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How to write the perfect CV

Written by: David Thomas at IntaPeople
Published on: 24 Oct 2016
Category:

DAVID THOMAS

How to write the perfect CV - By David Thomas of IntaPeople

As strange as it may sound your CV can be one of the most important documents that you could ever write. That may sound outlandish to you but if you think about it, your CV could mean the difference between you being offered that job or not and then, subsequently, whether you are able to afford that house, car, wedding etc.

All considered, it truly amazes me how little time people spend on their CV’s, people really don’t recognise the importance of this document. Time spent updating or tailoring your CV will never be wasted time. Always have it in mind that Recruitment Consultants and Hiring Managers take, on average, only 6 seconds to review a CV which means you have to capture their attention within the first half of the first page. I do also understand that writing a CV can be completely alien to most people which is why I’ve created this easy to follow guide to ensure your CV characterises you and your experiences as well as possible.

Your CV should be largely bullet-pointed with all key points quantified with figures where necessary. There should be no graphs, pictures, tables or unusual formatting. Keep it simple. In all honesty, as a Recruiter, there is nothing more annoying than a CV with unusual formatting because we have to format them further ourselves anyway and if you have columns, tables, graphs etc. it could take ten times longer. When submitting it ensure that you use a standard word processing format, try not to use PDF’s for the same formatting reasons.

Below is an outline of how your CV should be formatted from the beginning to the very end.

Your CV

At the very top of the page should have your full name followed by any letters (MCIPS, BA Hons etc.), your address, telephone number, email address and a link to your LinkedIn profile.

Personal Profile

The Personal Profile should preferably be written in the third person, without using your name i.e David is, and include:

  • The amount of experience that you have in years
  • Include a brief of any industry specific qualifications
  • Include industries or sectors you’ve worked in
  • Who you are used to reporting into
  • Include your spend responsibilities
  • End with a brief personal touch

Example:

A highly experienced Procurement Manager with over fifteen years’ worth of experience working at a strategic level. MCIPS qualified with a BA Hons in Business Management with knowledge of working in the Aerospace, Automotive and Precision Engineering industries. Used to reporting into Director level with an overall spend responsibility of £300mil. spread over twelve separate categories. A highly astute and methodical individual that truly gets the best  out of his team and colleagues.

Key Achievements/ Key Skills

The next and arguably most important part of your CV is the Key Achievements/Key Skills section. These should be completely bullet-pointed. I prefer Key Achievements over Key Skills but if you would like to have both then feel free, especially if you have a highly unique skill set. Key Achievements should illustrate any cost savings or efficiencies that you’ve been responsible for but can also include any awards that you may have won. They should also be quantified where necessary. These are the points that will impress Hiring Managers the most and if you can’t remember the specific figures then approximate as accurately as possible

Example:

  • Savings of £300K on an overall category spend of £5mil in the Composites Category for ABC Aerospace achieved by switching raw materials suppliers.

Employment History

Each role should be formatted the same for ease of reading. These should be listed in chronological order with your most recent role first. Each role should include:

  • The company name
  • The dates that you worked there (reason for leaving also if made redundant for instance)
  • Your job title
  • A brief description of what the company does
  • A brief description of your role, the same format as with the personal profile - who you reported into, reports, spend etc.
  • List of bullet-pointed responsibilities with the most pertinent or important first
  • A couple of key achievements specific to the role if you can.

Example:

ABC Aerospace – July 2010 – October 2016 (Redundant)

Procurement Manager

ABC Aerospace is a specialist precision engineering and manufacturing company supplying XYC items to some of the largest companies within the Aerospace industry. As the Procurement Manager, I reported directly to the board and was responsible for a team of 30 people covering 12 individual categories ranging from XX to XX with an overall spend responsibility of £300mil.

Responsibilities:

  • Strategic responsibility for the entire Procurement operation of the business
  • Etc.

Qualifications

Finally, you should list all of your qualifications, accreditations or training courses completed and the dates that you acquired them.

One key thing to also dramatically increase your chances of being interviewed is to tailor your CV to each role. You can’t list all of your responsibilities on your CV but there will be some listed in a Job Specification that you’ve excluded from the original so just add them in.

Contrary to popular belief CV’s don’t only have to be two pages long. As long as they’re predominantly bullet-pointed then I feel that they can be up to four pages in length. How easy it looks to read supersedes how long it is.

I wish you the best of luck in your job search and if you have any questions at all then please don’t hesitate to get in touch at d.thomas@intapeople.com