What is a CV and why is it still important<\/a> | CV Checklist<\/a> | Making sure your CV gets seen<\/a> | Tailoring your CV<\/a><\/p>\n Chronological CV<\/a> | Skills Based \/ Functional CV<\/a> | Combined \/ Hybrid CV<\/a> | Other types of CV<\/a><\/p>\n Personal details<\/a> | Personal Statement<\/a> | Education <\/a>| Work experience<\/a> | Skills and Achievements<\/a> | Hobbies and interests<\/a><\/p>\n CV templates<\/a> | What about CV writers?<\/a> | Typeface, Design, Formatting and Formats<\/a><\/p>\n References <\/a>| Explaining gaps in employment history<\/a> | Social media <\/a>| Keep it honest<\/a> | Discrimination and occupational requirements<\/a> | Final top tips for preparing your CV<\/a><\/p>\n What is a CV and why is it still important<\/a> | CV Checklist<\/a> | Making sure your CV gets seen<\/a> | Tailoring your CV<\/a><\/p>\n A well-tailored CV is your first chance to make a good impression and stand out from the crowd when applying for a new job. <\/span><\/p>\n It gives a potential employer an overview of your work experience, education and personality so they can decide if you\u2019re a suitable candidate to invite in for an interview. <\/span><\/p>\n While jobseekers who rent out billboards<\/a> might make the headlines, the majority of people are still hired (in part) because of their CV – so it\u2019s worth taking the time to get it right!<\/span><\/p>\n In most cases your CV should include:<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, most CV should not include:<\/p>\n Have you ever felt like you send out CV after CV but nobody actually looks at it? <\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, that might because that’s what’s happening. <\/span><\/p>\n It’s nothing personal – hiring managers can receive hundreds of CVs for a single vacancy and since they don\u2019t have time to sift through every one, they need to use special software to filter out \u2018unsuitable\u2019 candidates before taking a look themselves. <\/span><\/p>\n To give yourself the best chance of getting your CV gets seen use keywords found in the job ad throughout your CV and make sure you follow our <\/span>15 tips on getting your CV seen<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n But who will see your CV?<\/strong><\/p>\n For companies that get fewer applications and do things the old fashioned way, the good news is someone will almost certainly see your CV<\/span><\/p>\n The bad news is that person won\u2019t necessarily be your potential manager – it could be anyone from HR, or even an assistant that helps with the recruitment process – and they may just give your CV a quick scan. <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s vital your CV stands out and speaks to whoever sees it first, so make sure even someone who wasn\u2019t an expert in your field would understand you were a perfect fit for the job. <\/span><\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t been shortlisted but you know you\u2019re perfect for the role, consider contacting the hiring manager directly to explain why you weren\u2019t a good candidate.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not original advice, but it\u2019s good advice, and it can’t be said enough: you should tailor your CV to each and every job you apply for<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n You should tailor your CV to each and every job you apply for.<\/p>\n Even if you\u2019re applying for the same sorts of job, different companies will value different attitudes, skills, and experiences so it\u2019s important you reflect this in your CV.<\/span><\/p>\n For a start, make note of the adjectives that they use in the job ad. If they\u2019re looking for someone that\u2019s hard-working and reliable, tailor your personal statement around these words.<\/span><\/p>\n You don\u2019t want a never-ending CV, so you\u2019ll often need to be selective about the skills and experience you detail in your work experience section – match these to what the job ad asks for, and your CV will stand out even if the hiring manager initially only has time for a quick scan.<\/span><\/p>\n Take me back to contents<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Chronological CV<\/a> | Skills Based \/ Functional CV<\/a> | Combined \/ Hybrid CV<\/a> | Other types of CV<\/a><\/p>\n The same CV format won’t work for everybody and every circumstance.<\/p>\n The right kind of format to best show yourself off will depend on your background and the amount of experience you have.<\/p>\n A chronological CV is the most common type used today and easily shows an employer your work experience dating from the most recent through to the earliest.<\/p>\n Chronological CV structure:<\/p>\n Pros<\/p>\n Cons<\/p>\n A functional CV highlights your skills and expertise. It\u2019s useful for senior management positions or for those changing career who need to focus on relevant skills and achievements.<\/p>\n Functional CV Structure:<\/p>\n PROS<\/p>\n CONS<\/p>\n An increasingly popular format, combined CV takes elements of both the chronological CV and the functional CV formats.<\/p>\n Combined CV Structure:<\/p>\n PROS<\/p>\n CONS<\/p>\n Academic CV: <\/b>Used by those in the teaching or research professions and puts emphasis on licenses, teaching experience, research studies, publications and grants.<\/p>\n Infographic CV:<\/b> Uses graphic design elements rather than basic text. While an infographic CV will certainly make you stand out from the crowd, they are not a preferable choice – not least because applicant tracking system software has a hard time understanding them.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not a graphic designer or artist, you\u2019ll probably will end up making a mess of it.<\/p>\n Video & other attention-grabbing CVs: <\/b>While many people have landed their dream jobs with a video CV 99.9% of people should stick to a regular CV on paper, unless asked otherwise.<\/p>\n Take me back to contents<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Personal details<\/a> | Personal Statement<\/a> | Education <\/a>| Work experience<\/a> | Skills and Achievements<\/a> | Hobbies and interests<\/a><\/p>\n Putting pen to paper and actually writing your CV may seem overwhelming, so use these great tips to ensure that you cover everything you need.<\/p>\n If a recruiter doesn\u2019t know how to contact you, your chances of getting an interview are slim to none.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t need to go as far as including your blood type and next of kin, but make sure you have your full name, and up to date phone number, address and email.<\/p>\n Your email address should be professional – not the one you picked when you were 15.<\/p>\n Your personal statement is your first chance to stand out from the crowd so it\u2019s important to get this part right.<\/p>\n You should briefly explain who you are (in terms of your work experience and skills!), what role you are looking for, and what you have to offer.<\/p>\n N.B. If you\u2019re looking for jobs far from home, use your statement to explain your circumstances – e.g. you\u2019re happy to relocate. If job seeking abroad, confirm you have the right to work in the UK.<\/p>\n What details you should list depends entirely on where you are at in your professional career.<\/p>\n Recent school leaver:<\/b> State the highest level of certificate that you obtained at school with grades for each subject. If you completed any specialist subjects that are relevant to the position you are applying for then provide details about these. For example, if you\u2019re applying for a handyman role, showing that you excelled in woodwork or metalwork classes will be beneficial.<\/p>\n University graduate:<\/b> Include your degree or diploma, the university name and the grades you received. If relevant, you can includes details of particular modules or courses.<\/p>\n Including your high school or college grades might also be appropriate – particularly if the job requires skills not obviously attained through your degree. If the job requires mathematical ability but you did a History degree, mentioning the top grade you got at A-Level in maths is definitely worthwhile.<\/p>\n Mid-late career:<\/b> Include degrees plus any other courses which are applicable to the job application. For example, if you are applying for a marketing manager position and have a BA from ten or twenty years ago, mention any other relevant short courses you\u2019ve taken in social media or online marketing to show that you\u2019re keeping up with industry changes.<\/p>\n At this point in your career, educational qualifications from your school days are unlikely to be relevant any more.<\/p>\n A chronological or combined CV requires you to outline your work experience job by job. This is the meatiest bit of your CV, and a chance to show off your skills and experience.<\/p>\n For each job, include the company name,<\/b> your job title<\/b> and the dates you worked<\/b> – the month and year you started and finished each role. If you are towards the later part of your working career, it is sufficient to include the year only for positions earlier on in your life.<\/p>\n Next, write a brief summary of each role and a selection of your responsibilities.<\/p>\n Pick out the responsibilities that match the duties listed on the new job to show the hiring manager how your skills and experience match what the role is looking for – don\u2019t bother listing those duties and responsibilities that are irrelevant.<\/p>\n Show you excelled in your role by giving concrete numbers that illustrate how you exceeded targets.<\/p>\n When compiling a functional or combined CV, you\u2019ll highlight skills and major achievements. You probably have a lot more skills than you realise – think outside the box!<\/p>\n SKILLS EXAMPLES<\/p>\n ACHIEVEMENT EXAMPLES<\/p>\n It’s not always necessary to include details about your hobbies and interests, but there are a few occasions when it could be to your advantage.<\/p>\n Think carefully about what hobbies you want to share. Saying that you like socialising with your friends every weekend with a bottle of wine or spending the evening watching television is probably not going to achieve anything.<\/p>\n Take me back to contents<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n CV templates<\/a> | What about CV writers?<\/a> | Typeface, Design, Formatting and Formats<\/a><\/p>\n Since not everyone is blessed with a talent for creating amazing documents in Microsoft Word, you may want to use a CV template. <\/span><\/p>\n You can get one from Adzuna here, but there are lots of different designs available online. Remember, the key is to show off your skills and experience, so a clean, simple template is your best bet.<\/span><\/p>\n Writing your own CV is the best way to ensure you have total control over how you present yourself, but if you struggle with writing you might consider whether a CV writer could help. <\/span><\/p>\n As it\u2019s their job, they should have a good idea of how to best sell your skills and experience. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you do plan on using a CV writer bear in mind:<\/span><\/p>\n You can still turn to others for help even if you don\u2019t hire a CV writer – friends, family or even a trusted colleague can give your CV a look over, while recent graduates can seek advice from their university career service.<\/span><\/p>\n If your CV looks like a dog\u2019s breakfast there\u2019s little chance it\u2019ll get a second look even if you have perfect experience. <\/span><\/p>\n A messy or confusing CV does not paint you in a good light and will definitely not move you to the shortlist pile so don\u2019t shoot yourself in the foot and follow these rules<\/span><\/p>\n Typefaces:<\/b> Ditch the funky fonts – there\u2019s nothing funny about Comic Sans. Arial, Courier or Tahoma do the job, \u00a0\u2013 11pt is a good size to work with. <\/span><\/p>\n Colours: <\/b>Would you believe us if we said we\u2019ve seen CVs using text with multiple colours? Just stick to black. <\/span><\/p>\n Design:<\/b> A basic design is all you need for most jobs. If everything lines up nicely, with enough white space for headings to breath you\u2019ll have done a good job. <\/span><\/p>\n If you’re a graphic designer then some artistic effort may be expected, but your portfolio remains the best place to showcase your design work.<\/span><\/p>\n File format: <\/b>Word documents are the best choice for presenting your CV as text on a .pdf file doesn\u2019t always play nicely with recruitment software. Don\u2019t forget to name your CV file professionally using your first and last name.<\/span><\/p>\n Take me back to contents<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n References <\/a>| Explaining gaps in employment history<\/a> | Social media <\/a>| Keep it honest<\/a> | Discrimination and occupational requirements<\/a> | Final top tips for preparing your CV<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Referees available upon request\u2019 is the final line on many CVs, but there\u2019s no real need to state this – hiring managers assume you\u2019ll be able to provide a reference.<\/span><\/p>\n Gaps in your work history should always be accounted for; not explaining them will lead hiring managers to fear the worst. <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s always best to be honest (see the next section!), but that doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t present something in the best light possible. <\/span><\/p>\n If you were made redundant suddenly and it took a few months to find a new position, you can say you were using that time to job search for a suitable role or mention any new skills you acquired in the meantime.<\/span><\/p>\n Your CV should present you in the best possible light – but it should definitely be your light. Keeping your CV honest is important for two main reasons:<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not news that potential employers often search for online profiles to find out more about a candidate. The awareness around this means many people are careful about their public information on Facebook, Twitter and the other major social platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n But many people aren\u2019t so concerned about smaller social sites.<\/span><\/p>\n This could be a mistake – some applicant tracking systems used by hiring managers will automatically pull information and profile pictures from all accounts associated with that email address. <\/span><\/p>\n Here at Adzuna we\u2019ve seen profile pictures that we\u2019re certain applicants would not have wanted to put forward as their first impression.<\/span><\/p>\n To be absolutely certain this won\u2019t happen to you, it could be wise to have a separate email for your job search activities, but at the very least you should think beyond the major social networks when it comes to presenting a professional version of your online persona.<\/span><\/p>\n One reason details like marital status and date of birth aren\u2019t usually included in CVs is that it’s illegal for employers to discriminate on these grounds.<\/p>\n However, there are occasionally occupational requirements<\/a> that allow an employer to lawfully discriminate, while some jobs like flight attendants have height or weight requirements – \u00a0in these cases it would be appropriate to include relevant details on your CV.<\/p>\n If you think you may have been affected by discrimination contact the Citizen’s Advice Bureau<\/a> for advice.<\/p>\n Take me back to contents<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There’s a lot at stake when it comes to crafting a CV that will get you an interview – but writing a CV that really sells what you can do is within everyone’s reach. To help you get noticed for all the right reasons we’ve created a CV guide for every step of the journey. Continued \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":10990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cvs-cover-letters"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Part 2 – Types of CV and when to use them<\/a><\/h3>\n
Part 3 – Writing your CV<\/a><\/h3>\n
Part 4 – Help writing your CV<\/a><\/h3>\n
Part 5 – Other points to consider<\/a><\/h3>\n
\nCV Basics<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/CV-jobseekers-looking-for-work-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhat is a CV and why is it still important?<\/h3>\n
CV checklist<\/h3>\n
\n
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Making sure your CV gets seen<\/h3>\n
Tailoring your CV<\/h3>\n
\nTypes of CV and when to use them<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/questions-1024x682.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nChronological CV<\/h3>\n
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Skills based \/ Functional CV<\/h3>\n
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Combined \/ Hybrid CV<\/h3>\n
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Other types of CV<\/h3>\n
\nWriting your CV<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/skills-job-advert-vacancies-1024x653.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPersonal details<\/h3>\n
Personal statement<\/h3>\n
Education<\/h3>\n
Work experience<\/h3>\n
Skills and achievements<\/h3>\n
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Hobbies and interests<\/h3>\n
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\nHelp Writing Your CV<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/typewriter-1024x669.jpg\")
<\/h3>\nCV templates<\/h3>\n
What about CV writers?<\/h3>\n
\n
Typeface, Formatting, Design & Formats<\/h3>\n
\nOther points to consider<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/good-job-post-it-inspiration-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/p>\nReferences<\/h3>\n
Explaining gaps in employment history<\/h3>\n
Keep it honest<\/h3>\n
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Social media<\/h3>\n
Discrimination and occupational requirements<\/h3>\n
Final top tips for preparing your CV:<\/h3>\n
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