image

Curriculum Vitae and Cover Letter Guide – updated 2018

How to write a great Curriculum Vitae 2018

Job hunting takes time and writing your Curriculum Vitae takes even more time, time you may be wasting if your CV isn’t right so we’ve compiled our best tips for creating your perfect CV for 2018 so you can get seen and go straight through to the interview stage.

What to include on my Curriculum Vitae

More people are applying for entry level jobs than ever before, employers are spending on average 8.8 seconds reviewing a CV so be specific and to the point about your work experience.

Don’t send one generic CV to every role you are applying for, look at the job and amend your CV for it, the extra time this takes will pay off in the long run. Include bullet points of achievements / clubs or societies you were involved with outside of the standard school curriculum.

Be honest on your CV though or you may get caught out at the interview stage…which is just awkward for everyone.

Include:

  • Contact details
  • Cover letter
  • Work experience (only include relevant jobs)
  • Education and qualifications
  • References (If you have written references include these at the bottom)

Cover Letter

A cover letter is a great way of personalising each application, especially if you know the name of the person you will be contacting. Keep this brief though the employer doesn’t want your life story here, a quick paragraph will suffice about why you will succeed in the role…don’t be to humble!

How to present my Curriculum Vitae

Your Curriculum Vitae should be no longer than 2 A4 pages (single sided) generally the size of the text should be 10pt for the body copy and 12pt bold for headings / subheadings, some good font choices are:

  • Calibri – default Microsoft Word font easily read by all software
  • Arial
  • Times New Roman
  • Cambria
  • Verdana

You can also use a CV Template or if you don’t want to copy exactly the strict layout of a template, get some inspiration from these CV examples and put your own mark on it, don’t forget to upload it for Free to our CV database and be found fast!

“Resume” by MEHRO DESIGNS
“Resume” by MEHRO DESIGNS

Final Checks

Don’t forget to go back over your CV and check for little mistakes, these can be costly, research carried out by the National Citizen Service found these as the Top 10 Curriculum Vitae Faux Pas:

  1. Bad grammar
  2. Spelling mistakes
  3. Poor formatting
  4. Curriculum Vitae longer than two pages
  5. Casual tone
  6. Use of jargon
  7. Unusual font style or size
  8. Exam grades listed in full
  9. Generic interests listed such as cooking or reading
  10. Lack of activities related to personal development
Uploading