Richards own a hotel group, a vast property portfolio and major leisure complexes with annual revenues
of £35m.

Meticulously prepared P&L for overall business, presenting financials to company director. Day-to-day
responsibilities included: full accountability for preparing management accounts for multiple sites,
accounts payable, budgeting and payroll, identification and resolution of errors on daily reconciliations,
including income, expenses and insurance, processing VAT returns, accruals, prepayments and
sales/purchase orders.

Key Achievements

• Reduced expenditure by £3,000 per month through introducing property management strategy
firm; personally managed relationships with insurance brokers, suppliers and all major
stakeholders of company

• Consolidated vendor services across leisure complexes; led negotiations with all contractors and
agreed one fixed price contract; reduced 60 invoices per month across multiple vendors to one
invoice per month for 20 vendors, freeing up time across the team and reducing procurement
costs by 17%

• Streamlined accounts payable and receivable; persuaded management of the benefits of direct
debits/ standing orders; created timely payments and property management bills reduced by
12%

• Minimised overheads by restructuring staff hours without any impact to business operational
objectives; achieved by utilising time management skills to monitor work chain processes,
gather and analyse data and identified peak / low trading hours of business; reduced labour
costs by 15%

• Increased regular quarterly audit controls nationally, exposing fraudulent conduct and reducing
risk

• Awarded top employee prize for innovation and commitment and invited to speak at annual
corporate conference

• Completed the CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting within first six months in post

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4.6 - Education

The positioning of this section should be based upon whether you are a graduate and/or have little work
experience in which case this section should be very prominent at the top of the page. If that is not the
case, then it should be listed after your career history, bearing in mind that a recruiter would be more
interested in understanding the roles you have carried out before being able to identify your degree
subject and grade.

For this section of your CV, you should be discriminatory about what to include and any irrelevant
information should be omitted. Realistically, what use is it to an employer to know the name and
address of your secondary school and what your "O" level grades were 20 years ago?! As space is a
premium, you should aim to summarize your qualifications and all the necessary detail should only take
up a few lines. For example, rather than listing individual CSEE subjects and grades, it could be written as
"10 CSEs including Maths and English."

Your education details should be listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent first
stating the full accurate name of the qualification, university institutions and dates (you don’t need to
mention the date if the qualification was a considerable time ago). Grades are usually not important
unless they are a major selling point and you are using your CV to apply for a further course or
graduate training programme. If you have a degree, it is not necessary to list all your "A" level results
unless they were outstanding and you are aiming to impress with your academic achievements (see
earlier information about mentioning degree qualifications).

It is not necessary to list names of all the schools, colleges you attended for further courses unless it is a
renowned institution as this superfluous information to an employer. The exception would be for a
recent school/college leaver but certainly do not go as far as to list your primary school!

A key point with CV writing is to avoid volunteering negative information that will not "sell" you to a
prospective employer; for example, listing courses/qualifications that you failed to complete or pass
unless it leaves a big gap in your CV such as dropping out of a university course. This would only really be
an issue if you have little work experience following this (in which case you would want to produce a
strong functional CV outlining your strengths and qualities). However, if this occurred over ten years
ago, you could probably get away with not mentioning it at all and keeping a strong focus on your career
history and achievements.

4.7 - Professional Training/Further Skills

Most employers will acknowledge the importance of on-going professional development while in a role
as it adds to the individual’s skill set and any formal additional training is of great benefit if you are
planning a career move where such skills would be a distinct advantage so they should be clearly listed
in this section.

If you have attended a number of one-day courses, it may be too many to list so keep the focus on those
that have resulted in a gaining a qualification or you feel are more interesting to a potential employer

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e.g. if you are applying for a Project Manager role and you have qualifications in the subject besides
other relevant courses attended, then you should simply list them as follows:

• Prince2 Foundation and Practitioner

• APMP Certificate

• Finance for Non-Financial Managers

• Managing Teams

4.8 - Other Details

This section is to allow you to add any further information which may be of interest to the employer. Its
purpose is to generally include information that does not belong anywhere else but there is no a hard-
and-fast rule for what you should write. You should consider the relevancy of the skill to the job you are
applying for e.g. an employer who requires someone who is bi-lingual would certainly be interested in
seeing any qualifications/courses you have attended in the relevant language and this should be
apparent in the Further Skills/Training section but would be sufficient in this category if a language skill
is not a pre-requisite for the role.

Typical examples include:-

Languages - good conversational French, basic Spanish
IT skills - Advanced Excel, Word, PowerPoint
Driving Licence - full, clean
Qualified First Aider

Languages - These can be an important skill to an employer, especially if the employer has stated that
knowledge of a particular language would be useful. You should express your competency as basic,
intermediate/conversational or fluent/native speaker and whether you can read, write or speak the
language. Do be honest with your level as they could test you in your interview, particularly if it is
required in the role!

Computing skills - If you are mentioning your ability of a particular package, then you should at least do
yourself justice by ensuring that you get the names, spacing and capitalization correct for IT packages
e.g. PowerPoint, QuarkXpress. It can be an easy mistake to misspell such names but it can fail to
demonstrate attention to detail, so check if unsure. If you are an IT specialist, then you should most
certainly know how to accurately write the names of packages but you also may want to consider
breaking down your knowledge and experience into specialisms. If this were the case, your IT skills
should really be listed under the Further Skills section because of its relevancy to the job role.

Driving - Unless your job involves the need to drive, it"s probably not worth mentioning but of course, if
you are applying to be a travelling sales person, this would be essential information for the employer. If
you have a European licence or are qualified to drive large vehicles such as a HGV, you may want to list
this under Further Skills if it is more appropriate for the job role.

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Professional Memberships - If you are a member of a professional institution, you should state this
along with your current status, e.g. Associate Member, Chartered Fellow, or CPA.

4.9 - Interests/Hobbies

It remains debatable as to whether this section is absolutely necessary on a CV. Fundamentally, it comes
down to personal choice and also whether you are either trying to save space or fill up a second page.

It will not make a difference generally as to whether you clinch the job or not but may have an
advantage in making your CV stand out just a little bit more than others by mentioning a couple of
interesting hobbies. It allows you to create a slightly more personal touch and says something about you
as an individual and if the recruiter also has a similar hobby or finds your hobby intriguing, this may
initiate a conversation around it at the interview stage which could help in building rapport.

However, it is important to be honest about your interests and hobbies and if you really do not have
time to pursue other activities besides work or regard "socializing/eating-out/shopping" as your
hobbies, then do leave out this section as most people enjoy these activities and there is nothing
particularly interesting about them. As with any details you give on your CV, be prepared to answer
questions about them so do not attempt to create a made-up hobby because you think it will make you
appear a more interesting person, e.g. if the last time you were in a school play was a few years ago and
you mention "Amateur Dramatics" as your hobby, do you really want to get caught out by being asked
what role you have played in a recent production?!

To make for more interesting reading, try to be specific about your hobby. For example, rather than just
mentioning "reading" you could state "reading political autobiographies" or "travel" being a very
popular hobby would be more interesting if you state where you like to travel e.g. "exploring European
cities."

Conversely, you may have a unique hobby but it may not do you any favours to mention it e.g.
"participating in bull-fighting" which some people may find offensive. It will certainly make you
memorable and may provoke a few curious questions but doubtfully, will achieve the desired effect of
winning over your prospective employer! Equally, this section is not the place to introduce humour and
attempt to be funny by stating that your hobby is "sleeping" or that you were the "Entertainment
Officer of the University Drinking Society!"

Any outside interests or personal achievements which enhance your transferable skill set can certainly
add value e.g. team sports (particularly captaincy which demonstrates leadership skills), helping out with
your community's annual street party, forming an after-school football team for local youngsters, raising
money for charity by running marathons. For recent school leavers and graduates, your interests and
hobbies are of more importance and generally you can expect to be asked a question about them at
interview stage, so do bear in mind that it could be beneficial to get involved in worthwhile activities to
create an interesting discussion point. Not only does it help to build the picture of a well-rounded
individual but it also demonstrates that you have good time-management skills to be able to fit in
some regular activities outside of work/study.

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4.10 - References

Most employers perfectly accept "References available on request" written at the end of your CV unless
you are applying for a role in a profession where it is expected to see referees listed e.g. within the
medical profession. In the main, most recruiters would only take up references once someone has been
offered the job so by that stage, it is your responsibility to have contacted your referees to ensure they
would be available by phone/email to respond to the new employer.

Although you may not need to include references on your CV, if you are looking for temporary roles with
recruitment agencies, many would need references from you before they send you out on any
assignment, albeit if only a one-day contract, as the company would have expected the agency to have
checked out a candidate before placing them in employment - after all, that is what they get paid for! If
this is the case, you might want to be a little discriminatory as to which agencies may serve you best,
otherwise you might find that your referees may not be too happy to be repeatedly requested to give
the same information about you.

References for difficult circumstances

As mentioned previously, there may have been an incident in your career which meant that you did not
leave the company in the ideal way. If this is the case, it is worth noting that some employers can create
a formal agreement with you which merely states the period of time you have worked for them but
does not declare that you were dismissed. Equally, if you have resigned from a company pending a
grievance against you, unless the above arrangement is in place, the company have a right to tell a
future employer this information. In summary, if you did leave an employer under difficult
circumstances and you need to use them as a reference, you do need to be aware of information that
your previous employer has a right to declare so it would be best to check with HR as to what will be
agreed in a reference.

5. Ten top tips to write a good CV

5.1 - Keep it concise

Keep your CV to the recommended two pages. Bear in mind that employers spend, on average, just 20-
30 seconds looking at any one CV so do not lose their interest with irrelevant detail. It is also
unnecessary to photocopy all of your certificates together with your CV. If they are interested in taking
your application further, they can ask for this later.

5.2 - Tailor it

Although more time-consuming initially, the importance of tailoring your CV is critical. Research the
company and use the job specification to work out exactly what skills you should point out to them. The
effort will be paid off if done well and also helps in your preparation for an interview as you will have
clarified the skills and strengths that are important to them.

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5.3 - Include a personal statement

It is very important to provide a short summary of yourself using appropriate words which effectively
‘sell’ you to the company. Being modest on a CV will not win you interviews or make a powerful first
impression. The recruiter needs to be able to see what you can offer at a glance to further interest them
to read more about you.

5.4 - Do not show obvious gaps

If you do have a very scattered job history, consider the functional CV which aims to hide gaps as you do
not want to draw negative attention to your CV. Focus instead on the skills and experience you have,
listing them under appropriate subject headings.

5.5 - Keep it current

You should keep your CV up-to-date whether or not you are actively job-hunting. That way, you can
remember and keep note of anything significant that occurs in your career that could be very valuable
later on.

5.6 - Spelling, grammar and typing mistakes

Mistakes on CVs can undo all your other good work in presentation skills, layout and even the content.
Ensuring attention to detail on such an important document cannot be underestimated so employ all
the tools you can to ensure this is not the case. Use Spellchecker, read through it a few times and then
get someone else to read it before sending it off.

5.7 - Tell the truth

Blatant lies on your CV can result in job offers being retracted when it comes to employers checking
your background and references or you may be asked to leave a job you have just started. You also may
get caught out at the interview stage when you suddenly cannot answer questions on what you claim to
know which would not be a pleasant situation to find yourself in!

5.8 - Quantify your achievements

Always try to give the facts and figures around claims you have made to give a detailed summary of your
talents. By stating you made a ‘significant increase in sales to the department’ is not nearly as
impressive as ‘boosted the sales turnover for the year by 30%’. And remember to use a variety of
positive action verbs to start each achievement.

5.9 - Good presentation and layout

Make your CV stand out by creating a top-notch professional-looking document. Take some time to
ensure you get this right as excellent first impressions are paramount. Ensure it is easy on the eye by
using the correct font including size with sufficient white space to break up the text. Use bullet points to
enhance its readability.

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5.10 - Maximise viewing of your CV on the internet

If you have uploaded your CV to a job site so recruiters can find you, keywords are very important. Job
titles and job buzzwords will help a search engine pick out your CV. If you are unsure, have a search
online and see which words are commonly mentioned when you type in your job title.

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