Step 5 Create a great CV A CV is your ‘marketing document’ and is your first chance to make a positive impression to employers. It should highlight your skills and attributes, matching the personal specification and job description of the job you are applying for. A CV should look professional, be well written, easy to read and without spelling, grammar or punctuation errors. Ensure your CV is a positive summary of your skills and experience tailored to the job role. Put yourself in the place of the employer and look to produce a CV that is: ■
Professional: Structure your CV so that it reads professionally and has a logical structure with clearly headed sections. Include “white space” so the text doesn’t look cramped. Use some active verbs and business-like language.
■
Easy to read: Ensure that the important information and relevant skills are found quickly and easily on page 1, with the Qualifications/Education and Employment/Work Experience in a logical order with the most recent first. Use obvious headings, clear sections, bold typeface, bullet-points or small paragraphs, all for ease of reading.
■
Clear and concise: Avoid slang, jargon or abbreviations. Your font size should be a minimum of 11 and two sides of A4 is the norm for CVs for the majority of jobs in the UK.
■
Competence-based: Does your CV describe evidence of your skills gained from a variety of sources, from work, academic study, achievements, clubs or teams you are involved with? Many employers like a “Skills” focused CV.
■
Tailored to the jobs/employers you are applying to. You will need to amend your content and maybe the format of your CV to suit each job that you apply for.
■
Checked by someone else: Have you asked for feedback from a Faculty Employability Adviser, lecturers or an industry professional?
For more detail download our “Step by step guide to writing a CV”: issuu.com/theuniversityofwinchester/docs/issuu_careers_service_cv_brochure?fr=sYmU3ZjEzMDU1NzE
7
