Your Name - Required
Your Gender Optional - Will be required at some point, many large employers remove this information prior to selection to prevent discrimination.
Your Age Optional - Will be required at some point, many large employers remove this information prior to selection to prevent discrimination
Nationality Required - If non British / EU details of work permit status will be required
Your Address Optional - Normally a town of residence will do, especially if you are also supplying an e-mail address. That said it is important to offer a number of contact options to make it easy for a potential employer.
Marital Status Optional - should be of little relevance but has both positive and negative interpretations, consider carefully before inserting
This is an area that will be important to all employers. That said it becomes less relevant for the more experienced candidate unless professional qualifications are required to perform in the role advertised.
List in reverse chronological order starting with secondary education, through to your highest / most recent qualification. List the institution attended, the course studied and the grades attained. If relevant to the role you should give a little more detail than the basics to ensure the potential employer fully appreciates the relevance of the qualification.
Example - Simple Education
Novell Academy Network Infrastructure Diploma Distinction Big City University Business Management & ICT 2:1 Nowhere High School 3 A Levels Grades A-B 9 GCSE Grades A-C
Example – Complex Education
Novell Academy Network Infrastructure Diploma Distinction Modules inc. ICT Infrastructure design, effective implementation, systems development, hardware hierarchy Big City University Business Management & ICT 2:1 Modules inc. Accounting, Strategy, Marketing, Organisational Behaviour, ICT Strategy, ICT Infrastructure. Nowhere High School 3 A Levels (inc. Maths & ICT) Grades A-B 9 GCSE Grades A-C
As well as formal qualifications you may also want to list other relevant courses you have attended. This is particularly useful to demonstrate your continual learning and you eagerness to develop within your role. Remember keep the courses listed relevant. Depending on space they can be listed as a comma separated paragraph or a bulleted list
comma separated paragraph
Courses Attended - Health and safety at work, managing difficult behaviours, appraising for appraisers, absence management, financial reporting and project management (Prince 2).
bulleted list
Courses Attended ;
This is possibly the most important area of your CV. It tells any prospective employer exactly what experience you can bring to a role and puts in the context of other posts you have held.
There are a number of ways to present this information but you must ensure there is some basic information you get across every time.
Date of Employment
Employers Name
Job Title or Role
A summary of responsibilities and achievements
If like me you have a lengthy career history, you will only need to supply detail for the last 2 to 4 employers with the rest combined.
As for the information you include in this area, think about what the employer will be looking for. Continual progression, ambition, ability to learn, increased responsibility, technical knowledge and ability? This is quite complex so you need to use every word very carefully and ensure this area has maximum impact.
Below is an example of how you could present you career history. Use it as a guide, but play with it and ensure you use a layout and language that suits you, your CV and the role to which you are applying.
2002 - 2006 Big Media Company Production Director A senior manager responsible for the strategic development of product production and processing, reporting to board. Managed team of 120, budgets in excess of 25m and a portfolio of 187 products. Reduced operating costs by 10% and increased productivity by 31% Head of Specialist Production Managed specialist team of 13 reporting to Production Director. Responsible for the development of new technologies and processes for the organisation. Implemented use of new technology reducing reprint requirement by 65% Production Manager Managed Studio, design and processing teams. eveloped new workflow, health and safety and management processes. Increased quality by 15%, reduced costs by 12% and reduced absence by 30%. 2000 - 2002 Bigger Media Company Print Development Manager Managed transition to new technology and the integration of 2 acquisitions successfully. Named manager of the year 2001 1995 - 2000 Small Media Company Production Co-Ordinator Print Team Leader 1990 - 1995 Various Roles inc, Print Buyer, Studio Team Leader, and Production Executive
As you can see this example focuses on the most recent roles and adds the most relevant detail from those roles. I would also have been careful to ensure I did not duplicate achievements mentioned in my list of achievements section of the CV. I also feel I was able to give a demonstration of ambition, technical excellence and a number of management qualities.
Remember you must be able to articulate in detail anything you put into your CV, so don’t get carried away!
Personal Statement - An opportunity to give a future employer an overview of you. If you include this it should be limited a singles paragraph of no more that three or four lines. Any more information and you are using up valuable space you will need to cover other areas. It should leave the reader wanting to more about you. It should also demonstrate your potential fit within their organisation.
Career Goals - This is a brief description of what you want to achieve and should relate to your understanding of the role in question and the career progression within the target employer.
Combined Statement - Many people now combine the personal statement and career goals section as they are normally closely linked. Remember space on your CV is at a premium and every word should count. Make sure any section you add to your CV adds value for the reader. Think about what an employer would be looking for when reading your CV.
One of these three statements is a good start for a CV, it opens it by getting across a clear message of who you are. I would normally recommend the combined statement.
Optional but strongly recommended
This is a really important part of any CV. It is an opportunity for you to demonstrate what you have to offer. What have you achieved in the past that would be a good indicator of future performance. You should refer back to your Individual CV, choose from this the achievements most relevant to the role to which you are applying. Keep it brief with only a headline for each achievement and do not list more than five or six. This section is about impact and should leave the reader with the impression you are a contender for the role. Again choose your words carefully, you language should reflect the achievement.
Optional - This is a tricky area, should it be included? What should be in there?
Referring back to earlier comments, will it add value to the CV? Is it worth the space? It is an opportunity to demonstrate you have a wide spectrum of interests outside work and many of them include team based pursuits which require effective communication and team working. Going to the pub and socialising, frequent visits to the cinema, reading and listening to music are all things that many of us do in our spare time, but one needs to question the value they add to a CV. Chairing a club or society, participating in team sports, pursuing individual excellence or supporting the local community are all thinks that can add value to your CV.
Most people lead busy individual lives, if you feel there are areas that can add value to your CV you should include them. It also depends on the job for which you are applying, a recent graduate with little work experience will need to rely on extra curricular activities to strengthen their CV, someone who has worked for some time in a similar field will not.
Optional - A statement similar to "Professional / Academic / Personal references will be supplied upon request" takes up little space and informs the employer you are happy to supply references at an appropriate time. There is no need to take up lots of valuable CV space on references.
If you do have the room for references ensure you choose relevant references to the role for which you are applying. Unless you are just starting out, I would suggest the use of two professional references, preferably previous employers.
Do not list your current employer unless you are happy for them to be contacted.
This is an optional area that should be used if the information you want to insert is relevant to the role, and you have the space required.
Examples
Full, clean driving licence Computer Literate Confident use of Microsoft Excel Microsoft Word Microsoft Powerpoint Microsoft Outlook Lotus Notes Several CRM systems Qualified in basic first-aid
This concludes the review of the sections of the CV now you should take a look at how to make sure the are in the right order.
Now you have a design in mind, you really need to consider the Sections.
Other areas in this section
The I Can Sell Zones