CV Tips
Before you send your CV out to us or anyone else, you should make sure that it provides the information that the reader needs in order to decide if you are right to be considered for the job they need to fill.
Before you send your CV out to us or anyone else, you should make sure that it provides the information that the reader needs in order to decide if you are right to be considered for the job they need to fill.
Your CV should be concise, providing enough information for the reader to decide if they should interview you. Nothing more. With that in mind keep it as brief as possible but still providing the information needed. Two pages is the sweet spot but if you can’t manage that, don’t go higher than three.
If you want to have an objective or similar paragraph, keep it brief and don’t repeat information that will go in your employment history anyway.
If you are applying for a sales job, the reader of your CV is probably not that interested in the amazing job you did re-painting a forklift truck… Keep the information relevant to the reader. Talk about what you sell, who you sell to and what you have achieved within a sales context.The basic information for every sales role that you have ever held should contain the following:
A sure-fire way of annoying employers is to submit a CV that isn't bang up to date. if you don't want to get off on the wrong foot make sure your CV is updated.
Doing your job is not an achievement. It's what you get paid for. With that in mind consider the achievements that you want to list carefully, and think about how you list them. Don't offer vague opinions on how wonderful you are without being able to back it up.. Just list facts. If you can't demonstrate something that you think you're really good at, don't list it at all.
Your CV is a place to list tangible facts about you, what you do and what you've achieved to date. Don't list opinions about what you feel you can or can't do. If you want to include that sort of stuff on your application keep it in the covering letter (but make sure you can back it up with facts).
Don't try to be too fancy. A nice layout that sticks out is great but it shouldn't come at the expense of usability. If your CV looks great but the reader can't find the information they are looking for, it will go in the bin. Avoid putting your photograph on your CV. The only people who should put a photograph on a CV are those are applying for a modelling or acting job.
Most companies use Microsoft Word. If you are emailing your CV make sure it is in a file format that the recipient can open. Even if you use a different word processor program you should still be able to save the file in a format that Word can understand. The most popular are .doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt and .pdf. We recommend that you steer clear of PDF files though as they cannot be edited by the recipient and the formatting is often lost when importing into database software packages.
If your CV is riddled with spelling or grammar mistakes, don't expect it your application to go very far. It shows laziness and lack of attention to detail. Just about every word processor software package has a spell checker on it these days. Make sure you use it and make sure you proof read your CV once or twice, or better still, get someone else to do it for you.