CV Layout: The Do’s and Don’ts
Do’s
- Choose a clean, readable and modern font. Here are a couple we recommend using:
- Times New Roman
- Arial
- Calibri
- Georgia
Classic fonts for the win. Make sure to use the same font throughout your whole CV.
- Keep it short and sweet. Like I said, recruiters spend on average only 6-8 seconds reviewing a CV. Try and get straight to the point and ideally keep it to no more than two pages.
- Include relevant experience, previous roles either from a long time ago or not relevant are not needed.
- Bullet points, keep it concise.
- Focus on your achievements – rather than stating what your responsibilities were in a role, explain what you achieved and use numbers and data where possible.
- Use headings for each section. Ensure you include simple, reader-friendly titles and subheadings for each section such as:
- Work Experience
- Education
- Hobbies and Interests, etc.
Don’ts
- Include irrelevant information. Ask yourself this question, will this information help me get the role?
- Include information which may be viewed negatively. For example, failed exams, reasons for leaving jobs, points on your driving licence. Don’t lie, but don’t include this kind of information. Don’t give the interviewer any reason to discard you at this stage.
- Include all the jobs you have had since school, just include the relevant ones. Add details about your most recent qualifications.
- Include a photo unless required.
CV Sections
- CV Heading
Your name, telephone number, email address, location (town) and if you have one, a link to your Linkedin profile.
- Personal Profile
An attention-grabbing statement to introduce the reader to your background, key skills and relevant experience. Keep this to a short paragraph and you could include:
- Number of years experience in the industry/role you are applying for
- Relevant qualifications to the role you are applying for
- Personal attributes that are important for the role you are applying for
- Achievements
Under the personal profile include a bullet list of some key achievements, perhaps around three or four. Keep these as concise as possible within a sentence or two and start with an active verb, e.g. ‘Delivered’ or ‘Implemented’. The aim of this section is to show how you stand out from everyone else applying – this is the ‘why should they interview/hire you section’.
The reason its important to have this list here and not included within your career history is that if the reader doesn’t read through your entire CV, they have read your key achievements. Again, try and include data and statistics where possible.
For example:
‘Managed a team of 20 people and increased sales by 20% over 12 months’
- Career Experience
Here you list your work experience. Put the company, your job title and month/year you were there from and to at the top with bullet points underneath.
List your experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent position. This helps employers quickly see your most recent role and responsibilities.
Only include work experience that's relevant to the job you're applying for.
Keep achievements at the forefront of your mind (not the ones used in the achievements section), using numbers and figures to explain what you achieved just as with the achievements section. Start each bullet with an active verb.
You could also include awards, promotions, problems solved, time or money saved, and special projects.
- Skills
In this section list your key skills that are relevant to the role. This can include technical or hard skill, e.g. Microsoft Power Point, and they can include soft skills, e.g. decision making.
- Education & Qualifications
Here you can list your education, degree qualifications are the most important, but you may also wish to state A Levels and GCSE’s obtained although exact subjects and grades are not usually needed unless highly relevant to the role.
Also include any professional qualifications or accreditations here.
- Hobbies and Interests
You do not need to include these on your CV but if you wish to, you can and it can be a good way to stand out from the crowd as you get to show off your personality and individuality.
Recruiters invest in people; they hire and work with human beings. Adding hobbies that are relevant and add value are key, for example, playing chess would match well when applying for technical jobs like IT or science.