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Writing your CV Introduction/Personal Statement

The most common reason for an unsuccessful application when applying for a job, is the generic content of a CV.  This is especially the case for your personal statement as this is the first introduction to the recruiter. Your CV should be tailored to the role you are applying for, you can do this by ensuring to use keywords relating to the specific job.  Your CV should look clean and easy to read.  A general yet effective rule is to keep your whole CV content to a maximum of two ½ pages, meaning your personal statement should be kept to a maximum of approximately 100 words.  We want you to show how you can summarise yourself briefly and efficiently. 

 

When writing your personal statement, you should bear in mind we are only interested in your most recent experience.  You can delve into further detail about past experiences in ‘Career History’ under a separate heading.  We want to know how you will combine your most relevant and recent experience for the role you are applying for, by demonstrating the skills you obtain to achieve this.  We want to know exactly what is going to make you stand out amongst other applicants, so it would be wise to avoid generic statements such as ‘can work in a team or as an individual’. Try and be more specific, you should explain how and what it is that makes you different to other applicants. 

 

Career History/Education History

When writing your career history, you should always start with the most recent first, ensuring you state your start and finish date.  For each of your past employment history, you should avoid listing your role duties.  Instead, include 3-4 bullet points of your achievements within that role.  Your achievements should demonstrate a connection to the job you are applying for.  This is what is going to make your career history relevant to us, the employer.  A good tip, which should be applied to throughout the whole CV, is to continuously ask yourself “why am I telling them this?”.  If some of your content has no relevance to the role in which you are applying for, then simply leave it out. 

 

The same rule goes for your education history.  For example, if you have a degree in the role you are applying for, we don’t need to see the grade you achieved in your French GCSE (etc. etc.). Only state qualifications crucial to the role and most recent qualifications should always come first. 

 

Hobbies and Interests

It is not always necessary to include this section in your CV; however, it is a good opportunity to reflect on paper your personality, as long as you keep it short and to the point without including passive solitary hobbies such as watching TV and reading. 

 

References

Aim to include at least three recent references. If you would not like your references to be contacted prior to interview, you should state this clearly on your CV.