A Great CV...

What makes a great CV and how can you make sure that yours is good enough to get you that all important interview?

Your CV is designed to do one thing and one thing only: to get you an interview.  The average recruiter will only spend between 20 to 30 seconds glancing at a CV which means that you need to make an impression quickly and sell yourself.

Acting as a personal shop window your CV enables buyers (recruiters) to see what you have to offer.  As with advertising and sales, the presentation and structure of your CV are crucial - luckily for you a lot of people actually get it wrong.  So if you adopt the following structure you will have the advantage over your competition.

Limit your CV to a maximum of two pages - we recommend this however long you've been working so if you're fresh out of uni, there's no excuse for more than that, ever.  Try and fit everything onto a single page if you can - your ability to edit down to the key points won't go unnoticed.

Heading

Position your name followed by ‘Curriculum Vitae’ or ‘CV’ at the top of the page with your contact details immediately underneath.  Keep the font simple, clean and legible and consistent from here on.  Use a fairly small font size for your contact details, don't waste space.

Personal Profile

This is your first opportunity to impress and be objective by spelling out your career goals. Use a bold, assertive statement that clearly highlight your core strengths and credentials that are relevant to the position but don't get caught up in pointless management clichés. 

You may well believe you are "leveraging the toolset to provide a business-focused response to any situation" but the reader will probably just think you're a tool.

It's usually worth waiting and writing your personal profile once you've got the rest of your CV finished, the process will have helped you realise what you've done well and are good at.

Skills, Experience and Professional Training

Avoid the temptation to launch into your employment history at this stage. This section should be a bullet-point summary of your key skills and attributes: IT literate, excellent presentation and PowerPoint skills or strong negotiation ability, etc...

If you have experience, include training courses that you have attended - some organisations such as Yell are renowned for their excellent sales training and it makes their sales consultants highly sought after candidates.

Don't try and create bullet-points for no reason, it's better to list 3 strong points than 8 weak ones.  Keep it relevant - this is not the place to celebrate that you achieved grade 8 on the xylophone - but do think laterally: being on the debating society at uni shows you are confident presenting in front of an audience.

Important warning:  being in the debating society at university is the most frequently-used CV lie in the UK - don't go there on your CV if you didn't go there in person.

Major achievements

If you have a trumpet to blow then blow it!

Experienced sellers: take advantage of this space to list up to six key professional achievements that will set you apart from your competition.  For example: “Awarded Sales Person of the Year”. 

Novices: again - keep it short and sweet - a couple of genuine achievements from college or work experience will suffice.

Employment History

For those of us old enough to remember Max Bygraves who famously said "I want to tell you a story", that is exactly what you are going to do here – tell recruiters your career story starting with your most recent two positions and list in reverse chronological order.

Your most recent positions need the most attention because it is your skills and experiences gained in these roles that will determine your suitability for the role.  Whatever you do, do not bluff or tell white lies about your capabilities because they have the nasty habit of creeping up on you and you may get caught out which could cause some embarrassment at a later date.

Again, keep it simple, logical and presented in a bullet-point format for clarity.  And use action words to describe your accomplishments and contributions to your employer.  For example: “Successfully increased revenues by 20% year-on-year exceeding the target of 10%”. But make sure that you can support your case with evidence in case you are asked at interview.

Also read our article on filling out an application form for more relevant tips.

Personal Details, Education & Qualifications

Unless you discovered a cure for the common cold keep this part of your CV brief.  Simply state the qualifications that you have and the university or college attended.  And avoid trying to portray yourself as some amazingly adventurous or gregarious individual because, to be blunt most recruiters couldn’t care less.  If your hobby has relevance to your job then add detail, if not then don’t.

The final touches

Double-check that your print settings are definitely set to print to A4, not letterhead or US sizing.  There's nothing more annoying than correcting someone else's printer settings to find half the text disappears off the page.  If your potential employer needs to reformat your document, you can guarantee they probably won't bother: with that, or with you.

Save your CV document as your name if you are sending electronically - pity the poor HR manager who has thousands of documents called "CV" or "CV-updated-2008" - this attention to detail removes irritation and makes you stand out as organised and thoughtful.

Check and re-check the facts, grammar and punctuation - spelling mistakes are one of the biggest turn-offs for recruiters.

The absolute NO NOs

Ignore your careers advisor, ignore your Mum, ignore everyone else - this is the absolute law:

• The worst offence ever (cue those wallies on The Apprentice): it's impossible to give more than 100% of yourself so stop promising that you'll give 110% or worse even 200% - are you bringing your identical twin along with you to work for free?

• Do not use lots of different fonts and sizes, do not use colours: bold and perhaps a slightly larger font size is effective enough for most titling/headings, no "Word Art"
• Using a tiny font size and miniscule margins means you are waffling: get the font size up to 12pt and the margins to a couple of centimetres and then edit more critically
• Do not encorporate a photo of yourself into the document: this is a complete turn off and makes employers panic about equal opportunities legislation
• Do not use text boxes: they move about and go wonky and will muck up your layout.  Same with tables - avoid unless you really need to use them
• Different contact addresses for different dates in the near future: unless there is a real logistical problem and no one you can turn to for help, only have one contact address

Writing a winning CV can be a challenge, but by putting the mileage in you will have a document that will make potential employers take action and invite you for an interview.  Then the real selling begins!