CV Guide

Your CV is one of the most important documents that you'll ever write. And you'll need to keep rewriting your CV as your career progresses and you want to apply for new jobs. 
 
Career Organiser teaches you how to write a perfect CV, FAST - download your FREE trial now!

Your key marketing tool
  
CV stands for 'Curriculum Vitae' which (roughly translated) means 'the course of one's life'.  
 
A CV describes your skills, abilities, personality and work experience.
 
In North America, CVs are usually called 'resumes'. 
 

How to write your CV
   
If you've never written a CV before or you haven't had to write one for a long time, it's best to work through our CV Ace programme which is part of Career Organiser. 
  
CV Ace has a detailed tutorial which explains everything you need to know about a CV. But if you're short of time, you can use the Quick CV feature. 
 
CV Ace also lets you amend your CV in just a few minutes, because once you've typed in your basic details, the programme will automatically reformat your CV when you amend it.
 
 
Here are the basic steps you need to follow when writing your CV:
 
  
Step 1 - collect personal information
 
The first thing you need to do is to collect information about yourself. For example, you'll need details about the jobs you've had so far in your career and details about your qualifications (exam results etc).


Step 2 - decide what kind of CV to write
 
There are 3 main kinds of CV:

Chronological CV - focuses on your work experience and lists the jobs you've had in reverse date order (starting with your most recent job)
 
Functional CV - focuses on your skills rather than the jobs you've had
 
Hybrid CV - a mixture of the Chronological CV and the Functional CV.
 
(Click the links above for an example and more information about each type of CV. More examples are available in our CV Ace programme).
 
Employers are mostly familiar with the Chronological CV. Many of them expect to see this type rather than the others. But if you're just starting out on your career, or are trying to change careers, then it might be best to look at the Functional CV so you can show you have skills that will be valuable to an employer.
 
 
Step 3 - decide which sections to include in your CV
 
A CV is a document (usually no more than 2, A4 pages long) that is split into a number of sections to make it easy for the reader to find the information they're looking for.
 
For example, a Chronological CV might include these sections:
 
  
1. Contact details, including:

     a. postal address
     b. postcode
      c. home telephone number (landline)
     d. mobile phone number
     e. email address

(If you don't want to include all your contact details, make sure you give at least your mobile phone number and email address).

3. Personal profile 
  
4. Career history (work experience)

5. Education and qualifications

6. Other information

7. Interests

8. Referees

Include your name in the header on all pages, and the page number in the footer. Use the name you're usually known by and not, for example, Mr Frederick Bloggs, BA (which sounds pretentious). 'Fred Bloggs' is fine.

(See the sample CV links above for the kind of sections you might include in the Functional CV and the Hybrid CV).
 

Top 10 CV tips 
  
1. Make sure your CV is error-free. Spell-check it, then check it again for errors both on-screen and from a print-out. It's also a good idea to get someone else to check it for you too.
 
2. Tailor your CV for each new application. Don't use the same CV to apply for different jobs.
 
3. Don't include a photo with your CV unless you're applying for a job where your appearance is important - eg when you want to work as a model.
 
4. Never fold a printed CV. If you're sending your application by postal mail, put it in a large (C4) envelope so the employer gets it in the best possible condition.
 
5. Keep your CV to just 2 pages at the most. If you've already had a long career and many jobs, you can leave out, or summarise, the jobs you did more than about 10 years ago.
 
6. Always include a covering letter with your CV. This shouldn't mention details you've already written in your CV. Write one paragraph summarsing your skills and experience, and a second paragraph telling the employer why you want the job and could do it successfully. This example will help you.
 
7. Use good quality paper to print your CV, not cheap copier paper. Your CV should stand out from the crowd because it looks professional and well-produced. Cheap paper gives a bad impression.
 
8. Don't include details about your age, your date of birth, your marital status, religion or other personal details. Employers don't need to know about these things, and it might be illegal for them to ask you about them in an interview.
 
9. Make sure your contact details are up-to-date and accurate.
 
10. Don't use wacky fonts, colour or other unusual formatting. Employers are quite conservative people and expect to see a CV in a standard kind of format.

Download all our tips ...
 
Our CV Ace programme contains lots of CV tips grouped into 100 subjects. 
 
We've put them all in our 100 Great CV Tips e-book which is available as a pdf file. Sign-up for our newsletter and we'll send you the link to all our free e-books.

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How long will it take?
 
To write a CV that will really impress an employer, you need to think about what you're going to say in your CV, write it, and then check it thoroughly. That all takes time.
 
In general, you should allow about 4-5 hours to write the first draft of a new CV, but it can take longer. 

Write a draft, and then read it through to see if it makes sense and is impressive, and then amend it and check it over again. You should repeat the process of checking and amending until you have a CV you're satisfied with.
 
It's also a good idea to show your CV to other people - relatives, friends, colleagues etc. They can often suggest improvements and will also help you to spot errors such as spelling mistakes.
 
Doing a really good first draft should save you time when you have to amend it for different job applications.
 
 

Tailoring your CV
 
When you're applying to different employers for the same kind of job, you might be tempted to use exactly the same CV. This isn't a good idea.
 
Most employers have different requirements. Just look at the job advert, or the job description for a few different jobs and you'll see that this is the case. This means that if you use the same CV to apply for different jobs, you may not be telling employers that your skills and experience meet their needs.
 
So, to increase your chance of success, always customise or tailor your CV to match what the employer is looking for. Read the job ad or description carefully and then amend your CV to include the points mentioned in the ad.
 

A CV is a marketing tool - that 
means it's a way of 'selling yourself' to employers in order to get a job. 
 
 The aim of a CV is to impress an employer enough so that they will invite you to an interview. If your CV has errors or doesn't show that you have the skills or experience to do the job, you won't get an interview and that means you won't get the job!

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To give everyone the chance to use Career Organiser, we've made our site licences cheaper and easier to understand. 
  
Previously, licence prices started at £149!
 
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Just email us your order, and we'll send you a licence key, installation disc and an invoice (payable within 30 days).
 
  

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Career Guide