Candidate Advice

Welcome to the first addition to our advice page! As this what we are asked about more than anything else, here are our top 10 tips for writing your CV. We hope you find them helpful, please check back regularly for updates or feel free to mail us if there is a topic you wish to be covered…..

1. Keep it simple! All of the info required in your CV should generally fit into three categories! Personal info, education / qualifications and work history. You may want to add an achievements section / profile or summary.
2. Stick to the facts; try to avoid using subjective descriptions of your ability, use facts to highlight strengths as they have a much greater impact. Don’t refer to yourself in the third person – its just wrong!
3. The structure should be well defined with clear headings and short paragraphs. Your CV is essentially a reference document therefore the reader should be able to focus in on the area of relevance quickly.
4. Keep paragraphs short and use bullet points wherever possible. There is nothing more off putting than when a CV resembles pages from a novel.
5. Length - there are no hard and fast rules here – within reason. Opinion differs depending on who you speak to but in my experience two pages should be the minimum and five pages should be the maximum. More senior candidates are often unable to keep it to two pages, this is fine as long as the paragraphs are short and the structure is clear. Graduates and those in the first three to four years of their career should be able to stick to two to three pages.
6. It’s an obvious one but always proof read, and ideally get a friend to double check for spelling and grammatical errors.
7. Do not remove technical detail from the work history and place into a separate section – this takes it out of context which means it is often difficult to distinguish key technical skills and when they were acquired.
8. This is another point were opinion may differ but it is a good idea to highlight key technical skills in bold font.
9. More experienced candidates may want to add an achievements section to their CV, this is a good way of getting the readers attention early on. Once again keep it factual rather than subjective; most achievements can be quantified to some extent.
10. Try to avoid adding too much formatting i.e. columns, tables etc. A more free hand approach is best if it is done well.