Constructing CVs

The factual aspects of your CV are of course fixed, however, the way in which you present them is not and can make a large difference in gaining that interview slot.

In essence an interview is a simple affair in which a manager must answer a few basic questions. If am a recruiting manager, these are some of the questions I want to answer during the interview

• How relevant is your experience to the role I want performed?
• If your experience is relevant enough, how successful have you been?
• If you say you've done it well, what evidence can I see to back this up?
• Does this candidate meet the other criteria I have set for this appointment, eg Geography, salary etc?

The CV is the starting point to try and answer these questions. If a manager can quickly see that your experience is relevant and you have been successful, and in addition that you meet other criteria, you are likely to be invited to an interview. The emphasis here is on the quickly. A manager will browse a plethora of CVs in the bid to form a shortlist. It may be that you CV contains the information to answer the above favourably, however, if it is not laid out to indicate this with a quick scan you may loose out.

Here area few simple tips.

• Start with the most relevant information. In many cases this will be your most recent employment. Leading with your full address, date of birth, nationality, age and marital status will not positively differentiate you, and may waste valuable manager 'air time'. Leave any necessary but neutral information such as this to until the end.
• Two to three pages is normal in the UK. Any more may be perceived as information overload, and just one page is a the American norm, but perhaps too brief for the UK.
• Your most recent employment should be clearly presented to show what you have done, with written evidence that you have done it well. We recommend 3 to 4 bullet points to describe the role and 3 to 4 bullet points of your best achievements which can later be supported at interview.
• If you have experience in more than 2 companies, reduce the information to a line to describe the role and a line to depict how well you have done it.
• Managers like to see stability and sustainability. If you have moved within 2 years of starting a role, put down the reason for leaving. If you omit this the manager may simply discard your CV as too much of a risk.
• 
  Hobbies and interest should be near the end, but are important, they are the first glimpse of your personality, so use this wisely.
• Always get at least two others to proof read your CV, simple mistakes such as spelling can have dreadful impact, it displays an unnecessary lack of care and sloppiness which manager's will assume will transfer to work generally.