Advice Guides - A Winning CV

I’ve lost count of the times candidates have said, “I know that I would have got that job, it was ideal, exactly what I was looking for, but I didn’t even get an invitation to interview!” It’s so frustrating.
When I look at their CV it’s blindingly obvious why they are not getting in front of the decision maker.
In a Candidate driven market it’s the candidates with the best CV’s that get all the interviews.
Quick References are below
• So what does Best mean?
• Top Tips for a Winning CV
• Suggested Structure
• The Do's and Don'ts

So what does ‘BEST’ mean?

The best CV’s are personal sales tools. They contain enough information to stimulate interest, but not too much as to bore the reader or give him/her a hard job in finding relevant information from your life history.
If you can persuade or convince the reader that you can do the job on offer but leave the feeling I want to know more, then the reader has no option but to call you in.
With the average interviewer spending little more than 10 seconds before making a decision to read on or discard, understanding how to grab the attention is vital.

Top Tips for a Winning CV

Presentation:

• Keep it simple. No photos, fancy pink paper, folders or weird fonts.
• Bullet points of no more than a few lines each.
• Digestible chunks of information.
• Clean layout with plenty of white space between bullet points and sections.
• Check your spelling and grammar.
• Pay close attention to reply instructions, ensure you address it to the correct contact and you spell the name properly! Getting their job title wrong is a real negative.
• Keep it short (no more than three pages). If you can communicate the relevant facts in two pages even better.
• A logical order with the most important information first and your most recent job details first.
• A well presented and logical structure to your CV makes it more likely to be read and responded to. It also gives the impression that you think logically and have attention to detail.
• Nothing can ruin your chances of going on interview more than a badly presented shoddy document littered with preventable mistakes. It tells an interviewer a lot about your likely performance in the role!
• Suggested structure:
• If you can avoid it don’t go back more than ten years. The recent past is the most relevant and interesting to the reader.

The first page:

• Personal details, home address and contact details at the top.
• A few lines next as a profile of your key skills, experience and qualities. Try to make them pertinent to the job you are applying for using similar language and terms from the job description or advertisement.

Pages two and three:

• List your employment history, starting with the most recent first and work back.
• State the job title, start and finish dates, employers name and location.
• Aim for five to six lines or bullet points of the responsibilities you held, in order of importance. Do not list every task or activity.
• List achievements against each job or position within the company or as a separate section of your CV.
• Achievements should be measurable results that highlight the real benefits of your productivity. Eg: inherited 60 accounts and built to 100 adding £X new business revenue. Achieved £200,000 cost saving through supplier consolidation. Improved staff retention in department from 20% attrition to 10% through new Team Leadership Model, in turn reducing recruitment costs by £20,000 annually – you get the idea.
• TIP: if you’ve held a similar role in all of your recent positions highlight or emphasise different responsibilities and achievements in each to avoid the career history becoming repetitive and boring.
• Professional qualifications, education and awards should come next and training undertaken.
• Only use two or three lines on interests and hobbies and only if they support or sell you into the job you are applying for.
• Be careful, think how you view certain hobbies or interests and what judgments you make about people who partake in them. Are they sedentary, competitive, challenging, solitary, creative and do they match the requirements of the role? Solitary hobbies may not suggest suitability as a team player for instance.
• Do not leave gaps in your CV as the reader will be left to fill the gap and make decisions as to what you were doing during this time, it could also suggest you are being evasive.
• I would also suggest not giving reasons for leaving each position on the CV again the reader needs to invite you in to know more at interviews.

The DO’s and DON’T’s:

DO:

• Keep it concise. Two maximum three pages.
• Use good quality matching white paper.
• Use bullet points – 5 to 6 for each of your job responsibilities and achievements sections.
• Start with most recent job and work back.
• Leave enough white space to make it comfortable to read. Back up claims with factual, objective evidence. Provide a covering letter HIGHLIGHTING how your experience and skills and achievements lend themselves to the job on offer.
• Check your grammar and spelling.
• Write in the first person.

DON’T:

• Use photos.
• List every job you have ever had.
• Use a conversational tone (third person)
• Give reasons for leaving your present or past jobs.
• Leave career gaps unexplained.
• Be too verbose.
• Include personal circumstances that are irrelevant.
• List references unless specifically requested by the employer.
• Make negative comments about any of the employers or jobs on your CV.
• State salary, this could be a barrier to gaining an interview. If completely necessary include it in your cover letter. (See links to professional CV services).