Writing your CV
Your CV is possibly the most important selling tool you will produce. So it is important that you spend time on your CV, making sure it is accurate, complete and fully updated.
The tips below will offer some useful information about how to produce the Curriculum Vitae to best promote the qualifications and skills you have to offer employers.
Understanding your audience: The employer
Once you understand what information the organisation is looking for, you can tailor your CV to meet their needs. The CV communicates your experience, knowledge and accomplishments. The main purpose of your CV is to demonstrate your relevance to the role for which you are applying and should be used as a selling tool. If you are applying for a warehousing role, your CV should emphasise your experience in this type of role and the key transferable skills associated with this field of employment which can come from other non warehousing roles. The information you choose to exhibit should relate directly to the role to which you are applying.
Gathering Information
Prior to drawing up the first draft of the CV it is worthwhile taking time to create a list of your strengths, experience and qualifications. At this point, thoroughly thinking about your previous work experience and responsibilities can be a useful exercise as it not only extracts information for your CV but will also help you think of useful examples for future interviews.
Writing Your First Draft
Remember the skills that you have to incorporate. Using job specifications and person specifications can give you a good idea of the skills that you would be best to promote on your CV. Tailoring your CV to the job specification would demonstrate that you have the relevant skills for the role. Do remember not to falsify any information on a CV, even the smallest lie which adds nothing to the weight of the application could cost you a job! It would be very useful to have a master copy or template which acts as the skeleton for your CV and includes the information which would be required on any version. This will keep the process of tailoring the CV less time consuming.
You may find it useful to list and categorise accomplishments which you view as relevant. These will include: employment history, voluntary experience, academic achievements and qualifications, community involvement and personal details. Once you have these lists, you can organise them in chronological order with the most recent date first.
When applying for a specific position, emphasise any relevant experience you may have. Alternatively, if you have valid experience in an unrelated role that shares a number of the key skills being looked for by the employer, present this in a similar format Some may choose to start with their academic experience. This could be because they feel that this is their strongest selling point and as such they wish to make it most prominent. Alternatively, the job description could say that having a relevant qualification is essential criteria.
The Final Draft
You should revise and rework the CV to ensure that you provide the correct information and use appropriate language whilst presenting the right amount of detail. Ask family and friends to look over your work for you as they could spot omissions or mistakes that you may have missed. This proof reading exercise can be very useful. For example, stating that you 'have great attention to detail' followed by an error in the next sentence will show that your attention to detail is actually not that great. Something so simple could raise questions about your ability.
