CV Writing - Tips and Advice
CV Writing Tips - What to Include and Exclude on your CV
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What to include in your CV...
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- Interests, if they provide transferrable skills such as leadership
- At a higher level, you should also include a personal profile and career objective
- Use a quality printer - never use a photocopy where the quality has diminished
What NOT to include in your CV...
- Think security!
- Don't provide your full address if you are posting your CV on a jobsite. Just provide town or county.
- Don't use saucy or quirky email addresses - keep it professional
- Date of birth
- Marital status
- Details of children
- NI number
- Bank details
- Salary details
- Referees, unless requested
- Photograph, unless requested
- Weight, height, etc, unless requested and only if they are specific to the job, eg modelling
- A full list of duties for each job - stick to the highlights and achievements
- Reasons for leaving previous jobs
- Anything negative - just focus on the positive
- Don't use fancy fonts, boxes, shading or graphics. Keep it simple
- Try not to use technical jargon and abbreviations unless they're widely recognised throughout your industry
- Don't include junior school. If you've had considerable work experience you may not need your senior school either
- Never use a photocopy of a photocopy where the quality has diminished
- Never insert anything by hand - it's better to rewrite the CV
- Don't use too many words. The recruiter has to read many applications so keep it concise whilst not omitting important factors
At all times think "relevance". Don't include non-relevant details - at least not in any depth.
Always keep the CV content relevant to the role(s) you're applying for.