CVs 

A CV (also known as a Curriculum Vitae), is a one or two page written document containing a person’s skills, education, and work experience.

Why do I need a CV?

• As part of an application process.
• Making enquiries to organisations for potential opportunities 
• Recruitment agencies usually ask for a CV.
• Uploading CVs to jobs websites can increase the chances of being noticed by employers.

What to include in a CV?

Contact details – Include your full name, home address, mobile number and email address. Unless you’re applying for an acting or modelling job you don’t need to include your date of birth or a photograph.

Profile – A CV profile is a concise statement that highlights your key attributes and helps you stand out from the crowd. Usually placed at the beginning of the CV it picks out a few relevant achievements and skills, while expressing your career aims. Keep CV personal statements short and snappy – 100 words is the perfect length. 

Education – List and date all previous education, including professional qualifications. Place the most recent first. 

Work experience – List your work experience in reverse date order, making sure that anything you mention is relevant to the job you’re applying for. 

Skills and achievements – This is where you talk about the foreign languages you speak and the IT packages you can competently use. The key skills that you list should be relevant to the job. 

Interests – ‘Socialising’, ‘going to the cinema’ and ‘reading’ aren’t going to catch a recruiter’s attention. However, relevant interests can provide a more complete picture of who you are, as well as giving you something to talk about at the interview. 

References – You don’t need to provide the names of referees at this stage. You also don’t need to say ‘references available upon request’ as most employers would assume this to be the case.