A CV (curriculum vitae) is a document in which you present personal information about yourself including your contact details, past or present work experience and academic record. In some places, it is known by the American term ‘;résumé’.If given a choice between applying using an application form or a CV, most people prefer the CV. This is because you choose what to include and how to present it. With a form, the layout and content are set by the employer.
What It Is Not
A CV should not be used on its own when you apply for work as it cannot address the details of any advertised vacancy. That is the job of a
covering letter. In each letter, you will choose which parts of your background to emphasise.
The CV should be used to provide factual information about your past and to back up your statements about the skills, abilities and experience that you can offer.
Although a CV
can be rewritten every time you apply for a different job, this should not be necessary. Most people only need one CV, but if you are applying for quite
different types of work, you could produce two versions to suit the different groups of jobs. For example: if you wanted a job in TV
or a general office:
CV1 – would stress your leisure interests of film-making and theatre and a voluntary job in hospital radio
CV2 – would include more detail of your office jobs, voluntary work for a housing association and your computing skills.
Appearance
- Word-process and choose a type large enough to be read easily.
- Use a single side of A4 for each page – staple pages together if you produce more than 1 page.
- Send it in a large envelope so you do not have to fold the paper.
- Check that there are no spelling or other mistakes.
- Make the layout easy and quick to scan, with space round each section.
- Give sections clear headings.
- Make use of bullet points and bold or underline for emphasis, but do not use too many different types of font (letter styles) which can make documents look fussy and hard to read.
- Do not include photos unless asked to do so.
- Use good quality, white or off-white paper.
Desktop Publishing
Although most people word-process their CVs, software is now available to help you design a professional CV quickly. One package is Microsoft’s Publisher, but you can also buy CDs with CV-writing programs on them.
If using Publisher, open the program from your
Start menu and you will be offered a catalogue of ready-designed publications. Select
Resume and the style you prefer.
When it opens, you can make various changes to the layout and colour but must then amend the content of each section and the order in which information is presented.
Just click in any box to edit the contents in the same way that you would word-process a document.
Types Of Cv
There are two main ways you can present your background information in a CV – by date and by skill.
By Date (Chronological)
Each section can either start with the current position and work backwards, or start with the earliest example and work towards the present day. It will depend on whether the most recent example is the best place to start.
For example, if you are applying for jobs where your school or college subjects are more relevant than later courses, set out your
academic record starting with your secondary education.
If your recent job is most relevant, set out the
work experience section starting with the work you do today.
By Skill
This type of CV is also referred to as ‘functional’. Pick out examples of different skills, achievements or experience that you want the employer to know about, and then add details of how and where they were gained.
As you may have used the same skill or had similar success across a number of jobs or hobbies, the actual dates are less relevant in this type of CV.