How to write a great first CV

We recently published the article ‘Where to Look for Your First Job’, where we discussed having a good CV to give to employers. To really impress employers, you need to include the skills you can offer them, and make it clear how you can transfer these skills to their organisation.

If you see a job advert that includes a person specification (where the organisation states what they’re looking for in applicants), make sure you include what they ask for in your CV. This doesn’t mean lie (if they ask for a minimum of 3 years sales experience and you have none, don’t say that you have!), but it does mean you need to tailor your CV to each organisation you are applying to.

Tailoring your CV takes time unfortunately, but it does mean you will be more successful in your job search. Employers don’t want to see a CV that has been sent to 50 shops, cafes, bars and restaurants, they want to see you’ve done a bit of research on them and have the skills they’re looking for.

A few golden rules:

• Include all work experience. Worked for your aunt last summer? Do you volunteer at Scouts as a leader? Do you help at your dance school on Saturdays? Have you got a part time job in McDonalds? Have you organised an event at college? Do you play any sports / got any hobbies? Whatever you do / have done, include it in your CV.
• Make your CV easy to read by avoiding large paragraphs (use bullet points instead), use an easy to read font (Calibri, Arial or Times New Roman are good).
• Start your bullet points with verbs to describe what you’ve done (e.g. ‘planned’, ‘promoted’, ‘researched’, ‘achieved’, ‘developed’).
• Avoid large blank spaces on your CV – try to add more information or change your formatting (font size, margins, line spacing etc.) to use this space.

The following headings should be included in this order:

Personal Details

This should be short and take up as little space as possible. Your name should be the title of your CV (not ‘CV’ or ‘personal details’), in a large font. Underneath, ideally on one/two lines, include your contact details: address, telephone number, professional email address. sexyandIknowit@gmail.com is not a professional email address – use your name instead!

Age, date of birth, sex, ethnicity, nationality, health and marital status all do not need to be included.

Personal Profile

Consider adding a personal profile to summarise your key skills and experience at the start of your CV. Profiles are good as they provide a short introduction about you, to make the reader want to know more about you. A personal profile should be specific to the job you are applying for, with relevant skills and experience, plus your career aims (if you’re looking for part time work in a shop, you may write “looking for part time retail work to develop my customer service skills). Ideally a personal profile should be a maximum of four lines.

Education

List your most recent education first, going back to GCSEs. Qualifications should be set out in a clear format (see our example CV) and should include the following information:

• Name of school/institution
• Town (if this is not clear from the above name. Add the country if it is overseas.
• Dates you were there (month and year are sufficient, for example: 09/2015 – 07/2017)
• Your qualifications and grades (for example: ‘GCSE English (B)’)

Don’t forget to include what you’re currently doing, even if you have not completed it yet.  If you know your predicted grades, you could include them.

Work Experience/History

Work experience should also start with the most recent first, including paid, voluntary, unpaid or shadowing experience. Information should include:

• Dates you were there (month and year)
• Job title and organisation
• A very brief outline of your responsibilities, achievements and skills gained, plus how these relate to the role you are applying for.

If you’ve had a few jobs, and want to highlight some experience over others, you could split this section into ‘Relevant Work Experience’ and ‘Other Work Experience’.

Additional Headings

Depending on the type of CV you are writing, you may want to include additional heading such as: Additional Skills, Language Skills etc.

IT Skills are important for many job roles, so you may have a section headed ‘IT Skills’, or combine this with any language skills for an ‘IT and Language Skills’ section.

Employers like to find out more about you so you may include an ‘Other Activities and Achievements’ section, to highlight any skills or knowledge gained outside of work or study, e.g. sports, music, societies, hobbies, interests.

References

A CV should end with references as a final heading. Make sure that you ask them first to check that they are willing and available to provide a reference for you.

You can either state ‘References available on request’ or include your referee’s details.

If you would like to use our template, download it here.

Invited to an applicant day? What you need to know.

Once you apply to a university it’s likely you will be invited to an applicant day. If you’ve already been to have a look around on an open day, it gives you a chance to see more of the University, and if it’s your first time visiting you will get a speedy introduction.

Applicant days are good if you are seriously considering that university after you’ve visited once, or if you’ve applied but haven’t managed to visit yet.

Facilities

Facilities will be important to different people. You might want to check out the gym, or you might want to see how the labs at one university measure up to other universities. Whatever your priority, make sure you visit it and are happy with it.

Course ‘ins and outs’

An applicant day usually goes into more detail about your course than an open day, so you can get a good understanding of what you’re letting yourself in for! This is an important element – make sure you’re happy with all of the content for the length of your degree, and if you don’t understand something or don’t know what you’d be doing on a module, ASK.

Information stands

At most universities they will have lots of information stands you can visit. Whilst going to each one may be excessive, have a good look around. You will not get another opportunity to have all services and departments under one roof again. You may want to know how many graduates got jobs after studying your course (careers), if there’s a rowing or rugby club (clubs and societies). Or you may want to know what support is available for disabilities or learning differences. The information stands are there for you, so try to visit them before you go home.

Meet lecturers, current students and other applicants

You will meet the lecturers who teach your course and students on the course at the moment, so ask them any questions – that’s what they’re there for!

Second opinion

You may see things in a different light if you have already visited the university once – an applicant day gives you a chance to revisit the things you didn’t get chance to see, or something you weren’t sure of. The more open and applicant days you go to, you may also start to build up an idea of what’s most important to you, so that you can prioritise these areas.

Make the most of your day, wear comfortable shoes (you’ll probably do a lot of walking around for tours etc.) and hopefully you will see yourself studying there J

The dreaded revision…

With exams looming, we thought we’d write a quick article on revision. By now you’ve hopefully started your revision, and have been going to any revision sessions put on at school or college. If you’re thinking “err… nope, that’s not me!”, read on for 5 simple tips:

1. Healthy body, healthy mind.

Yes, it’s a cliché, but try to limit the amount of rubbish you eat. Fruit, vegetables, slow releasing carbs, oily fish and occasional treats will get you through your revision.

2. Work out what works for you.

Sounds simple, but if you know you do your best revision earlier in the day, try to make time to fit it in. You may learn best by reading information then making notes, or making a recording of the main points and listening to it before you go to sleep. You might remember key facts if they’re on post its around the house. Figure out which ones work for you, and stick to them!

3. Take regular breaks.

Go to the loo, make a drink, walk the dog, annoy your brother or sister. Do anything you like, but try to get up and move around so that you’re away from the room where you’re working.

4. Take time out to relax / switch off.

No one can revise at all hours of the day (and shouldn’t!), so also plan time for relaxing. It could be catching up on your favourite TV show or going out with friends, but use this as a reward for getting through so much of your revision.

5. Do a few past papers, and get family and friends to test you regularly.

Past papers give you an idea of the style and structure of the test, so you’re familiar with it before you get into the exam room. If there’s a family member or friend who can test you on what you’ve been revising, ask them too. It means you can test what you have learnt and which areas you may need to revisit.

Best of luck with your revision and exams – YOU CAN DO THIS!!