Career Advice and CV Writing

Writing your CV step by step

1. Write down the job role or job function you are seeking.
2. Research comparable job advertisements, and note the key skills required.
3. Write a list of your key skills as you know them (this can be tricky so you might want to do a psychometric test, read a career planning book or visit a CV Writer).
4. Match your skills (step 3) to those required (step 2) to check this type of job is right for you and uses your core skill set.
5. Once happy with the jobs you want to apply for, collate your fact sheet of dates (employment, education, awards, training etc).
6. Layout your CV sections, for example: Name, Contact, Profile, Skills or Achievements, Employment, Education, Training, Personal Summary. Tip: Use Education before Employment History if you have recently left education.
7. Now you have the basic layout, you need to build your CV Achievements.
8. Write in snappy sentences, let each bullet point start with an action verb.
9. Ensure you convey the skills you matched in step 4 and evidence of using them through achievements and performance.
10. Check your CV fits neatly in 2 pages.
11. Have several friends read it and provide feedback on style, content and design layout.
12. Check spelling and proofread carefully.
13. Check it against your research in step 2 – would you interview you?
14. Revise accordingly and apply for jobs, adding it to your job action plan.

Finally carefully consider what Recruiters will see when reading it, like gaps in employment need to be dealt with and other obstacles identified, need to be countered with solutions.