How to write the perfect CV

More often than not, your CV will be your first introduction to a potential employer. It is therefore one of the most important documents you will ever write, particularly in the internet recruitment era. Applying for roles via the internet makes the process far quicker and easier, but it also means that lots of other applicants can do the same thing. Recruiters often have to deal with a volume of applications by applying some basic filters to reduce down to a core few for consideration – make sure a simple mistake doesn’t rule you out!

Some things certain to put off a busy recruiter are:

   · Unclear layout and fonts which are difficult to read
   · Spelling mistakes (especially for roles requiring ‘attention to detail’, or good copywriting skills!)
   · Poorly produced e.g. photocopied
   · Too long or short to prove relevance

Treat this as your opportunity to make a great first impression, and take the time to design, construct and word your CV to ensure you promote yourself to your best advantage. As a marketer, it is especially important that your CV illustrates that you can do the role you are applying for – and that includes proving you can market yourself!
Whilst it is worth remembering that each recruiter's idea of a 'perfect' CV will be slightly different, we hope that the following guide will prove useful to you.

Tips for an easy-to read layout

1. Keep it simple and elegant. Don’t use decorative borders and extra embellishments – this is your CV, not a brochure! Photographs of yourself are unnecessary and can make your CV slower to download. Tables can lose their formatting when scanned.
   The exception to this may be for creative roles such as Art Director, for instance, where a beautifully designed CV may well be a selection criterion.
2. Make your headings clear and accurate and use plenty of white space. If the reader has to work too hard to extract the information they are looking for, they may not bother, so make sure that they can find all the key areas of your CV quickly and easily.
3. Write in the first person. Saying 'Seema is an experienced brand manager...' removes you a step from your target audience, whilst saying ' I am a fully qualified and competent Brand Manager with 3 years commercial work experience' is more likely to engage them.
4. Fonts. If applying by email, sans seraph fonts such as Verdana read universally well on a computer screen, whilst for printing, seraph fonts such as Times New Roman are easy on the eye. Black is never wrong. Avoid using unusual fonts for the sake of it and never use blocks of capitals or bold – it is extremely difficult to read a lot of.
5. Length. There is some disagreement with regards to how long a CV should be, with 2 pages given as the ideal benchmark. This is probably fine if you are in the first five years of your career, but don’t be afraid to run to a couple more pages if your experience warrants it, provided all the information is directly relevant and leaving it out would omit something important.
6. Keep everything relevant. Whilst it may be a useful insight that you have written a book, for example, or spent a year rescuing baby elephants in India, if an interviewer is particularly interested they’ll ask, so don’t go into detail on your CV.
7. Bullet points. At Acuity, we love bullet points. They present your skills, experience and achievements in a concise, punchy way which is very quick and easy to read.
   
   Compare the following:
   
   My current role involves many elements, from planning the marketing campaigns, to budget management and leading the marketing team to deliver the all the elements of the marketing plan on time and to budget.
   
   with:
   
   My current role includes:
   
      · Planning marketing campaigns
      · Budget management
      · Leading the marketing team
      · Delivering all elements of the marketing plan on time and to budget
   
   After a dozen similar CVs, which one would register more clearly in your mind?
   
8. Chronological or functional? At Acuity, we tend to prefer the chronological CV, as it’s the most widely accepted and it is clear and easy to read. Whilst a functional CV can sometimes be appropriate, for example if you have held a number of unrelated jobs, your career progression and how and where you gained your skills can be unclear with this type of CV.
9. Gaps in career history should be explained (briefly) and falsehoods and inaccuracies avoided at all costs, as you will be found out!
10. As a general rule, when printing your CV, you should use black ink on good quality A4 white/cream paper. 100gsm is a good, professional weight. If applying by post, your CV and cover letter should be submitted in a suitable quality envelope, clearly addressed, with a first class stamp.

So what should I include?

Remember that your CV is essentially a marketing dossier on you and that a potential employer will use the details provided to form the questions for an interview. A fact which is also commonly overlooked is that in this age of internet recruitment, your CV is often scanned electronically for keywords, so make sure it includes plenty of the ones that will be relevant to the roles for which you are applying!

Whilst your CV is an individual document, and different recruiters may look for slightly different presentations, there are some basic elements that will be common to all. Remember though, that unless you are applying for a generalist role, you will stand a much greater chance of selection if you ensure that your CV promotes those elements of your experience that match the requirements of the role.

1. Summary. This is an opportunity for self promotion! This should be a short paragraph stating who you are, what you’ve done, and what core skills you bring to the mix:
   e.g. A CIM qualified marketer with 5 years’ award-winning brand management experience in the toy industry. A strong and motivating leader, with excellent market analysis, PR and product development skills and exceptional attention to detail.
   
   NB – this is a prime opportunity to pick out all the most important elements of the job description and leave the recruiter in no doubt, in no time at all, that your CV is worth reading in full!
2. Essential information. Remember that recruiters often work in hectic environments where speed is of the essence, so ensure that you include enough contact information for them contact you quickly and easily.
   Personal details should include:
   
      · Full name, address, daytime/evening and mobile telephone numbers
      · Private email address (one that you use regularly!)
      · Marital status - include only whether you are married or single
      · Nationality - vital to establish whether you are likely to need a work permit
      · Driving licence - if you don't drive, exclude any reference to a licence.
   
   Superfluous personal details such as children's names, height, weight, health conditions should be avoided. Any form of failure on your CV can count against you in prospective employer’s mind, so failed businesses, exams or marriages should all be omitted, unless they leave an obvious gap which needs explaining.
   
3. Education and professional qualifications. Whether these go at the beginning or end of your CV will really depend on how important they are to the particular role you are applying for. If you have exactly the qualification they are looking for, then putting it first will identify you as a good potential candidate, even if you don’t have every single skill they are seeking. If, however, the job description lists as a requirement a qualification you don’t have, then putting education at the end of your CV enables you to list all the very relevant industry skills and experience you have first, selling you to the recruiter regardless.
4. Employment. This should be presented in reverse chronological order and should focus on your last two positions and your responsibilities and achievements in them. Internal promotions should be treated as separate positions, with the job title and dates included. Within each position you should include an overview of your main responsibilities, transferable skills that you developed and all your major achievements in that position. As your career progresses, the part-time jobs, work experience etc. becomes less relevant and should drop off your CV.
   
   How you format this will be personal choice, but the following example is clear and easy to read:
   
   Company                                                                                    Dates of employment
   A sentence about what the company does – it’s not always obvious!
   
   Current Job Title                                                                        Dates
   Managing a team of x, my responsibilities include:
      · x
      · y
      · z
      · etc
   
   Achievements:
   If you don’t list your achievements, you are just selling the features, not the benefits, so try to list at least 2 or 3 key achievements here that are quantifiable and have made a demonstrable difference to the success of the company, e.g:
   
      · Created and managed a product advertising campaign which resulted in a 30% increase in sales over 6 months
      · Rationalised relationships with suppliers, resulting in a cost saving of £500k
   
   Previous Job Title                                                                       Dates
   Reporting to the x, my responsibilities included:
      · x
      · y
      · z
    · etc
   
   Achievements:
      · X
      · Y
   
   NB. There is no need to include your reasons for leaving each job on your CV but be prepared to answer these questions in your interview
5. Training. List any additional training courses you have taken, and any resulting qualifications.
6. IT Skills. List all the packages that you are familiar with and the depth of expertise that you have in each.
7. Other experience. This is a good place to list things such as language skills, leadership experience outside of work etc..
8. Hobbies and interests. Try to include things that demonstrate qualities that will help make you a valuable employee. You should also show that you are able to balance commitment to your work with a life outside it! Good examples include: team sports, charitable work and any activities related to the industry the company operates in.
9. References. By putting ‘References available upon request’ at the end of your CV, you maintain the control. If you give the name and contact details for a referee, there’s a chance that they will be called for a reference before you’ve even had an offer! This may be fine if you’ve already resigned, but even if you have, it is much better to be able to call ahead and warn a referee of an impending call, so that you can remind them of any particularly good situations and projects that you were involved in that you know your new employer will be interested to have confirmed!

The Covering Letter
A good cover letter can bolster your application, ensuring that a recruiter stops and takes those few extra minutes to consider you against other applicants. Although they should be personalised not standard documents, following some basic guidelines should help ensure you receive a positive response from your initial contact.

• The name of the relevant contact will often appear in the job advert, so you should address them. Avoid Sir or Madam if you can.
• Check and check again for grammatical and spelling errors. Emails should be written in the style of a formal, handwritten letter.
• When replying to an advert, mention the job title, reference code and where and when you saw it.
• If a more detailed letter is required, follow any specific instructions and be sure to include information that is particularly requested, such as current salary.
• Briefly outline your experience, including your current or last job, education level and professional training and outline why you are seeking to change.
• Tailor your information to demonstrate that you have properly read the advert and that you have done some research into the organisation. State why you are interested in working for them.
• Highlight your achievements and transferable skills; what you can contribute and any personality traits relevant to the role applied for.
• Do not offer any negative information in your cover letter or your CV (although you should not withhold relevant information if asked e.g. points on your licence.)
• Close your letter by expressing interest in discussing the opportunity further and that you await a response in due course.

And finally

Mistakes can make or break your application, so take a break, then email a copy of your CV and cover letter to yourself and check it for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. It’s not enough to use the spellchecker on your PC, as these can often be wrong, especially with plurals. A good proofreading trick is to start at the end and work backwards, so that your brain finds it harder to skip over the obvious. Then get someone else you trust to check it!

Lastly, some of the most common errors are:

   · Laison (US) instead of liaison
   · Apostrophe abuse, especially with plurals:
        e.g. CDs not CD’s
        Videos not video’s
        Referees not referee’s
   · The singular of criteria is criterion
   · The singular of media is medium

Confidently using punctuation is becoming more difficult, because of its increasingly widespread misuse! If in any doubt, the editorial of one of the broad sheet newspapers will provide a good benchmark.