Creating a Killer CV / Resume

When applying for a job having a great CV/Resume is crucial if you want to stand out from the crowd. This document is your ‘foot in the door’, metaphorically speaking. It will play a key part in determining whether you’re invited to interview or just another unsuccessful applicant.

You’ve found a great job but you need a CV/Resume. What next?

The preliminary stuff

Before you get started on the CV/Resume read the job description. This may sound obvious but you’ll be surprised how many people start writing their CV/Resume with little reference to the details of the job they’re applying for.

You should photocopy the job description or copy and paste it in to word processing software such as Microsoft Word.

If you’re working with a printed copy of the job description use a hightlighting pen to highlight all the aspects of the job you feel you can evidence from your own experience. You can do this in whichever way you find easiest in Word. For instance underline/embolden/italicise, etc.

This doesn’t need to be limited to your previous paid work experience if evidence from elsewhere in your life is relevant. Then take a rough piece of paper and jot down how your experience addresses the skills, qualities and experience detailed in the job description.

Remember this is just the preliminary stuff so whatever you write can be in very rough form at this stage. Think of this as your brainstorming stage. (If you completed the 6 stages to find your ideal career blogs you may find this easier)

The basics

Be concise. Short, sharp sentences and statements are better than lengthy descriptions. The ideal CV/Resume length for most kinds of jobs is approx 2 pages. Its okay to have a longer CV providing your experience merits the extra information. If you don’t have enough information to stretch to 2 pages, that’s okay too. So dont write a 3 or 4 page CV because you wanted to add details of a paper round you held while still at school, if that experience is irrelevant. In most cases a 2 page CV will be more than enough.

The layout

How you layout your information on the page will depend on how much work experience you have, whether that work experience is relevant to the job you’re applying for and any relevant qualifications.

The first page of your CV/Resume is your sales document and should have the key information to grab the recruiter’s attention. Think of the information you put here as your selling points, your sales pitch.

The heading

Don’t write CV or Resume at the top of your CV. Everyone who looks at the document will know its a CV and writing it there just wastes good page space that can be used to sell you to the employer.

In all but very few instances you would not add a photo. How you look should not be relevant to the employer. You should also avoid including any irrelevant personal details such as your age.

The heading should have your name, address and other contact details. Remember, if you have a social media page under your name, or include your handle in the contact details, the employer may look at this. It may seem obvious but its worth reminding that if you don’t want a potential employer to view your social media make it private before applying.

The personal profile

This is the section that goes directly below the contact details. Ideally it should be no more than 2 or 3 sentences or 3 to 4 lines of text.

What you write here will be dependent on the job description. Its your pitch to the employer for the job. You might start with a statement about your length of experience in the field the employer is recruiting or your presentation and communication skills developed while in debating class at school/college if these skills are required and that is your most recent experience. A good personal profile, tailored for the job, can get you noticed and is worth the time to get it right.

Education section

If you are a recent graduate or school leaver with limited work experience your education will be your main selling point so put this section under the personal profile with the most recent qualification first.

If your education was some time ago or/and your work experience is more important you would put your education further down the CV, possibly on the 2nd page.

Key skills and achievements

If your work experience is such that there are a number of examples of skills and achievements relevant to the job description you might want to place this section under the personal profile.

The key skills and achievements section should be relevant, bullet pointed statements such as:

• Awarded sales person of the year – 2019 (employer name)

• Initiated team working and training events leading to increased motivation and team performance (employer name)

Never use buzz words like organisational skills, communication skills, etc without an example. Buzz words are meaningless and boring to read if you cannot demonstrate their use. Reference to the job and/or employer from where the example is taken is also useful and I’ve shown that above in brackets.

Another way to do this is to embolden the buzz word, and do the same in the description of the job under the work experience section so the employer can tie the two up.

Finally, don’t list every achievement and skill if they are not relevant to the vacancy and make sure you’ve addressed the skills, qualities and experience listed in the job description when completing this section.

Work experience

This section would go under key skills and Achievements or the personal profile section if you haven’t included the key skills section.

There are two main ways you can list your work experience which should always be in order of most recent first.

• Chronologically. You would list your work experience this way if all or most of your previous work experience is relevant to the job to which you’re applying or if you have limited work experience.

• Relevant work experience. This involves identifying the most relevant work experience and listing these jobs, in chronological order, in their own section. Relevant work experience would ideally also fit on to the first page of the CV.

Job descriptions under work experience should ideally be no longer than a couple of lines of text. If two jobs are similar do not repeat the description and if what you have to say about a previous job is obvious from the job title try to avoid this. For instance if your job title was receptionist there is no need to describe the generic duties of a receptionist. (If receptionist is relevant to the job vacancy you might mention the size of the employer/numbers of visitors you were dealing with on a daily basis or non generic duties such as organising travel, etc.)

Affiliations to professional and trade bodies

You would include this section if you are affiliated to a professional or trade body such as BPS and CITB. Again, you would only want to include this if relevant to the vacancy stating name, dates of affiliation and level if applicable.

Hobbies and interests

If you include this section it should go just before the references and should ideally, like the rest of the CV, be written with the job description in mind. So when you are listing your interests and hobbies consider the personal characterists the employer would be interested in such as competitive sports for a competitive role or solitary pass times such as reading for roles which require long periods of focus and attention.

The employer will want to know you are a rounded person so social activities are always good to see in this section but don’t write socialising as an interest.

References

Traditionally two referees would be mentioned in this section with the name, address and possibly contact phone number for each. However, more and more these days people just write References available upon request in this section and provide details to the employer prior to interview.

And finally…..

Check for spelling mistakes and then ask someone else to do the same.

Best of luck!