Career Development - Writing Your CV with Template

The best advice on creating that cv!

WRITING YOUR C.V.

The main purpose of a c.v. is to get you an interview with the hiring manager. The c.v. should inform a potential new employer about you, your capability and your experience. In short this is your personal sales brochure. It should be eye-catching and make someone else really want to meet you.

Your USPs (Unique Selling Points)

The content is the most important and needs to be crisp, focused and eye catching. The c.v. also needs to be accurate both in terms of information and presentation. This document is the brochure that sells you to a potential employer and should give details of your current role and previous roles and most importantly your achievements.

The link at the bottom of this page is to a prescribed formatting for the content but it should be along the following lines:

  • Name, Address and Contact details to include the e-mail you want CNA or a new employer to use. For example do you want to use your current employer e-mail?
  • Personal Statement
  • Experience and Skills
  • Current job including Company, Job Title, Time spent in role, Key responsibilities and main achievements.
  • Previous Employment along the same lines as above. There is no need to go into full detail on every role but the c.v. should cover in detail the last 3 roles or 10 years with a synopsis of previous roles
  • Education
  • Hobbies, Interests and non work related positions of responsibility
  • Any other relevant personal details.
  • References are not vital to put on the c.v. but make sure they are available on request

The Layout and Format

The c.v. should ideally be no longer than 2 sides of A4 paper. The layout is of secondary importance to the content but equally needs to catch the eye. It’s not necessary to go with colour content, boxed off formats and a large variety of fonts.

  • Use font such as Times New Roman or Arial which are easily read
  • Use bold and bullet points to emphasise key points, but don’t overuse
  • Font size should be minimum 11
  • Do not use abbreviations unless universally accepted
  • Do not use ‘texting’ language
  • Do finally check for spelling and grammatical accuracy; do not rely entirely on grammar and spell check from your computer.

Review

Take a print of your document to see how it looks. You might also want to show it to a friend or respected colleague to see what they think. Always ask your recruiter, who has considerable experience of reviewing c.v.’s, for their thoughts.

(Link to attached document)

Name

Address Line 1

Address Line 2

Telephone Number Home

Telephone Number Mobile

Email Address

Personal Summary

A summary of yourself e.g.

A proactive, motivated self-starter with exceptional interpersonal skills. Strong expertise in Relationship Management and Account Management, Sales and Marketing, Leadership, and Business Analysis gained from a number of years in blue-chip financial institutions. General Management experience gained from managing a small business with full profit and loss responsibility, including creating a sales and marketing function and a new team.

Experience

Short summary of career experience. Including key skills which you can back up in the body of the c.v. e.g.

  • Communication
  • Team work
  • Leadership
  • Sales
  • Business and market awareness
  • Problem solving and creating solutions

Employment

Most recent always comes first, concentrate on your achievements, don’t just write your job description, always use figures where possible. Details of the last 3 roles – or 5 years – plus synopsis of previous roles but no more than 10 years detail. Ensure that any gaps in employment of more than 3 months are covered by an explanation

Company Date (from – to)

Job title

Insert brief business summary e.g. Business Sector/Product range, size of business £m turnover, headcount etc.

Responsibilities e.g.

  • Nature of role
  • Reporting line, Direct and indirect reports,
  • Client responsibilities

Key Achievements e.g.

  • Use Quantifiable examples that demonstrate the impact you make on your organisation i.e. achieved 125% target year
  • Was the top performer in my Area/Region/Company for sales of x product
  • Achieved the companies highest score for customer satisfaction in 200x
  • Designed and demonstrated capability of x product

Carrying on listing work experience in the same detail for the previous 3 roles or 10 years.

Synopsis of early roles

Very brief identification of roles. Include any particular achievements and in particular those that gave reasons for your promotions or change of company.

Education

Most recent always comes first. Try to give dates if possible. Don’t list any one day courses. Separate academic from professional and include qualification achieved.

Interests

List any hobbies you have, clubs (professional and non) you belong to, or activities outside of work. By adding details of specific hobbies, you are giving an employer a more rounded picture of your personal qualities, but don’t overdo it.


References

Available on request

Additional information

  • Driving licence and current status
  • Marital Status
  • Nationality