| Key Ideas |
- Make sure your CV is well laid out so that it is immediately easy to read and understand. Leave plenty of white space.
- Use concise, unambiguous sentences; avoid exaggerations and a flowery writing style.
- Do not make false claims; honesty is always the best policy.
- Bullet points are useful to highlight relevant skills and experience and help break up continuous text.
- Depending on your experience, two pages is an ideal length.
- Stress your past accomplishments and the skills you used to get the results you achieved.
- Focus on information which is relevant to your own career goals.
- If you are making a career change, stress what skills are transferable to support your new career objectives.
- Put your highest level of education first.
- Put your most recent job first and work backward chronologically in time.
- Ensure all dates are accurate.
- Explain any long career gaps (i.e. travelling, maternity leave etc.) these will only need to be explained to our clients.
- Don’t change tenses back and forth.
- Describe what you did 90% of the time, not 10% of the time.
- Avoid references to hobbies, activities and memberships which are not business related or have no relevance to your current career goals or job objectives.
- If you are preparing a CV for a specific vacancy, explain why you would be good at the position for which you are applying. This is a brief summary of your significant technical and managerial skills (where appropriate). Include accomplishments and soft skills such as team player, dependable and successfully meeting deadlines. E.g. – Achieved a fundraising target of £100,000 within one year.
|
|
| Hints |
You will need to be sure to connect with
each person. Be sure to have eye contact with
the person asking the questions and to glance at
the other team members while answering the
question to be sure that you are connecting with
each individual.
Be sensitive to the
dynamics in the team. If they seem to want to
control the interview, relax and flow with it,
on the other hand be sure to offer information
and ask questions.
Take responsibility
for ensuring that the group understands what you
have to offer. The best approach is to be
sensitive and adapt your approach to the group.
Don’t be overly aggressive and take over, yet do
interact and show your enthusiasm.
Each
person’s opinion can be weighted equally; in
some cases, just one team member’s opposition
can disqualify a candidate. Sometimes it is
unclear what role or position the person holds
therefore you need to be respectful of everyone
you
meet. |
|
| General hints and guidelines |
| It is important before an interview to think about all the reasons why you are attending it and what you have to offer the organisation. Be ready to discuss both short and long term career goals in general terms. |
| Gaps in CV |
| You will also need to explain gaps in
employment. If you worked in a temporary capacity
but didn’t put it on your CV, know the details of
which companies you worked with, what you did for
them and the length of the assignments. If you did
not work but did search for a job give some
examples of the research you did regarding job
opportunities and the process you went through to
find the position. |
| Reasons for leaving |
| Prepare to discuss the reasons you left
your previous jobs. If it was for a better
opportunity, explain how it was an opportunity. If
you left involuntarily, present the reason in the
most positive light you can. Make sure your
responses are honest and be positive. |
| Research the job |
Before attending any interview it is a
good idea to research the organisation and
familiarise yourself with the
following:
- Size of organisation, number of
employees.
- History, how long have they been
operating – do they have any affiliated
organisations or belong to an umbrella group?
- General information about their
services/products/aims etc.
- Major competitors or other organisations
operating in the same field.
- Job description – understand the skills
required for the position.
- Relationship between the open position
and other members of staff - have a sense for
the department.
- Have some well thought-out questions
that would help further your understanding of
the organisation e.g. How will the organisation
be affected by the new legislation on xyz… or
How do you see the organisation developing over
the next year/three years?
- Feedback to your consultant how you
thought the interview went and tell us whether
you would be interested in the job if it were to
be offered to you.
|
| What information will you need? |
| Personal Details |
| Education / Qualifications |
| Professional Qualifications |
| Training Courses |
| Work Experience |
| Major Achievements |
| Other Experience |
| Interests / Hobbies |
| References |
You do not normally need to list referees on a resume, but it is a good idea to think about whom you could ask now. |
| Summary |
List your major skills, strengths, personal qualities and achievements. Be specific, e.g. good team player, excellent written skills, versatile, able to motivate others, etc. Look at your staff appraisals or at your references. |
|
| Why are resumes rejected? |
| First impressions matters; if your resume does not attract the reader's attention in the first 20-30 seconds then your chances of obtaining an interview are greatly reduced. An employer may have a hundred or more resumes to look through and probably only a couple of hours in which to make their selection. So put your work experience at the start of your resume, not personal or educational details, unless you have only just left education. What an employer really wants to know is why they should invite you for an interview. For this reason a short summary of your capabilities and/or a list of your major achievements can often be a good idea. This should make an employer want to invite you for an interview - but please be careful that you do not oversell yourself. |
| Poor visual layout |
The visual layout of your resume is very important. Even though the wording you use may be correct, if people cannot find the information they want quickly they will move on to someone else's resume. You should use plenty of 'white' space in your resume and appropriate headings and section breaks.
Always use a word-processor/DTP package. Never use a typewriter as you will look old fashioned and out of date. Use good quality paper, preferably 100gram for both your resume and cover letter. |
| Organizing the information on your resume |
If your resume is not well organized then the reader will find it hard to follow and will not be able to build up a picture of you quickly. Remember the reader will not spend very long looking at your resume - so if they cannot find what they want they will not bother to read any further. |
| Overwritten - long paragraphs and sentences |
This makes it difficult to read quickly - try and keep your sentences short and punchy and use bullet points to break up the text under section headings. |
| Too little information |
| A lot of people do not include enough details about their previous jobs and experience and an employer therefore does not have enough information - they will therefore have to reject your application. |
| Not results orientated |
| You need to shout about your achievements. Please remember that your resume is your sales document to an employer. If it does not tell an employer why they should employ you then it has failed. An employer will only want to employ you if they can see a benefit in it for themselves. So do tell them the benefits of employing you. |
| Resume makes you look too young/old for the job |
In general being too young/old can be a real problem and a barrier to future advancement, or even to getting a job in the first place. There are a number of ways round this problem - but this depends very much on your individual circumstances and the industry/job you are applying for. There are further hints and tips throughout this website to help you. |
| Misspellings, typographical errors, poor grammar |
Your resume should be carefully checked for such errors before you send it out to employers. Tiny errors in your resume can detract from an otherwise good resume and make you look lazy or careless - not the sort of qualities you want to portray to an employer. As you will probably be 'blind' to these errors you should get someone else to check your resume for grammar and spelling errors. |
|
