Writing Your CV

This is quite possibly the most important part of your CV, just like the title and description of a news article, advertisement or book an employer will make a judged snapshot decision within milliseconds if they are interested and will read on, so what you write here might be the difference of make or break.

So what should you include? As mentioned earlier, this is your opportunity to tailor your CV to the role you are applying for, highlighting and matching your skills, qualities and experiences to the specific role. It should paint a picture of who you are, what you can offer not just your skills but experiences too, your career achievements and career goals. Now this isn’t an essay so try to keep your personal statement concise, enlightening and to the point, this will help to grab your reader’s attention and generally makes a more memorable and lasting impact. Don’t forget employers will likely have many CVs to go through, so less is more, more or less.

It’s no secret that the neuroscience of everybody’s favourite topic of conversation is themselves, however, though this is a good starting point for writing this next section, do be mindful you want to keep the reader engaged. Here you want to add all of your previous jobs but showcasing the experience, skills, achievements and duties most relevant to the role.

Start out by listing your employment in date order starting with your most recent position first, you want to write your job title, the company/employer, the dates you worked there, a short description of what the role entailed, a list of your responsibilities and your achievements and skills.

You will want to write your education and qualifications in a similar format as your experience and employment history in step 3, however omitting a description and list of skills, what you want to display in date order is the institution’s name, the dates you attended and the subject and qualification, listing any relevant projects and assignments.