Monday 4 May 2009

Cirruculum Vitae

Ok, so how many of you actually have an up to date CV? One that you could send off to a potential employer right now?

Ok, so suppose that you haven't got one, how would you go about writing one?

So the main points that you need to think about are:

  1. What is it for?
  2. Who is going to read it?
  3. What are the expectations of the recipient?
  4. First Impressions!!
  5. General Tone.

Ok, so your thinking about all of these things and you have answers to all the questions above, now you need a structure. Take this one as an example, their all pretty much the same anyway...

  • Personal Details - Address, contact information, and a personal profile (A posh way of saying a paragraph about yourself),

  • Education details - Breakdown of your modules, and just a list of your A-levels and grades, don't forget your GCSE's! Also you have to say where you got them from, (Just the name of the school/college)

  • Work Experience - I personally like to put this in a table, as I think it looks a little bit neater, and it saves a bit of space, just include where you worked, a time range of when you worked there, and the skills gained from working there.

  • Skills - Now this is the tricky part, try not to repeat yourself here, as you will have just talked about your skills in the previous section. Its important that for every skill that you mention you are able to back it up with a little bit of evidence. Sort of like; I gained this skill from my 30 million years of playing this. (Oh and don't exaggerate)

  • Leisure Interests - Don't be afraid to put down everything that you do in your spare time here, employers like to see that you take part in the social aspect of life, remember all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! If you mention that you do some sort of activity in the last section, don't forget to mention that you actually do it here.

  • References - Here is where you include the addresses of your references. Pick two people, any more and your just wasting space, If you haven't got enough room, you could always say that 'References are available on request', that's what I do!

  • Other Relevant Information - Things like 'Full clean driving license', and 'Qualified Football Referee'

Right there's your structure, now for some constraints to your beautifully crafted piece of work:

  • It CANNOT, I repeat CANNOT be over TWO pages long, your potential employer will just not read past two pages, and may even throw it in the bin without even looking at it!

  • Don't lie, remember employers sometimes go to extreme lengths to find out about you, they even ring up previous employers to find out about you, even if you didn't put them as references! They will find out, so just don't do it!

  • Use your spell checker, It's there for a reason, however don't over do it, a little common sense is required at the end of the day. Don't forget to read your CV through after you've written it, just to make sure that its perfect in every way possible!

So there we are, now you have your CV written perfectly, and looking good. Now you need to send it off to employers, so off you go!

Oh and one more thing; If your not applying for a job, but some sort of work experience, or something like that (think Year in industry scheme) include a covering letter, explaining what your after and so on.


If you want a more in depth guide to writing a good CV, then please follow this link;

Click Here




Happy CV'ing



The Student