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                                                       C.V. TIPS

Curriculum Vitae writing

• Keep your curriculum vitae simple.

• Your curriculum must be concise.

• Your curriculum vitae tips: must be easy to read.

• Your curriculum vitae must sell you.

• And your curriculum vitae must be tailored to what the reader is looking for.

C.V. writing is like advertising.

Your CV must sell you to a prospective employer, and compete against other applicants who are also trying to sell themselves. So the challenge in CV writing is to be more appealing and attractive than the rest. This means that your curriculum vitae must be presented professionally, clearly, and in a way that indicates you are an ideal candidate for the job, i.e., you possess the right skills, experience, behavior, attitude, morality that the employer is seeking. The way you present your CV effectively demonstrates your ability to communicate, and particularly to explain a professional business proposition.

Put yourself in the shoes of the employer: write down a description of the person they are looking for. You can now use this as a blueprint for your CV. The better the match the more likely you are to be called for an interview.

Presentation and order is important, as it is in advertising, and most people get it wrong, which will make it easier for you when you get it right. When you are selling anything you need to get to the key points quickly. The quicker the reader can read and absorb the key points the more likely they are to buy. A well-presented CV also indicates that you are professional, business-like and well organised. The structure suggested below sells your strengths first and provides personal and career history details last - most people do it the other way round which has less impact. You can immediately stand out from them and make a much better impression.

For all but very senior positions you should aim to fit your CV on one side of standard sheet of business paper.

For large corporation director positions two or three sheets are acceptable, but a well-presented single side will always tend to impress and impact more than lots of detail spread over a number of sheets.

Always try to use as few words as possible. I

Never use two words when one will do.

CURRICULUM VITAE TEMPLATE

(Other than 'Title', use these sub-headings or similar)

Heading

Simply your name followed by the word or 'CV' or 'Curriculum Vitae' ('Resume' is used more in the USA).

Personal Profile

Five to seven high impact statements that describe you. These are effectively your personal strengths. Be bold, confident and positive when you construct these key statements.

Orientate the descriptions to the type of job you are seeking. If you have a serious qualification and it's relevant, include it as the final point.

Experience

This is not your career history. It's a bullet point’s description of your experience. Make sure you orientate these simple statements to meet the requirements of the reader, in other words ensure the experience/strengths are relevant to the type of job/responsibility that you are seeking.

Again try to use powerful statements and impressive language - be bold and check that the language and descriptions look confident and positive.

If you are at the beginning or very early stage of your career you will not have much or any work experience to refer to, in which case you must refer to other aspects of your life experience - your college or university experience, your hobbies, social or sports achievements, and bring out the aspects that will be relevant to the way you would work. Prospective employers look for key indicators of initiative, creativity, originality, organization, planning, cost-management, people-skills, technical skill, diligence, reliability, depending on the job; so find examples of the relevant required behaviors from your life, and encapsulate them in snappy, impressive statements.

Go for active not passive descriptions, i.e. where you are making things happen, not having things happen to you.

Achievements

High impact descriptions of your major achievements. Separate, compact, impressive statements.

Ensure you refer to facts, figures and timescales - prospective employers look for quantative information - hard facts, not vague claims. These achievements should back up your Personal Profile claims earlier - they are the evidence that you can do what you say. Again they must be relevant to the role you are seeking.

History

A tight compact neatly presented summary of your career history. Start with the most recent or present job and end with the first. Show starting and finishing years - not necessarily the months. Show company name, city address - not necessarily the full address. Show your job title(s). Use a generally recognised job title if the actual job title is misleading or unclear.

Personal Details

Use these sub-headings to provide details of full name, sex (if not obvious from your name), address, phone, email, date of birth, marital status, number of children and ages if applicable, driving licence (hopefully clean - if not state position), education (school, college, university and dates), qualifications. Keep all this information very tight, compact and concise.

If you are at a more advanced stage of your career you can choose to reduce the amount of personal details shown as some will be implicit or not relevant. Date the resume, and save as a file with some indication of what type of job it was orientated for, as you may develop a number of different resumes.

C.V. sample writing example 2

C.V. cover letters samples

CV cover letters must be very professional and perfectly presented. Use a smart good quality letter headed paper, and ensure that the name and address details and date are correct and personal for the recipient of the CV. Do not use scruffy photocopies - ideally do not use photo-copies at all - CV cover letters should look individual and special for the job concerned.

Look at what the job advert is seeking. Ensure that the key skills, attributes and experience are reflected in the cover letter as well as your CV. Draw the reader's attention to the fact that your profile fits their requirements. Make the cover letter look like a special and direct response to the job advert and personal profile that is sought.

Keep CV cover letters brief and concise. The reader will make assumptions about you from what you write and how you write it and the quality of your cover letter presentation.

Sample cover letter

Ensure you lay the letter out neatly on your own good quality letter headed paper, with your own address top right or center-top. Avoid fancy fonts and upper case (capital letters). Use a single font 10-12pt size, maybe bold or underlined for the reference or heading if you use one.

Full name and address details.

Date

Reference if required.

Dear (Mr/Mrs/Ms Surname)

(optional heading, bold or underlined - normally the job title and or reference if they've asked you to quote one)

I enclose my CV in respect of the above reference (or state position advertised and when it appeared). You will see that I have the required skills, capabilities and experience for this position, notably (state two or three attributes briefly).

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

(Sign)

(And below print your name - not hand-written)

C.V. Cover letters for unadvertised positions or opportunities

It is perfectly fine to send a speculative CV to potential employers, i.e. not in response to any advert. In this case you should get the name of the senior person responsible for staffing decisions in the area you wish to apply. (Call the company to find out the correct name and address details.) In these cases obviously you won't know precisely what skills they are seeking, but you should be able to imagine the attributes that they might need. Here are some examples - include two or three in your cover letter that best match your own profile and their likely interest:

• Reliable and dependable

• Decisive and results-driven

• Creative problem-solver

• Team-player

• Technically competent/qualified (state discipline or area)

• Commercially experienced and aware

• Task-orientated

• Excellent inter-personal and communications skills

• Sound planning and organizational capabilities

• Loyal and determined

Speculative sample C.V. cover letter sample

Again, ensure you lay the letter out neatly on your own good quality letter headed paper, with your own address top right or top-top. Avoid fancy fonts and upper case (capital letters). Use a single font, maybe bold or underlined for the reference or heading if you use one.

Full name and address details.

Date

Dear (Mr/Mrs/Ms Surname)

(Optional heading, bold or underlined - in this example you would normally refer to a job title, and include with the word 'opportunities' or 'openings', for example: 'commercial management opportunities')

I am interested in any openings in the above area and enclose my CV. You will see that I have skills and capabilities that enable me to make a significant contribution to an organization such as your own, notably (state two or three attributes briefly).

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

(Sign)

(And below print your name - not hand-written)

As you can see, CV cover letters can be short and very concise. Cover letters need to be, otherwise people won't read them. Writing a short concise, hard-hitting cover letter for CV also shows confidence and professionalism.

The bigger the job, the longer you can make your CV cover letters, but even cover letters for board level positions have more impact if they are very short and concise. Make your key points in a no-nonsense fashion and then finish.

Keep your CV and cover letter simple. Your CV and cover letter must be concise and easy to read. Your CV and your cover letter must sell you, must be tailored to what the reader is looking for

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