CV sequence

[red rider]

Hi Guys,

Whats the correct sequence to writing a CV? i know it`s name, ad, phone number d.o.b etc, but i mean what should come first after that? ie school education, employment history, personal profile and so on and on.Any ideas on the correct way would be fully appreciated.

[Jakestar]

Basically there are lots of ways to structure a CV, and different ways are better for different CVs (eg one with more qualifications and less experience, or vice-versa)

Anyway im a graduate and I got a careers guy to help me, this is my CV structure (seems to have worked well so far )

• Personal Details
• Profile (brief 2 - 3 lines describing you and what you're looking for)
• Skills and Abilities (bullet, list all that are relevant, backed up by examples)
• Qualifications (Most recent first, if you have a degree state related subjects, dissertation title) (List A-Levels or equivelent, no need to list all GCSE's or equivelent, just say for eg 11 GCSE's at B or above)
• Work Experience (most recent first, focus on those relevant to post)
• Hobbies/Interests
• References (I state 'References can be supplied upon request')

Hope this is some help, no doubt others will disagree, but like I said there are many different ways of writing a CV, and this is just one that works for me

Edited by Jakestar on Wednesday 18th June 22:37

[red rider]

Thanks,
Thats a great help, and yes your so right as in there are probably many different ways to write a CV, but i just wanted to make sure that if i am writing one, then if it`s at least the usual way, then hopefully i`m not going to be far wrong.
Thanks again.

[skibum]

I'd beg to disagree on the sequence above. I would say that you need to catch a person's attention straight away. They could be reviewing dozens of CV's at a time and will be making a judgement very quickly.

To be brutal about it, where you live and what your email address and phone numbers are, are irrelevant until they know you are any good, so either put these in a header or footer, or leave them until the end.

I've always suggested the following format

• Name
• Profile - What you do, what you've acheived, why you are good and what you are looking to do
• Recent experience - include company name (inc a one line desciption if not obvious), your job title, bullet point main responsibilities - dont go over the top, but not too brief either - about 6-10. Any major achievments in that time
• Other experience - not in as much depth unless a key position or your recent role is over a short (less than 12 month) time period.
• Education/Qualifications - starting with Professional qual, Highest education first (degree, A-levels, etc)
• Personal interest - again brief, but we want to know what makes you tick. Dont over do it (we dont want to know your favourite book or movie) Things like sports, socialising with friends and family let us know we are dealing with a reasonable person rather than a hermit or freak
• Contact details

If you can catch the attention of the person reviewing the CV in the first 30 seconds they will read on to get to the admin info. If you have a relevant professional qualification that is sought after then put it after your name at the top of the page.

This is my view and what I look for, but a CV is a personal document and should also reflect your personality. People do read a lot into it so be carefull. If it is too wordy, people with think you will be a talker and procrastinate too much in your job, too short and you're too modest and havent got enough to shout about.

Whilst this works in my recruitment area (finance/accounting) it may not work in all. In IT for example it could be more important to list IT skills and keywords first..