CV Writing - A CV Centre Guide

CV Writing - Introduction

We appreciate that not everyone will be able to pay to have their CV professionally prepared, so this article is provided to help point you in the right direction in writing your own. In reality though, there really is no substitute for having a professional handle the job and, being the UK's leading CV writing service, we hope you will give us the opportunity to assist you in the near future!

The CV

CV writing is a controversial subject - part art, part science. If you ask any two people their idea of the perfect CV, you are likely to get two different and rather subjective responses. However, there are a number of 'do's, 'don't's and common pitfalls, which most personnel professionals would agree on. If you bear these in mind when preparing your CV, you stand a much better chance of surviving the 'CV cull'!

Length

Far too long - Probably the principal mistake people make when preparing their own CVs. We keep CVs brief and cut out the waffle - 2 pages is generally a maximum, and for those with little experience, writing a 1 page CV generally makes more sense. We also use other techniques such as bullet pointing - these help make your CV easier to read; they help make it punchy.

Detail

We eliminate what a prospective employer would see as unnecessary detail, e.g. we only list years, not months (this also helps to cover up chronological gaps). We look at each piece of information which could be included in your CV and think, 'Does this help your case?' If it doesn't then we leave it out.

History

When writing a CV, we always concentrate on recent history and summarise older information. If you've got A Levels then we don't list all your O Levels/GCSEs on the CV. Similarly, if you've got a degree, there's no need to include A Level grades unless they're all As or Bs. Employers are most interested in what you've done most recently, although they obviously still need to know the basics of older information.

Interests & Activities

A common mistake is writing far too much in this section. With the CV trend moving increasingly towards the American résumé style, which precludes such a section, we recommend keeping it to a minimum.

Key Skills

The inclusion of a 'Key Skills' section in a CV is progressively less popular these days. It is now considered better to spread evidence of key skills and abilities throughout your employment history. Specific points should be addressed in the covering letter, a vitally important part of any application.

References

Details of referees shouldn't be included on your CV. They clutter it up and, more importantly, you will find that your referees get pestered unnecessarily by time-wasters. By the time they have given handled their umpteenth enquiry they are a lot less likely to say nice things about you!

Professional Preparation

At the end of the day, this is definitely the most sensible option; there really is no substitute for taking advantage of in-depth professional experience.