Snap shot – How to write a good CV
You wouldn’t attend an important job interview wearing a bin bag so why do the shooting-yourself-in-the-foot-equivalent on your CV?
Considering it’s such an essential marketing tool that is the first step in getting your foot in the door of a potential employer, we’re constantly amazed (or should that be aghast) at how many people get it wrong. While we love reading CVs, we have our pet hates. Here are just a few…
What to avoid
- Photos especially those with a ‘come-hither’ look
- Omitting your current place of work
- Multi-coloured fonts, backgrounds and inconsistent formatting
- 5 page CVs = cross eyes and headaches for the recipient
- Incomplete dates – i.e. ‘2015 – 2016’ could be two months or two years service!
- Long, wordy paragraphs
- Lack of relevant information – tell us what you do!
- CVs written in the 3rd person (i.e. Emma possesses excellent organisational skills…etc)
- Pompous profiles
- Typos which should have been proofed
How to get a Recruitment Consultant to pick up the phone straight away and call you
- One or two pages (maximum of three and only if you have worked in excess of 10 years)
- Clear and concise
- Highlight key achievements
- Use bullet points
- An interesting and relevant profile – tell us what your main skills are
- Include company names and say what they do
- Include a short paragraph in your email letting us know what you are looking for/why you are applying for the role
- Chronological order with your most recent experience first (you would think this is obvious, but you’d be surprised!)
- Degree results, organisations will assume a 2.2 or third unless otherwise specified
- Engaging (but not too whacky!) interests – this does not include “reading and socialising with friends”
