Tips for writing a CV
The impact of a well written CV is very important. And from our experience, people still make fundamental mistakes or miss out on opportunities to make themselves sound even more impressive. Here's a check-list to help you avoid the most common mistakes:

CV  Style
Make sure you thoroughly check your spelling and grammar - employers will not be impressed by basic mistakes.

Avoid using underlining or a mixture of font styles.

Limit or avoid the use of italics and use bold only for headings (although you may use either to draw attention to one or two very special features).

Use plenty of white space - the easier it is to read the more chance you have of success

Employers want to read something brief and to the point so try to keep the whole thing to less than two pages of A4.

Print only on good quality white paper as this is easier to read

When emailing – use only microsoft WORD format as many cv processing systems expect and work best this way. So avoid HTML, PDF, RTF, Wordpad, Notepad or other word processing formats unless saved as WORD


CV content
Your CV should always include the following details:

Your personal details – your full name, email address, postal address, phone numbers.  Date of birth is optional these days but why would you hide it?

Your qualifications – Separate Educational Qualifications (state where gained) from Professional Qualifications and include results or grades. Be prepared to provide copies of certificates if requested.

Show work based or personal development and training with any certificates of approved qualifications gained

Your Employment record with the most recent first and then work backwards giving dates and preferably a reason for leaving. Give more detail on the most recent employment and explain what you do/ level of responsibility.

Explain any major work achievements and what experience you have gained and how you overcame any challenges you faced. Try to flavour this information towards the role you are applying for.

Show your career/lifestyle objectives or profile, what you are looking for in the near future and why.

Before sending your CV to anyone, check that it is up to date and, if possible, change the date to current so that the Employer knows that they have the most recent information to work on. Mass produced, incomplete or out of date CV’s which appear to be used for any old job will not persuade the Employer you particularly want to work with them! If you are lucky enough to get an interview, explaining the incorrect info in your CV is embarrassing.