CV Writing Tips from George Henderson Recruitment

CV Guide

At some stage during the recruitment process you will be asked to provide a CV or résumé. Your CV is your personal sales brochure and it is essential that it is clear, concise and contains up to date relevant information. More importantly, it needs to be an accurate and honest reflection of your education and work attainments to date.

Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned is that any CV must be concise. With this in mind George Henderson Recruitment have identified below the key areas that are essential for CV creation.

Font

We suggest you use a single font, like Verdana or Arial, which are both very legible and work well in small sizes. It's easy for the eye to focus on (research tells us) and nice round letters make the reader tune in. Italics are the most difficult type of font or character type to read. Keep it simple. Everything you can do to help the reader will be useful. Rather than use too many different sizes to highlight and make an impact, use the bold command instead.

Format

Keep your CV to a maximum of three pages (the reader will tune out after that) - two pages would be better - and fill it with information that is relevant to the job.

Content and Structure

Make sure your CV has a clear structure - include career overview, skills overview, qualifications (education/professional) and employment history.

Employers often make up their mind from reading the initial summary and key skills. Create a compelling summary on the first page and include a list of your key skills and key applications in bold. Note the quantity of experience you have for each key skill.

Bullet points break up a CV well. Employers want to get straight to the salient points so direct them there. Important information should stand out but avoid using just one or two words.

Each bullet point should give the reader a feel for:

• When you instigated a particular idea or project -(self-starter).
  
• When you are or were responsible for a particular task - (primary influence).
  
• When you assisted on a particular task - (secondary influence).
  
• If you have been personally responsible for substantial revenue growth; and/or cost reduction; share price improvement; team building, opening new branches,  markets / countries; or increase in the number of profit-generating customers, make this clear in your CV.

Give the reader a feel for the type of tasks and responsibilities that you can cope with and how proactive you have been.

Think about how you can break down projects you have worked on into specific tasks. Give examples of any ad hoc projects and the issues they tackled.

Your CV and interview are the only chances you've got to advertise yourself. Make sure you stand out. First impressions last.

CV DO's and DON'Ts

DO's

• Ideally your CV should be no more than two pages. Think quality, not quantity. On average a reader will absorb 60% of the first page, 40% of the second and very little, if any, of a third. Any pages after a third are generally a waste.
• Communicate your strengths, your achievements, your initiative and your personality; in short, your credibility and suitability.
• Put the greatest emphasis on your most recent positions. Summarise older roles. Include dates and months of employment for each.
• Include your competence in foreign languages (basic, good, fluent), but be honest.
• Be positive - don't be too modest and don't lie about your experience.
• Tailor your CV to each job application. Tailor the CV to the company/department and position whenever possible. Although this may be time-consuming, it could just help you clinch that job! You could include a 'position sought' section in your CV for this purpose.

DON'Ts

• Don't make false or exaggerated claims; honesty is always the best policy.
• Don't provide personal information such as weight, height, and place of birth. You can include information about your interests, but keep it short.
• Don't enclose a picture.
• There is no need to include your 'hobbies'. If you have some outstanding achievements, such as 'Olympic Athlete', there is clearly no harm in mentioning this: it may enhance the interview.

A badly prepared CV undermines the credibility of its contents. If you cannot produce a professional document about yourself, an employer may conclude that you are unlikely to have the competence to fill an important job.

Don't include your required salary! Negotiate this when you get the job offer!