CV Advice

A professional CV is a marketing document and should not be produced in a hurry. Occasionally a CV alone can secure you a job, especially if you are applying for interim work. A good CV will ensure you promote yourself to your best advantage and help secure interviews.

What information should a CV include?

• Personal details.
• Education and qualifications. Include the names of institutions in reverse chronological order.
• Career history is presented in reverse date order starting with most recent. Achievements and responsibilities are listed against each role. More emphasis/information should be put on more recent jobs.
• Skill based CV's are not encouraged for any candidate seeking a permanent role, as it is difficult to attribute specific skills to their context.
• Skills. Include computer skills and foreign language skills and any other recent training/development that is relevant to the role applied for.
• An Achievements section - this should include examples of company awards / recognitions, examples of ‘acting up' into more senior roles any extra details which might help you stand out or put colour on your career to date.
• Hobbies and Interests. Keep this section brief.
• Referees can simply be ‘Available on Request'.

A Model CV
Professional CV's should focus on explaining core skills, competencies and knowledge and then place them in context. Most CV's we see do an excellent job of showing an individual's key competencies or areas of knowledge but often leave the context out.

Explaining your role should include:

• Core deliverables in your role (your own job spec).
• Project experiences.
• Notable achievements / awards
• Professional services experience: if you have worked for a professional services firm, try to attribute knowledge to specific clients and name them wherever possible or describe them well.
• Skills should be contextualised by who your clients have been, whether internal or external, what scale a project or role is (budget / breath / location) and what place in the hierarchy you were working in for each project.

An example:
"Worked in a team to present financial management information to new clients"
Or
"Reporting to the Head of Investor Relations and Finance Director presented European Region financial management information to the CEO of three potential new clients. Presentations helped secure £5m of new investment"

General Tips

• Decorative borders are not necessary, nor are photographs of you.
• Include details about your right to work if you are a non- EU citizen.
• Do not write CV's in the first person.
• A good CV needs to be tailored to each job application.
• The completed CV needs to be checked carefully for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes and to ensure that it makes sense.
• Remember when writing and structuring your CV that it is essentially a marketing document and that a potential employer will use the details provided to form interview questions.
• Gaps in career history should be explained and falsehoods and inaccuracies avoided at all costs.
• There is no need to include reasons for leaving each job.
• Current salary details are useful for the reference of your consultant.