Take time and effort to prepare your CV

The words Curriculum Vitae literally mean ‘story of your life’ and it follows that your CV should reflect (in brief) your work and education experience, and leisure achievements and accolades.

A CV should be concise, well written and neatly formatted to capture an employer’s attention. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and poor formatting create a negative impression and so it is advisable that you have someone read over your CV before submitting to any employer.

The same applies to company application forms; it is good practice to have a fresh pair of eyes read over the form to ensure it reads well, and to check spelling and punctuation before returning to an employer.

When compiling your CV, it should take time, thought and effort. There is no one best format but as a guideline the following is a good structure to follow from an employer’s perspective:

•  Personal details (name, address, contact details including e-mail).
• Work experience (name of employer, dates worked, position held, summary of job role and reason for leaving).
• Education/training (summary of qualifications and grades obtained/summary of trade/vocational/professional accreditations).
• Personal profile (e.g personal interests, IT literacy, team/individual accolades).
• Referees (preferably two, one of whom is a recent employer).
• Two pages are adequate for a CV, and work experience and education sections should be written starting with the most recent qualification/ job.
• A CV should be typed using common typefaces such as Arial/Times and printed on quality paper.
• Take time when writing your CV, scrutinise every last detail, because you can be guaranteed that’s exactly what a prospective employer will do when you submit it.
• Make sure you know the content of your CV and stick to the truth.  Over embellishing or stretching the truth, only means you will have to remember the lies you told in addition to dealing with the interview situation!
• Tailor your skills around the Job Description you have applied for, this make your CV relevant to the job you’re applying for.  Each job will require you to emphasise the skills you have that are suitable for the vacancy