Top 10 CV Pointers

Clarity
Organise all the information in your CV under clear subheadings. Important skill
s and recent experience need to be near the top. Remember that yours isn t the onl
y CV which a potential employer will have to look at they might easily be going
through dozens or even hundreds, depending on the situation. So you don t have lon
g to get their attention and everything has to be very clearly laid out. If they
skim down the page for even a couple of seconds looking for information on a pa
rticular subject, you need to make sure they find it!
Style
You might think that one CV looks more-or-less the same as any other, but actual
ly the subtle differences in presentation, formatting and visual style can make
a surprising difference. Make sure that your CV is in an easy-to-read font in a
reasonably-sized typeface. Include plenty of white margin space it makes the doc
ument easier to read and it s handy because the employer can write notes there. Us
e bullet points for any lists.
Presentation
Always, always, always send a covering letter. The letter should be brief, shoul
d get to the point, and should draw attention to the two or three key areas whic
h qualify you for the job. The only exception to this rule is if you re responding
to a job ad which tells you not to send a covering letter in those cases, obvio
usly do as you re told!
Short but not too short - is sweet
Keep it brief! Obviously don t omit anything that you really want prospective empl
oyers to know about, but other than that, try to make your CV short, efficient a
nd tightly written. It can be tempting to organise everything into lists and bul
let points in order to save space and reduce the word count, but don t overuse the
se techniques. Also, there are certain things which you might be tempted to dupl
icate on your CV entries for the various posts you ve held in the past language or
computer skills, for example. Don t bother re-listing them. Just list them once f
or the most relevant or recent job.
Information
Provide as much information as you can, but do it in the most efficient way poss
ible without making the whole thing look like a spreadsheet. Under each job, pro
vide a short, punchy summary of your main responsibilities and role. Talk about
the results you achieved. Use statistics where you can, and keep these sorts of
description fairly impersonal Achieved 10% sales increase across first two years f
or example.
Chronology
The chronology of the information on your CV that is, the order in which things
happened is very important. It s something which a remarkable number of people sti
ll get wrong. Put the most recent things first and work backwards. Don t go into t
oo much detail about jobs you had ten years ago, or that did for three weeks whi
le you were on holiday. If you ve got a very long or busy work history, keep the s
mall stuff very brief employers aren t really going to want to read all of it, and
if they do need more detailed information they ll ask for it.
Personality
Not all the information on a CV has to be cold, clinical and impersonal. Employe
rs are much more likely to hire somebody if they can get a sense of what that pe
rson is like and what they will be like to have in the workplace. So when you do
talk about your roles or achievements with a previous employer, consider what t
hose things say about you and express the facts in a way which gives a good impr
ession. Talk about how your skills have developed, where appropriate. Make your
CV stand out from those which are just lists of places and dates.
Flexibility
Change your CV depending on the job you re applying for! It may seem obvious but p
lenty of people don t even think to do it. Create several different versions of yo
ur CV which emphasize different skills so if one job you re applying for involves
using computers a lot, put the emphasis on your technical skills, and go into mo
re detail about your success in previous, similar jobs. The ability to quickly a
nd accurately produce customised CVs and cover letters is very important and muc
h help can be found on the hireapplications.com site.
Accuracy
Check, check, and check again! Get rid of all the typos and bad grammar. Read ou
t the CV in front of the mirror and make sure it s not difficult to read. Make sur
e all the dates and spelling of company names are accurate. Spelling errors stan
d out a mile, and make a CV look amateurish.
The Truth!
We all want to come across well when we present ourselves to another person. And
when you re working on your CV and nervous about your lack of experience in a par
ticular area (as all of us are from time to time), it may be tempting to enhance
your CV with a few little white lies the sort of thing that no-one will ever ca
tch you out on. DON T. There is a clear line between presentation and fabrication,
and even the tiniest embellishment can catch you out. You d never forgive yoursel
f if you squandered your chances by adding something false that the employer wou
ldn t have thought was essential anyway.

5 Hill Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53700
March 15, 2005
Ms. Helen Jones
President
Jones, Jones & Jones
123 International Lane
Boston, Massachusetts 01234
Dear Ms. Jones:
 Ah, business letter format-there are block formats, and indented formats, a
nd
modified block formats . . . and who knows what others. To simplify matter
s,
we're demonstrating the block format on this page, one of the two most comm
on
formats. For authoritative advice about all the variations, we highly
recommend The Gregg Reference Manual, 9th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001)
,
a great reference tool for workplace communications. There seems to be no
consensus about such fine points as whether to skip a line after your retur
n
address and before the date: some guidelines suggest that you do; others do
not. Let's hope that your business letter succeeds no matter which choice
you make!
When you use the block form to write a business letter, all the information
is typed flush left, with one-inch margins all around. First provide your
own address, then skip a line and provide the date, then skip one more line
and provide the inside address of the party to whom the letter is addressed
.
If you are using letterhead that already provides your address, do not
retype that information; just begin with the date. For formal letters,
avoid abbreviations where possible.
Skip another line before the salutation, which should be followed by a colo
n.
Then write the body of your letter as illustrated here, with no indentation
at the beginnings of paragraphs. Skip lines between paragraphs.
After writing the body of the letter, type the closing, followed by a comma
,
leave 3 blank lines, then type your name and title (if applicable), all
flush left. Sign the letter in the blank space above your typed name. Now
doesn't that look professional?
Sincerely,

John Doe
Administrative Assistant