CV writing help

Your CV is like a shop window; it shows off everything you’ve achieved and what you’re capable of achieving in the work environment.

As a student, you might not feel as if you’ve got much to say right now – but it’s not just about quantity. Knowing how to pitch the skills and experience you do have, and in the right way, will make you an attractive proposition to an employer regardless.

Two sides of A4 doesn’t give you much room to make an impact – even if you back it up with an online portfolio. So, here’s ten top tips to help your CV stand out from the crowd.

1. Keep it snappy
Usually a CV should be no more than two sides of A4 paper. And typically, an employer will spend up to 10 seconds skim reading it (especially if they have hundreds to get through.) So if it takes them 7 seconds to find the relevant information, they’re likely to give up before getting to the good stuff. Keep it punchy and to the point, and save the details for the interview.

2. Make it relevant
One CV does not fit all. So as painful as it may be, you need to adapt your CV to every role you apply for. That means researching the company, thinking about which of your skills will fit the role, what the employer is looking for and – most importantly – why they should pick you.

3. Include a personal statement
How will an employer identify you as an individual from your CV? To find the perfect hire, they need to make a connection between you and the job itself. Including a personal statement up front is one way of tying your skills to the role and company, as well as giving you a chance to inject some individuality. Include a short paragraph (3 short sentences tops) about your career aims and objectives, making sure they match the job you’re going for.

4. Mind the gap
As a student, it’s likely you’ll be searching for work as soon as you leave university. And therefore unlikely that you’ll have many gaps in your CV (periods of time you can’t account for on paper.) As a general rule, though, gaps make employers suspicious. So if you went travelling for a few months, include it. If you bummed around for a year, you must have done something worthy of noting down – even if it was just writing a blog, or playing in a band.

5. Stay up to date
Your CV should be updated regularly, as a matter of course. Every time something significant occurs that’s work or career-related, record it. Before you know it, you’ll have plenty of details to pick and choose from when you tailor your CV to apply for different roles.

6. No margin for error
The majority of employers scan CVs for mistakes before they digest the details. With high volumes of applicants, it’s no wonder they look for the quickest, easiest way of weeding out the weakest links. That means checking – and double checking – your spelling, punctuation, grammar and presentation.

7. Don’t lie
Blatant lies – and even little white ones – won’t cut it with an employer. Not only will they check the facts, you’re much more likely to get caught out. Imagine making something up, only to be quizzed ruthlessly on it at the interview. Chances are you’ll fall flat on your red face as you um and er your way through the fabrication.

8. Quantify the facts
Can you back up your achievements? Say you worked part time in a retail shop during university, and dealt directly with customers. A better way of presenting that fact might be, ‘I worked as a customer services representative at ABC retail, and dealt with over 100 in-store customer enquiries in six months.’

9. Looking good
Presentation, presentation, presentation. Formatting your CV so that it looks good is far more important than you realise. You might be used to writing essays, double spaced, in whatever font you fancy. A CV is slightly different: Use bullets to break up text and organise the page, keep sentences short, leave white space to increase the neat factor, and pick a clean no frills font that’s easy to read.

10. Finders keepers
If you’ve uploaded your CV to a job site, or you’ve got an online portfolio, it will need to have the right keywords for employers to find you. Do some research on job titles and phrases most widely used in the industry you’re applying to work in (google can help with that) so a search engine picks them up.