CV Advice
What are employers are looking for in a CV?
Your CV is your opportunity to sell yourself to a potential new employer. You have to remember that yours is not the only CV and the reader will often skim read to do an initial shortlist, so your CV must stand out at first glance.
You must not send a generic CV for every job you apply for. You need to review what the employer is looking for and fine tune it and the covering letter each time. Employers know when they receive a generic CV, especially if it is photocopied and remember if you send it via email, readers can view the properties set up and see when you created and amended it.
You can be eliminated at the initial reading of your CV because it does not reflect the skills and experience the employer is looking for and there are major errors in the words or the layout that stand out. Maybe the facts they wanted to see were there but not clearly expressed as you may have buried this in the text somewhere or simply the CV was difficult to read. Whatever the reason if your CV contains these basic errors, it is too late for you if you have submitted it.
CVs must be clear, easy to read and offer the skills and experience the client is seeking. CVs are shortlisted that best fit the job description and/or requirements specified or if they see some potential.
CV content and layout
The following notes are aimed at making CVs clear and concise, contain the information required and how to be attractive to prospective employers.
- It is most important to have a good, clear layout, using headings and maybe adding some colour. Ensure you use spell and grammar check and proof read before sending.
- Employers ask for specific skills and closely focus on technical-business-professional abilities. The CV put forward should be a reasonably good fit or it is not worth submitting. CVs written in very general terms referring to general management skills which give no clear indication of special areas of skill are very difficult to use. Employers look for references in the CVs that match the skills asked for. The closer the match the more likely they will be interested.
- It is almost impossible to get enough detail about your skills and experience on a single page CV by the time you have included name, address etc. Two or three pages is ideal. Four pages is getting a little long. Five or more is usually regarded as too many.
- Readers need to see something on the first page to attract them to read further. Start with a personal statement or profile and focus on what you can sell yourself as. Follow with a skills summary enlarging on the key skill areas that are your strengths. If preferred, the profile and skills statement can be rolled into one using a few lines of text followed by bullet points.
- Next give your career experience with the most recent first. Give reasonable detail and key achievements for the last 10 -12 years at most and then summarise the earlier period. This description of what you were doing must match the profile and key skills given before. Give details of your role, activities and key achievements. If you have been operating as a temp or working on an interim basis for a period then list your assignments with a 4 or 5 line description of each and longer description for assignments of a longer duration.
- If there are any employment gaps, make sure you state why, ie time off to look after children, training, travel, etc.
- Bearing in mind that employers sometimes ask for specialist skills by specific reference, it can help to mention yours in the same way at some point. This also applies to skills that are industry specific, make sure you refer to them in a way the employer will recognise.
- Finally, at the end of the last page, give any other information such as training, qualifications, other interests etc. Keep this information relevant but give important courses or training attended in recent years. It is not necessary to list all the courses and exams passed since school age. In the case of someone who is very well qualified, eg. with an good degree, Ph.D, vocational diploma, member of a professional body, you should put the letters after your name, if appropriate, and give your qualifications in the key skills area.
Covering letter
Tailor the content of a covering letter to the business or industry you are applying to - highlight the skills you think will benefit their organisation and be positive – no negatives!