How to Write an Effective CV

A CV is a personal advertisement of your life and is aimed to get you the career you wish for. To follow is a sample layout for a CV to make it eye-catching, factual, believable and selling the benefits of employing yourself to a potential employer:

1. Personal Information - Place name and relevant contact details at the top. Date of birth is optional

2. Personal Profile - This section gives a potential employer personal information about yourself. State how you see yourself, what you can offer to a new employer and any skills that are relevant to particular role applied for. Try and keep this short (max 5 lines)

3. Work Experience - Give details of previous employment dating back a minimum of 5 years or 3 jobs (where possible give more info). State dates for all roles with last job first on your CV. Give details of tasks undertaken in these jobs making sure it is understandable and relevant to role applied for.

4. Education/ Qualifications -Give details of all qualifications attained and establishments where gained including higher education and any professional qualification/ achievements in workplace.

5. Hobbies/ Interests - Include interests outside of work including membership of any groups and/or sporting clubs. DO NOT put socialising.

6. Additional Information - Use this area to let your potential employer know of anything else you can give to the role. Include in this area, if you have a driving licence and/or transport.

7. References - Available on request

This concludes your CV, but please be aware that it should be no longer than 2 pages long as research has shown this puts off employers who have to look through a lot of CV's.

Good Luck in the compilation of your CV.