Top five CV writing tips

Get your CV back on track with our top five tips.

By the experts at fish4jobs

Are your CV sins holding you back? Get it noticed for all the right reasons with our top five tips for getting your CV in tip-top shape.

Start with a personal statement
It's a good idea to start your CV with a paragraph summarising your experience and key skills.  That way employers and recruitment agencies can quickly determine if you meet the criteria for a role.

Keep it brief
Wading through a sea of CVs is no fun for recruiters, so make their life a little easier by keeping yours brief and to the point.  You should include your full work history but try and highlight your responsibilities and achievements, rather than going into minute detail about the tasks you performed in each role.  As a general rule of thumb, try not to go over two sides of A4.

Tailor to the job
Let's be honest, no-one really enjoys job hunting.  But if you're serious about landing a new job you'll have to be prepared to invest a bit of time and effort.  Tailoring your CV every time you apply for a role might take a bit longer but could make the difference between being called for an interview or not.

References
Try and include the details of a couple of people who are happy to give references for you on your CV.  Ideally, this should be your most recent employers but always check in advance that they are happy for you to give out their details.

Fill in the blanks
If there are any gaps in your work history, don't try and hide them.  Whether you took some time out to go travelling, or found yourself ‘between jobs' for a while, it's best to be honest about it.  If you try and embellish the truth, it may well come back to haunt you.

For more top tips visit www.fish4.co.uk/iad/jobs

Share this Print this