What makes a good cv examples

Use section headers: Distinguish section headers from the rest of your CV content by making them bolder, larger or underlined. Bold keywords: In addition to section headers, consider bolding other important words, such as your name and job titles, to set them apart. Remove irrelevant information: Use the limited space on your CV to promote only the most relevant and impressive information about your background.

Remove experience older than 15 years and dates from your education section if you have five or more years of professional experience. Before you send your CV to employers, take time to carefully check your spelling, grammar and syntax.

A clean, error-free CV increases readability and demonstrates professionalism. Recruit a trusted friend, family member or colleague to review your resume. A fresh set of eyes often catches mistakes you may have missed. A well-composed CV shares all the most essential information employers need when considering you for job opportunities. Education Masters of Communication, University of Denver. Awards and Honors Wolf Foundation Wolf Prize in Medicine, Awarded to up to three individuals globally, each year, for achievements in medical science.

All three common formats —chronological, functional and combination—work for a CV, but an effective format is combination. This CV type is a hybrid of the chronological and functional formats and allows adequate space for details about both your professional and educational history, as well as your skills and accomplishments.

Consider including a concise skills and accomplishments section before work experience to showcase the key skills that align to that particular role.

Then, use the bullet points in your professional experience section to reinforce these skills and provide examples demonstrating their use. This has two benefits: recruiters looking quickly at a combination CV will see the keywords they are looking for on the first page and the increase in the mention of keywords may rank your CV higher in an applicant tracking system ATS if the recruiter is using one to screen applications before reviewing CVs.

Each section of your CV should be tailored to the position in order to make it through an ATS and pique the interest of a recruiter. Use the job description as your guide to identify the key skills the company is looking for that you have. Instead of abbreviating, spell out requirements like skills and certifications that you and mention throughout your CV in your skills, professional experience and education sections. An applicant tracking system is a common tool used by companies to quickly and efficiently identify qualified candidates.

CVs built with both the ATS and role-specific keywords in mind rank higher than others even though your CV will likely be scanned with ATS software, you can use this to your advantage when you know strategies to ensure your CV is ranked higher:. Find jobs. Company reviews. Find salaries. Upload your resume. However, relevant interests can provide a more complete picture of who you are, as well as giving you something to talk about at interview. Examples include writing your own blog or community newsletters if you want to be a journalist, being part of a drama group if you're looking to get into sales and your involvement in climate change activism if you'd like an environmental job.

If you don't have any relevant hobbies or interests leave this section out. References - You don't need to provide the names of referees at this stage. You can say 'references available upon request' but most employers would assume this to be the case so if you're stuck for space you can leave this out. CV format Avoid titling the document 'curriculum vitae' or 'CV '. It's a waste of space.

Instead let your name serve as the title. Section headings are a good way to break up your CV. Ensure they stand out by making them larger font size 14 or 16 and bold.

Avoid fonts such as Comic Sans. Use a font size between 10 and 12 to make sure that potential employers can read your CV.

Ensure all fonts and font sizes are consistent throughout. List everything in reverse chronological order. Then the recruiter sees your work history and most recent achievements first. Keep it concise by using clear spacing and bullet points. This type of CV layout allows potential employers to skim your CV and quickly pick out important information first. Name the document when saving - Don't just save as 'Document 1'.

Make sure the title of the document is professional and identifies you, such as 'Joe-Smith-CV'. Unless the job advert states differently for example, it may ask you to provide your CV and cover letter as a Word document save with a. PDF file extension to make sure it can be opened and read on any machine. If you're posting your CV, print it on white A4 paper - Only print on one side and don't fold your CV - you don't want it to arrive creased. How to write a good CV Use active verbs when possible.

For example, include words like 'created', 'analysed' and 'devised' to present yourself as a person who shows initiative. A good CV doesn't have any spelling or grammar mistakes. Use a spell checker and enlist a second pair of eyes to check over the document. Avoid generic, over-used phrases such as 'team player', 'hardworking' and 'multitasker'. Instead, provide real-life examples that demonstrate all of these skills. Tailor your CV.

Look at the company's website and social media accounts, look to see if they've recently been mentioned in the local press and use the job advert to make sure your CV is targeted to the role and employer. Create the right type of CV for your circumstances. Decide whether the chronological, skills-based or academic CV is right for you. Make sure your email address sounds professional. If your personal address is inappropriate create a new account for professional use.

Don't lie or exaggerate on your CV or job application. Not only will you demonstrate your dishonesty to a potential employer, but there can be serious consequences too. For example, altering your degree grade from a to a is classed as degree fraud and can result in a prison sentence. Take a look at this advice and guidance on degree fraud for students. The profile gives a clear indication of the types of businesses that the candidate has worked in; shows how they interact with customers in their roles and the services they are familiar with providing.

The core skills highlight important customer services skills that employers will be searching for such as complaint handling and transaction processing. This candidate also highlights their language skills because being multilingual could be very useful in a customer facing role. Role descriptions start with a brief description of the employers service and explain how the candidate interacts with customers to help provide these services.

Bullet pointed responsibilities explain day-to-day activities and how each one helps customers and supports the employers goals. Check out my new CV structure and format video guide! The profile provides an overview of all the key information that an education institution needs to know such as;. The core skills highlight important skills that a primary school would look for in this case, like behaviour management , classroom preparation and SEN support.

Role descriptions start with a brief description of the education institution, the type of curriculum being taught and who the candidate reports to and supports. Bullet pointed responsibilities explain day-to-day activities and how each one helps to educate students as well as support the functioning of the school. Older and less relevant roles at the bottom of the CV are shortened to list format, in order to save space and ensure readers focus on earlier roles.

Role descriptions start by outlining the role and organisation, who the candidate reports to and benchmark figures such as budget managed and number of people managed etc. They also show colleagues, stakeholders and external parties that the candidate liaises with. Key achievements that show impressive amounts of money saved for the firm are a great way to show quantifiable value to employers and really make the CV stand out.

Education and professional memberships are often important in financial roles as many positions require qualifications for companies to abide by laws and regulations — so they are made bold and clear. Accounting and finance IT system knowledge is highlighted as employers will have their own systems and need to know whether candidates can use them or not.

Quick tip: To ensure your CV is opened every time you apply for a job, you will need a strong cover letter — learn how to write a cover letter here. However, this can be addressed by placing more focus on non-work related experience such as education , personal projects , volunteering etc. This candidate is a music graduate, applying for roles in the music-management space, but they have no paid employment experience in the profession. The core skills section again focuses on academic achievement s such as the degree in music management and skills that have been learnt outside of work, such as instrument playing and music production software.

Education sections for junior candidates needs to be detailed in order to demonstrate skills and knowledge that will not yet have been gained through work experience.

This candidate details relevant personal music projects, music production software and shows practical skills that could be applied in the workplace. Interests are not often necessary for experienced workers, but junior candidates can use them to showcase hobbies and interests that are related to their chosen profession.

Team sports such as football , can be a great way to showcase soft skills like teamwork, communication , motivation and leadership. Here the candidate backs up their technical skills and passion for music by writing about relevant musical pursuits to finalise the perfect CV.

The key to an interview winning IT CV , is to blend your technical knowledge with straight-forward business language, so that your CV will impress both technical and non-technical people alike. An IT CV needs to contain all of the important technical key words that IT specialists will look for, but also be written in a way that can be understood by non-IT staff like recruiters and non-IT hiring managers. If you have lots of qualifications and technical skills then you can swap these round when applying for different roles to ensure that you are highlighting the most relevant knowledge to employers for each vacancy.

Role descriptions start with an outline that explains where the candidate sits within the business, the type of support they provide and amount of users they are responsible for. Responsibilities go into details around daily activities such as hardware installation and user support whilst being sure to include as many technologies as possible in your CV, to show employers the systems and hardware the candidate is capable of working with.

Key Achievements are nicely quantified by including numbers of staff moved during relocation and percentage of issues dealt with inside SLA time frames.