Writing your CV

Your CV is your way of selling yourself to a potential employer. Your aim is to get an interview for a particular position and then get the job. Your CV must accurately present your skills, attributes, experience and qualifications, showing your suitability for that position and your aspirations for the future.

Before you start writing your CV, thoroughly research the potential employer and the position you’re applying for. You can then prepare a CV which shows completely how your attributes, skills and experience match those the employer is looking for.

Key points

• Use a word processor to type your CV and a spell checker to ensure it’s error free
• The most common format is two (single-sided) pages of A4 paper. If you have relevant work/project experience which is difficult to cover in this space you can extend it to three (or more) pages
• Adapt your CV for each employer/position, prioritising and highlighting the information most relevant to their requirements.The more space you give to something, the more important/relevant it should be
• Work experience is usually given in reverse chronological order (most recent first) If you’ve got holes in your CV (work gaps, poor qualifications, frequent job moves etc) provide brief information on these (eg travelled abroad, made redundant, ill during exams).
• Keep it simple. Use short sentences and avoid abbreviations/acronyms – expand or explain them. State your role/responsibilities within key projects and provide evidence to support your claims eg developed and launched product in 2 years through a team of engineers
• Use action words appropriately eg developed, managed, responsible for, achieved
• Make sure your CV stands out by being clear, relevant and well-formatted
• If applying for a job internationally, try to tailor the format of your CV to suit that country

Click here for what to include - your CV Checklist