The purpose of your CV is not to get you the job. Its purpose is to get you an interview, and after your meeting to remind the person you met with about you. Remember: you are not writing a CV for yourself, you are writing it for the reader. So, as you write your CV, put yourself in the shoes of the intended reader.

This section takes you through the content and detail of effective CVs:

• A standard two-page printed CV
• A one-page summary CV
• An online CV

2.Principles and Guidelines

The decision to recruit is like a buying decision on the part of an employer. This creates a very clear picture of what a CV must include:

1. It must meet the needs of the target organisation where possible. This means a single generalist CV is unlikely to be sufficient. 2. It must highlight your achievements and how they relate to the job you are applying for. It must give the reader a clear indication of why you should be considered for this role.

To decide what to include in your CV and where, follow these principles and guidelines:

• Generally, the document should contain no more than 2 pages. Sometimes, a one page summary is all that is required.
• Your CV should be honest and factual.
• The first page should contain enough personal details for a recruitment consultant or potential employer to contact you easily.
• Choose a presentation format that allows you to headline key skills, key achievements or key attributes.
• Your employment history should commence with your current or most recent job and work backwards.
• Achievements should be short, bullet-pointed statements and include your role, the action you took and a comment on the result of your action.
• Where information clearly demonstrates your suitability for the vacancy you're applying for, and enhances your chances of being short-listed, include this information near the beginning of the CV.
• Leave out information that is irrelevant or negative.
• Include details of recent training or skills development events you have attended which could be relevant.
• List all your professional memberships and relevant qualifications.

As we work through examples in this section, we will continually refer back to these principles and guidelines.

3.Creating a CV

The most common contents of a CV include:

• Personal Details
• Skills and Career Summary
• Key Achievements
• Qualifications
• Career History

The following is an example of what we believe constitutes a good CV.

Download an Example CV

Don't forget: The ultimate test of YOUR CV is whether it meets the needs of the person making the buying decision, and whether YOU feel comfortable with its content and style. The next few pages will provide a detailed description of how to achieve this.

4.Standard Two-Page Printed CV

When you submit a printed CV to a recruiter or a potential employer, it is likely to be the first thing they get to see or read of yours. Therefore, you need to present your CV well and make it user friendly. For example:

• Use a good quality paper, typically 100gsm in weight and watermarked. In most cases, be conservative and print your CV in black ink on white paper. Covering letters should use identical stationery.
• Lay your CV out neatly.
• Don't make the margins too deep or too narrow.
• Resist writing lengthy paragraphs - be concise
• Careful use of bold type can be effective
• Typefaces such as Times New Roman or Arial are fairly standard.
• Do not use a type size less than 11pt.
• Check for spelling or typographical errors - whoever actually types your CV, errors are YOUR responsibility. Don't rely on a spell checker. If you're not sure about a word, resort to a dictionary. Sloppiness and lack of care could be heavily penalised.

Contact Details

A 2 page CV typically has the following sections:

• At the top of the first page should be your Contact Details. For visual impact, the text should be centred. It's not necessary to give the document a heading i.e. "Curriculum Vitae". Instead, your name should be the heading. Type it using a larger type size e.g. 16pt and in bold type.
• To save space, write your address on the line below your name, not as if you were addressing an envelope - but as a string of text with commas separating your house name/number, street name, town and post code with commas.
• Type in your contact telephone numbers. If you're still at work and are able to take calls in privacy, you could give your work number as well as your home one. Give your mobile number too if you wish. An e-mail address (if you have one) should also be recorded in this section.

Employment History

Starting with your current or most recent job first, compile the following information:

• Dates: Quote from/to in years only, e.g. 1998-date, 1994-96. The dates should be placed vertically in either the left-hand or right-hand margin. This makes it easier for the reader to scan up and down to check for continuity of employment.
• Organisation and location (city or town name only): Not everyone works for an organisation whose name is well known. Therefore, underneath the organisation's name, give a brief narrative about the core business and annual turnover, for example, "One of the UK's leading manufacturers of plastics, employing 3,000 on four sites. Turnover 1999-2000 £230m". This allows the reader to quickly make comparisons about the size and complexity of the organisation, number of employees, complexity of challenges, market position, focus of organisation, etc.
• Job title: Underneath the job title, construct a 'function' statement, i.e. what you were employed to do. Be selective in what you write here: mention the principal tasks and responsibilities of your role, to include those things you enjoy and are good at doing. It might be best to omit other things you do but don't enjoy so much, unless they are crucial parts of the job you're targeting. The function statement should be no longer than 4-5 lines in length (your consultant can give you advice about this).
• Achievements: These, potentially, set you apart from the competition. Each achievement statement should have three elements:
• an ownership statement, for example, "Part of a team of four..., Initiated..., Implemented...".
• what you did, for example, "Produced..., Designed..."
• the result of your actions (this can be quantitative and/or qualitative)

Achievements should be written in the form of short, punchy, bullet-point statements of fact. They are designed to arouse the reader's interest and generate questions like how? what? why? etc. so that the decision-maker will shortlist you to obtain the answers. Repeat the process for the previous role, and the one before that, etc. Give full details only of jobs going back 7-10 years. Beyond that, you may prefer to just list the dates, employer's name and job title, or have a summary paragraph such as, "Prior to these roles, I held a series of positions with a number of blue chip organisations". If you have worked for the same employer for 10 years or more, try to break that period up according to the different roles you've had, with different responsibilities and achievements. There's no need to provide salary details or reasons for leaving on your CV. Your employment history is quite likely to run onto the second page of the CV. Then, if appropriate, you can describe the training and skills development from which you have benefited recently.

Training and Development

The events you list under this heading should add value to your CV. So don't list events like 'Half-day course on the Emergency Evacuation Procedures from XYZ House'. Management development, computer skills courses or specialised training in your field could be listed. The details to include are:

• Date (year only)
• Event title (and duration if over 2 days)
• Name of provider (in-house or external)

Education and Qualifications

This section should include all professional memberships as well as your general academic attainments. Employers like to see a good standard of general education. If you're currently studying for an additional qualification, this should also be included (at the top of the list). Lay it out in reverse chronological order, in a fashion similar to your Training and Development section:

• Date(s)
• Name of establishment
• Qualification(s) gained

The older you are, the less need there is to list all the subjects and grades at which you passed at every stage. It is quite sufficient to say "Passes in 3 subjects at 'A' level and 9 at 'GCSE' (or 'O') level.

Personal Details

This is often the most contentious part of the CV. How much should you reveal? For example, should the over-50s executive reveal his or her date of birth? Should the twenty-something female reveal her age or marital status? Different authors of books on CV writing say different things. In the end, it's down to you .

If you have been honest about the dates of your education and employment, most intelligent people will be able to work out your age to within about 2 years. So you might as well show your date of birth (not age). Other things that candidates sometimes add include:

• Nationality
• Status (it can be advisable to avoid using terms such as separated or divorced, as the reader might assume you're still carrying some emotional baggage)
• Full driver's licence
• Willing to relocate
• Non-smoker

Whatever you include, keep it short and keep it relevant. For example, if the position required you to be mobile, then it would be helpful to tell the employer you have a full driver's licence.

Include outside interests and hobbies only if they add value to your application. Some people get involved in activities outside of work that demonstrate the use of completely different skills sets.

Referees

Before you commence your jobsearch activity you need to contact potential referees to obtain their agreement to act as referees. It is not conventional to reveal the identities of your referees on the CV. Some employers will request such information prior to an interview, in which case you provide the names and contact details in your covering letter. Other employers will wait until they have met you and decided on whether they want to take matters further.

You are responsible for referee management. That means, when a potential employer or recruiter asks you for your referees, this is the cue for you to also contact them. Explain to each referee the nature of the role you are applying for. Detail the skills the employer is interested in. This will enable the referee to have a relevant, constructive conversation with the employer/recruiter.

5.One Page Summary CV

This is a stand-alone page which gives the reader a snapshot of your skills, competencies and/or previous achievements and provides some compelling reasons why you would be a good candidate for this specific job. The following areas must be included:

- Personal Details:

The recruiter or potential employer needs to have enough information to contact you easily during this job search. Provide as many of the following as you can: