Your CV
It stands for Curriculum Vitae. It's Latin, meaning course of life. In America they call it a resumé. (By the way, you can either write it as C.V., the correct way until recently, or CV, without the full stops which signify an abbreviation. It is NOT C.V with only one full stop.)
For some jobs you will be asked to send your CV, with a covering letter; so it's necessary to get this document right. You can't manage without a computer for this. It should always be composed by you, perhaps with help and suggestions from someone else, and certainly with someone else to proof-read it. But what you don't want is a generic document with only the basic details changed. Employers can spot these a mile away and will assume that you're not capable of doing it for yourself.
For some jobs you will be asked to send your CV, with a covering letter; so it's necessary to get this document right. You can't manage without a computer for this. It should always be composed by you, perhaps with help and suggestions from someone else, and certainly with someone else to proof-read it. But what you don't want is a generic document with only the basic details changed. Employers can spot these a mile away and will assume that you're not capable of doing it for yourself.
- It should be eye-catching and distinctive without being stupidly so. Could you pick it out of a pile? There are many templates on the internet which you can use. A quick search found these sites: Dayjob.com, CVTips, totaljobs, and careersnz, but there are lots more out there, and many of these sites offer general job-hunting advice. Pick one which fits the sort of thing you will be including, then simply download a template, save it, over-write it and, if you want to, change it. There are also templates in MS Word. If you don't want to use a template, at least look at some to get some ideas. Use different font sizes and bolding of headings, but stick to one font throughout; no colour.
- It should be short. No one is going to wade through a dozen pages of waffle. Unless you're a professional with lots of achievements to list, a side and a half of A4 is enough. On the other hand, if you can't fill a single side, you need to pad it out a bit. Don't use a layout with lots of white space.
- It should be in correct English. Even if you are well educated and use the spell-check you can make mistakes. If you are not that good at such things as spelling, punctuation and grammar you must get it checked by someone with at least an A Level in the subject. It really does matter.
- It should be relevant to a particular job. The basics will stay the same but you can tweak it to focus on the job you are applying for. That is one of the reasons for keeping it on the computer or, preferably, on a memory stick.
- We were surprised to find that there's a fashion now for writing a CV in the third person rather than the first; that is, using "he" or "she" instead of "I". We don't understand this, and would always use "I". This is your document about yourself. But it's not worth fighting about.
What to include
- The personal statement. Should this be at the end or the beginning of the document? There are different views on this. We favour a mixed approach; a short personal statement at the beginning, just under your name and contact details, and a more detailed paragraph at the end. The opening statement, of no more than a couple of sentences, simply introduces yourself and can be tweaked for the particular job or employer. At the end of the CV you will detail your skills and experience and follow that with a description of your personal attributes. Don't write something just because it sounds good. We hear stories of these statements being copied and pasted onto lots of CVs, and this makes them meaningless. You should not list your hobbies unless you can claim that these give you relevant skills and attributes. Emphasise your willingness to take on new challenges and undergo training.
- You will need the work history and education and qualifications that we discussed under application forms. You have space to expand on these, detailing what you did in a particular job and bringing out the parts which are most relevant to the job you are going for.
- References. You can either include the names, status and contact details of two referees (remember to ask them first) or just put "References on request".
The age question There are people who will tell you not to put your age on your CV, especially if you are over 40. This is silly. Of course you should not headline it. But your employment history and education will tell an employer roughly how old you are, so you can't pretend to be 25 if you're 50. Similarly, there are those who advise you to omit all dates. Presumably the employer is supposed to focus only on the fact that you worked in a particular job for x number of years. But we suspect that this is likely to irritate the employer and do you no favours. Make a virtue of your experience and maturity.
Update it regularly. Make sure that all the information on your CV is current, including your contact details.
There's a website called cvrite (www.cvrite.co.uk) which seems to offer a good CV writing process.