Applications and interviews

Creating the ideal CV

Get to interview via your CV.
argeting the information in your CV to a particular type of work is essential in catching the recruiters eye. This means that there is no general CV: each time you apply for a job you need to tweak it to fit the job role. How do you do that? The place to start is the person specification on the job description, as this tells you all you need to know about the type of person the employer is looking for. Sometimes this is laid out separately to all the other information given; other times its a bit more subtle and you have to read between the lines. One useful tactic is to look at how the company talks about itself: they will probably want you to have the same traits. Your aim is to make your CV match all of the criteria.

Essential information
Personal details Name, address, telephone number, email address. Make sure you have a professionalsounding email, such as your full name, rather than a nickname: if necessary set up a new account. Education University education A levels Number of GCSEs (or equivalent) Work experience Include both paid and voluntary work and any part-time or on-campus work youve done. Feature the skills which are most relevant to the job you are applying for. You can split this into a first section Relevant work experience, outlining directly related experience, and Other experience, listing everything else.

Skills IT, languages (including the level of competency) and any technical skills for example, lab techniques. Positions of responsibility This is optional: include it if you have any relevant responsibilities. Interests Leisure activities, club/society memberships, travel References If you do give references, then a good rule of thumb is to include one employer and one academic referee for jobs and two academic referees for courses. Length Most employers will expect the standard UK CV length of two pages. Academic CVs are often longer as you are required to include presentations, publications etc. CVs for banking jobs should be no more than one page.

Test yourself
How many skills can you find in the internship advertisement below? (Answers at the bottom of the page.)

An employer might give your CV 60 seconds of attention on the very first viewing so be sure to write it with that in mind. Your experience doesnt have to be presented chronologically so make sure you hook recruiters on page one, by presenting any experience thats relevant to the job on the first page.
Laura Mackenzie, Careers Adviser, Kings College London

Summer Internship Programme

ted to At Diamond Plus Bank, we are commit ities. helping our people reach their capabil s real Our Summer internships offer student to learn able be responsibility. You will need to members g quickly, as you will be fully contributin the financial of a team and develop your skills for learn from, industry. You will work alongside, and d by your leaders within finance and be mentore er bright, oth team leader. Through working with undertaking motivated people from the firm and insights and responsibility you will gain valuable career. re futu r experience to help you in you
Sample job advert

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THE CAREERS SERVICE GUIDE London 2012

1. reach their capabilities, skill ambitious/driven; 2. responsibility, skill responsible; 3. contributing members of a team, skill teamwork and communication; 4. learn from leaders, skill ability to learn quickly; 5. mentored by your team leader, skill interpersonal and relationship building skills; 6. motivated people from the firm, skill self-motivation.

Answers:

www.careers.lon.ac.uk

Applications and interviews

This CV is written for the summer internship with Diamond Bank. Notice how it gives examples to demonstrate all the skills on the internship advert on page 32.
Samantha Chester
41 Station Road, NW1 8QP [email protected] Mobile: 07797 345621 Email: sam.c EDUCATION & COURSES

Its obvious this is a CV as it starts with their name as a title. Begin with the most recent events and include current education.

Flags up a skill outlined in the job description. Uses numbers to provide specific information, increasing the impact of her writing. Summarises GCSEs. Includes any relevant careersrelated courses. Lines between sections, capitalised titles and bullet points make it easy to read.

rsity of London BSc economics, Queens College, Unive 20102013 and microeconomics ess busin and mics econo ods in Modules include: mathematical meth as part of microeconomics ets mark cial finan of study through Commercial awareness developed to peers and lecturers nting prese gh throu ence and confid Improved oral communication skills . dually and indivi seven times, both as a group of four Hart Secondary School, Poole 20032010 ology (B) studies (B), biology (B); AS Level: psych A Levels: mathematics (A), business (A) h and Englis 10 GCSEs including mathematics (A*) arket Bank, onsite. Jan 2011, Principles of Trading, Haym gh 1 day introduction to trading. Increased commercial awareness throu WORK EXPERIENCE s Training, London P/t Administration Assistant, Nexu Sept 2010Present ity of online enrolment and resources viabil g rchin resea of ity Entrusted with additional responsibil to put job out to tender. ing agree team nt geme needed, which resulted in senior mana to ensure an efficient service is group client se diver cally ethni Build successful relationships with ly. quick provided and queries are answered nstrating selfmotivation. complete tasks ahead of schedule, demo Work largely unsupervised and often ng participants onto course and booki as such es, cours ng traini 50 Organise all administration work for completing all the related paperwork. nt to senior management ack forms to produce reports and prese Regularly record and analyse feedb team. P/t Sales Assistant, Currys, Poole June 2007Aug 2009 ms and to keep uptodate ng on various internal computer syste and Took the initiative to seek out traini , through reading magazines, websites ology techn l visua audio in nts with the latest developme s. participating in online forum hes and head office and dealing liaising with colleagues at other branc Utilised interpersonal skills when with external suppliers. gup late deliveries or assertiveness through regularly chasin Improved communication skills and . laints comp and es queri mer custo payments and handled levels and order products. used organisational skills to track stock Dealt with financial transactions and POSITIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY seven, through weekly ber: Worked closely with a team of s Economics Society Committee mem ran social and finance careers event and ised organ 17%; by ip bersh mem meetings, to increase society and ran three social events/trips off ised organ , three of team a In t. and liaised with the departmen one. campus, with turnout of 4050 at each es, teaching, motivating and : Organising training and weekly match Football coach for local youth team line where necessary. discip ding provi as well as le, peop encouraging a squad of 15 young OTHER SKILLS & ACHIEVEMENTS Challenge. This involved s in the Queens College Enterprise Achieved 2nd place out of 27 team learn new concepts quickly, and to ability the ring requi , hours developing a business plan in three industry. pitching it to a panel of experts from , Access and Powerpoint. IT: Intermediate level Word, Excel Languages: Conversational German. REFERENCES Available on request

Includes a couple of modules which give relevant knowledge for the job, along with further details on content. Draws out the transferable skills outlined in the job description: responsibility, interpersonal/ relationship building ability, selfmotivation. Uses examples to back up the skills: avoid at all costs just listing your skills. Again, draws out transferable skills outlined in job description: ambition, interpersonal skills. Uses this section to again show skills outlined in job description: teamwork and interpersonal skills. Choice of title highlights ability to take responsibility.

Includes extracurricular careersrelated activities. Include full references if you want. If you run out of space then it is fine to write Available upon request.

A final checklist Further information

Your CV, The Careers Group 2010 (leaflet) CVs for PhD Students, The Careers Group 2010 (leaflet) Medical CVs, The Careers Group 2010 www.careers.lon.ac.uk/cep Your careers service also holds reference books on CVs. Does it look professional and can the reader find the information they need easily? Make your section headings stand out, using bold and a larger font.

Use good-quality white or off-white paper and put each page on a different sheet rather than back-to-back.

4 5

2 3

Present your information, such as date layout, in a consistent way.

Check for spelling and grammar errors. Dont rely on a computer spellchecker!

If you are sending out your CV speculatively (not in response to an advert) send it directly to the manager of the department you are interested in and not HR. If you know someone in the organisation find out if they will pass your CV to the relevant person.

Include a covering letter. See the next section for advice.

www.careers.lon.ac.uk

THE CAREERS SERVICE GUIDE London 2012

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