CVs and covering letters : Writing successful CVs

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1. Example CVs
2. Writing successful CVs
3. Covering letters

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Your CV is a great chance to prove that you have the specific skills and experience required by an employer. To promote yourself effectively, identify the skills required in the vacancy and provide evidence of you having them.

For example, you could prove your teamwork skills by describing a specific activity at university and outlining how you:

Listened to colleagues, encouraged them and responsibly carried out my personal role, resulting in a mark of 71% and a business recommendation.

You should use positive power words and any headings you want to promote your specific skills and experiences - here are some of the headings you should consider:

Personal details

This is usually the first heading on a CV and you should keep it short.

• Print your name at the top in a large font.
• If necessary, include both your term-time and home addresses (with dates when you will be at each).
• Create a professional voicemail reply message and email address incorporating your name.
• As a rule, do not include information relating to your age, sex, nationality, marital status or health.
• If you are not from the European Economic Area and have permission to work here you may want to make this clear to employers. (Information about working in the UK is available from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) .)

Education

Provide details of your education going back to your GCSEs (or equivalent). For each school, further education and higher education institution you have attended (or are attending), list the following:

• the institution’s name;
• the town (and country, if it is overseas);
• when you were there (from start to finish);
• your qualifications and grades (especially if they are good), and their UK equivalents if they were taken overseas).

Summarise GCSEs, but promote your recent education and training more fully. Relate your degree(s) to the job you are going for. For example, you could list relevant modules, outline related projects and/or promote the skills you have gained.

Experience/work experience

All work experience counts, whether paid, voluntary or shadowing (working alongside someone for a short time to see what their job is like). Outline your responsibilities and achievements that were/are relevant to the job you are seeking. Provide more information for recent and relevant roles. Some experience can be grouped together. For example:

Summer 2009: A variety of customer service roles including bar work, waitressing and telesales. Developed an awareness of customer relationship management and improved my teamwork skills whilst working with challenging customers in high pressure environments.

Positions of responsibility/achievements/interests

Choose one of these headings to outline extracurricular accomplishments which demonstrate your personal initiative and career motivation. Briefly describe what you have done, how you have succeeded and the relevant skills you have gained. For example:

As president of the university karate club I organise regular meetings to discuss possible events and successfully collaborate with a wide range of people including undergraduates, postgraduates, administrators, senior academics and sponsors.

Referees

You can either provide the contact details of two referees or tell the employer that your references are ‘available upon request’. One of your referees should be work-related, e.g. a manager at work, and one should be an academic at university - most people use their personal tutor.

Optional headings

You can also create any other headings which highlight your particular attributes for the specific job. Some options are shown below.

Personal profile/career objective

This is a short (three/four line) summary of your relevant attributes and specific career aims. Well targeted profiles can attract attention but general statements often create a bad impression.

Follow these rules:

• use the third person (do not use ‘I’ or ‘my’);
• focus on just one or two of the key skills and experiences required.

For example:

Pro-active marketing graduate with over three years' experience organising and publicising successful events. Created a popular marketing campaign during internship with Virgin Airlines. Looking for a challenging and creative marketing position in the airline industry.

Relevant experience and Additional experience

If you have a wide range of employment experience, you may want to highlight your most relevant work history under a ‘Relevant experience’ heading and list your other jobs in an ‘Additional experience’ section.

Other possible headings

You may want to include any number of additional headings such as: ‘Career summary’, ‘Technical skills’, ‘Publications’, ‘Additional skills’ and ‘Accountancy experience’ (if relevant to the job role).

Layout

It should be easy to scan your CV and see your key skills and experiences. To do this effectively:

• use an appropriate type of CV (chronological, skills-based or academic);
• highlight relevant skills and experiences;
• place key information at the top of the CV where it can be easily seen;
• use bullet points to break up text;
• use positive headings such as ‘Skills gained’ and ‘Relevant experience’;
• list your experiences in reverse chronological order (most recent first);
• make dates easy to see and leave no unexplained gaps in time.

Presentation

To create a good impression:

• use good quality paper (if sending a hard copy);
• in most instances, use two full pages (investment banks may expect a one-page CV, and academic institutions may want a longer academic CV for academic roles);
• use a simple consistent format;
• promote yourself with positive words and phrases;
• spell everything appropriately and use correct grammar;
• avoid graphics and tables as they can look cluttered;
• use a larger font size for headings and use bold for emphasis (but  do not overdo it);
• keep it simple and attractive even if a job calls for artistic creativity (you can always provide a portfolio of your work);
• avoid too much white space.

Ask a careers adviser for further help and feedback.