writing a cv

The Six Second Rule

The average time an employer spends reading each CV is just six seconds! There is no way of securing an interview with those prospects, so what now?

Make Your CV Specific To The Role

All roles are different, as are all firms, so it makes sense for all job applications to be different. There is nothing wrong with building a general CV but you should use this as a base and tailor it to the role and firm you’re applying for and not send the same general CV out to each firm you apply to.

Your Contact Details

Before we begin with the formatting of the CV, you must make sure your contact details are correct and present at the top of the CV. Always use the contact details that gives the firm the best chances of  reaching you. You don't want to miss a call on your home phone whilst at work or find an email from an employer that was sent a week ago to a mostly unused email account.

There's a few things best left off your CV too, such as marital status, number of dependants, and date of birth. Unless any of these will affect your ability to do the job in question, which is usually unlikely, then it’s information the employer doesn't require and in some cases can even discriminate against.

Personal Statement

Your personal statement should be directly beneath your contact details and could be the difference between the employer giving your CV a full examination or the six second treatment. You should edit this section of your CV with every application and tailor it to the firm you're applying to with specific experience and achievements relating to the role in question.

Qualifications

Include all relevant qualifications and licenses in a list, starting with your most prominent qualification, and include details of the course, grade, and institution. You should also include memberships to any chartered institutions and any industry standard qualifications.

Experience

You should list your work history with your most recent employer first and highlight your successes and achievements, alongside the responsibilities you held and the skills and experience you used to add value to your team and/or firm as a whole.

Skills

The skills you have developed are like your shop window so you need to display them prominently. Using a bulleted list is a great way of displaying your skills and entices employers to read through the list in its entirety, as opposed to briefly scanning a block of text. You should always include everything that is essential to the application in question but don’t go overboard, keep it brief and keep it relevant.

References

You can include your references at the base of your CV but it's unlikely it'll make any difference as to whether or not you receive an invitation to an interview and it's perfectly acceptable to simply enter ‘references available upon request’.