Employers are busy people so your CV should only contain relevant information in a format which is easy for them to find what they need quickly and easily. The best way to achieve this is to stick with the traditional format of contact details, work history, qualifications and additional skills.

Contact Details

Just the basics here, name, address, phone, mobile and email is all that’s necessary.

Work History

This should list your work history in reverse chronological order giving more detail to the most recent jobs and only provide information for older work where there is relevant or note worthy achievements attained.

Qualifications

All you need here is a bullet point list detailing what qualifications you have and when you achieved them.

Additional Skills and Experience

This is an optional category where you would list any skills or experience which you have gained outside your job which is relevant to the job your are now applying.

A functional CV is a little different from the traditional format but can be useful in certain situations. This CV styles main focus is your skills, experience and achievements that you have gained over your entire career without giving so much emphasis on where you attained them. This style of CV is especially useful if you are changing careers paths, the down side to this is that this CV style is not very common so some employers may prefer a more traditional style.

Do

• When listing your work history identify any relevant skills, achievements or experienced gained. If you can not think of anything relevant then that’s a good clue that its best to just list the job title, start and finish date, as the employer probably wont be interested in it.
• Spend some time on the look and design of your CV, first impressions count and a CV which is visually appealing can make the difference between getting that interview and getting a “better luck next time” email
• Make sure that your CV is easy to navigate, an employer will typically check for certain experience, skills or qualifications before Continue reading CV Tip - CV Dos and Don’ts…

As we’ve mentioned before, when advertising a job employers are usually inundated with CV’s and so the amount of time they have to spare on each one is limited. This means that you only have a very small window in which to make a good impression, so make sure that your CV is presented in a clean, easy to follow fashion.

It doesn’t have to be a work of art, but it does have to be easy to follow, read well and have distinct sections so that your potential employer can quickly find what they want.

Every time an employer advertises a vacancy you can guarantee they will get hundreds if not thousands of replies Continue reading CV Tip - Keep your CV short and to the point…