CV writing tips

In an increasingly competitive job market, a well-written resume or CV is a vital component in obtaining the right job and successfully progressing through your chosen career.

Employers regularly receive many applications for each available job and so having a professional quality CV is vital if you wish to make it past the filtering process to the interview stage.

Usually the best CV format is produced using reverse chronological order:

• Start with basic contact information (name, address, email address, contact phone number).
• A Profile section detailing your experience and areas of proficiency. For IT professionals this is a great place to state your technical skills and strengths, such as main programming languages, environments and tools, platforms supported, project management methods, etc.
• Reverse chronological employment history emphasising recent achievements. Do add company names, locations and an idea of what the company does if it's not immediately apparent (you won't need to explain who IBM are), as well as your own role, projects and achievements.
• Education including institutions and qualifications with dates and grades awarded (recent graduates may put this at the top).

Use plain white paper and black ink. Use a clear font, ideally 10/12 point. Make headings bold and use space to break up the page. It immediately makes the reader feel negative towards you when confronted by a full page of small, tightly packed text.

Although you may like unusual fonts and may be proud of your large clipart collection, many people will not share your views.  It is better when writing a CV to aim for a smart, professional look rather than a flash multi-coloured masterpiece.
A wide range of sample CV templates can be downloaded online. We recommend the free MS Office downloads available from Microsoft.com.

A two page résumé is unlikely to contain enough information for people to decide they want to interview you. Likewise, nobody wants a slipped disc lifting your CV.  Obviously use your judgement, but it is more important to include the specifics of your most recent positions than to go into the extensive details of jobs from years ago. Between two and four pages will suffice for most employers.

Make sure you spell check and proof read your CV before submitting and be especially careful with names, etc. that may not be flagged by a spellchecker.  Also keep your CV up to date. It is amazing how many people will add their most recent job to their old CV, while forgetting to update previous positions to the past tense or include leaving dates.

Use dates to show when you did things and avoid vague references such as "one year".  Always state the month as well as the year when entering start and finish dates for previous employment.

Your profile statement should sell your specific skills and experience and avoid vague and meaningless generalisations that could apply to anyone.

Many candidates lose their readers in the beginning. Statements like, "A challenging position enabling me to contribute to organizational goals while offering an opportunity for growth and advancement," are overused, are too general and waste valuable space. If you're on a career track, replace the objective with a tagline stating what you do or what is your expertise.

Avoid using personal pronouns such as "me" or "I".

Cut down on personal information that is not relevant to your career.  At this stage nobody needs to know your height, weight, children's names, marital status etc.  Don't go overboard on a hobbies and personal interests section unless they are relevant to your job but do try and give a flavour of what you like to do to have fun and relax.

Finally - Do Remember: When the manager doing the hiring has a stack of CVs on their desk and a mind to interview only three or four candidates, don't make it easy for him to consign your CV directly to the bin, just because you didn't make it as professional as it could so easily have been!