PREPARING YOUR CV
The job of a CV is to get your foot in the door of the employer you wish to work for. It is a marketing tool and a selling instrument.
If you have seen your ideal job advertised in the newspaper you will need to rely on your CV to get you an interview. The problem is that employers may have hundreds of other CVs to read through so will only spend about 30-40 seconds reviewing yours (about the first one and a half pages) – therefore it needs to be highly effective and must capture the interest of the prospective employer.
Your CV should be personalized for the role you’re applying for to match the skill set needed. Don’t rely on a generic CV. Your CV should be between 2-5 pages long. Avoid making it too lengthy-anything over 10 pages is too long and employers won’t have the time to read it.
The details on your CV should have a purpose or not be there at all. Less is often more! Make full use of each page. Never leave a half page!
WHAT YOU SHOULD INCLUDE IN YOUR CV…
- Contact Details – Name, Contact Numbers, Address, Email Address
Put your name on each page of your CV- either on the header or footer. This is in case pages get detached; you do not want to lose half of your career!
Have at least one contact phone number that you can be reached on during working hours. It is often useful to give your mobile number and an email address that you check on a regular basis.
Use a formal email address e.g. amywalker@920.co.nz
- Personal Information – Visa Status, Availability, Interests (optional)
Giving your residency/visa status is a relevant detail as it shows your availability to work. Interests and hobbies should be put at the end of the resume.
- Executive Summary
The first page of your CV should contain an “executive summary” of your key strengths, capabilities and competence. What you write must make the hiring manager want to read more. It must quickly show who you are and what you can do for the company.
Identify your skills, experience and attributes and match them to what the employer wants. Look for keywords in the advertisement and address the main elements. For example the advertisement might say: “We are looking for a committed person with strong communication skills and a confident personality”. The keywords here are “committed”, “communication” and “confident”. Show you meet these essential criteria. Have a look at the employer’s website to see if you can find out any further information about their future goals and their values. In your executive summary identify the skills, knowledge and experience you have that are relevant to these goals and expectations.
The executive summary should also include your career objective.
- Skills/Technical Skills
Summarize your skills early on in the resume. List your skills in bullet point or table format. Give an example for each skill where you can. For all you IT candidates full details of your technical skills need to be included!
Don’t leave out useful skills. Things like being able to speak French, or the fact that you have a driving license, are worth putting down.
- Work History
List your work history in reverse chronological order starting from the most recent. Include the dates of employment (month and year), company name and your job title.
Put together a sentence about the company e.g. The industry, what they do, size.
List some of your main responsibilities and duties. You could include some of the projects you worked on, achievements and training.
- Education
List your qualifications (professional and tertiary) in reverse chronological order starting from most recent.
Include dates you graduated, the qualification, and institution for any university, industry, or school certifications. Put down your highest level of appropriate qualification. And, unless you are just starting your career, you don’t need to put down your school.
If you get to interview stage make sure you have the documentation to support what you list because you could be asked to present them.
- References
If you would like to, include references on your CV. Make sure you put their names, contact details, job title, company and their relationship to you. It is important to seek permission from the referee if you are going to use them and let him or her know that the employer will be contacting them.
TIPS FOR WRITING YOUR CV:
1. Make everything in your CV positive. Don’t include unnecessary or negative information. For example: reasons for leaving jobs, salary, plus personal details such as gender, marital status and date of birth.
2. Your resume is a reference point in the interview so make sure it is accurate as you will be challenged on some of its content and make sure you are familiar with the material in your resume. Nothing looks worse in an interview than someone who is uncertain when questioned about dates, projects or responsibilities.
3. Provide your resume in MS WORD format. If you must provide a PDF also include a Word version or another PDF with your contact details and referees taken out so that we could present it to our clients.
4. Do not leave gaps in your CV. If you took a year out, carried out an interim assignment, or travelled for six months, say so. Explain the gaps in your resume, it is not unusual to have gone travelling for a year, so if you were off from work explain why.
5. DON’T include photos on your resume unless requested by the employer. If this is the case keep the photo current and professional.
6. It is a good idea to continually update your resume, and once you have, send a copy to your consultant to ensure you are identified of new positions that fit your skill set.
7. Attach your resume to an email, rather than pasting the text into your email program. Pasting text into an email program sometimes causes text to appear on the recipient’s screen in a distorted or muddled mess, making it very difficult to read.
8. Only apply for roles that you are suitable for. Don’t be unrealistic and apply for roles that you don’t have enough experience for as you are just wasting your time as well as the employers.
9. If you are a graduate apply for entry level roles.
PRESENTATION OF YOUR CV
Avoid shading, columns, complicated or small fonts, and pictures as they will not read, fax, copy or scan well and they distract from the content.
Proof read, spell check (using NZ dictionary) and get a friend to read over your CV to make sure there are no spelling errors. Make sure font is consistent and easily read and there is sufficient white space so it doesn’t appear too overwhelming to the reader! Improve the attractiveness of your CV by using colour (not too much) and presenting it well (binded or in a clearfile).
Have consistent and clear headings. Perhaps use a different font for headings. Don’t use anymore than 2 different fonts throughout your whole CV.
Check out the link below! A powerpoint resume on how to create clear and effective resumes…
