It’s not always easy putting your whole career on 2 sides of A4 but nail this and you’re one step closer to an interview!
Be succinct – once you have written your CV, go over it and shorten it by at least a third. You can do this by cutting out superfluous words and getting to the point. A summary paragraph highlighting your achievements at the start of the CV is great for whetting the reader’s appetite to know more.
Be honest – ok, we’ve probably all embellished the number of GCSE’s we’ve got at some point, but honesty really is the best policy. If you lie on your CV and you are found it, it reflects on you as an untrustworthy character.
Get your personality across – organisations employ people, not CVs, and they want to get a feel not only for what you can bring to the job, but how you will fit in with the team.
Make sure it’s up to date and relevant – do check over your CV in detail, especially if you haven’t used it for a while. And only include relevant information. If you are 35, your paper round when you were 14 needn’t go in.
Personalise it to each job you apply for – does this sound like hard work? Well, how much do you want the job? An extra half hour tailoring your experience to match the language and requirements of the job specification could make all the difference between an interview or not.
