Top recruiter advice
The CV you present to a recruitment agency is the first step towards a more fulfilling career, so make sure you get advice from a leading recruiter on what should be in it. Here are helpful and important facts to remember when preparing your CV.
What is a CV?
A CV is your first introduction to a prospective employer or recruiter
Your CV should provide an overview of your skills, experience and knowledge, and other qualifications.
What should your CV contain?
When preparing your CV
You may want to consider the following headings, which would preferably be in this order:
Personal contact details
Professional statement
Work experience – achievements
Education / training
Hobbies & interests
References
Personal contact Details
Your details should include: full name, current address, phone numbers and your email address.
Professional statement
This gives you a chance to sell yourself to the recruiter and a potential employer from the get go. A professional statement or what others call a mission statement allows you to briefly explain who you are, what you do, and what you’re best known for in the work place. The professional statement is also where you can provide the insights that help a prospective employer understand where you want to go with your career.
Work Experience
Your work experience should lead with the most recent employment first and go back from there to the oldest. Clearly state your employer, location, job title, and list the key duties and responsibilities associated to each of your roles. Keep your dates clear and in order. Work experience details on your CV are vitally important as these are what the employers are interested in the most. Keep things clear and concise, bullet point and don’t waffle. This is also a great chance to highlight your key achievements. List your key achievements under each role you were involved with. This will allow the employer to see how successful you were in each position.
Education / Training
More and more, we are seeing employers highlight education as an important part of their screening process. You don’t need to add in your Primary & Secondary education as they will only be interested in your third level education and extra training or further education courses.
Hobbies & Interests
Keep this short and sweet – Be honest.
References
If you are comfortable to outline your references, by all means do. Prior to providing details of your referees ensure you have asked them for their permission and advise them of the role you are applying for. Make sure you have the correct contact details of your referee – phone numbers and email address.
Helpful hints on the preparation of your CV
- Aim to include facts and evidence and ensure self-opinion is avoided.
- Keep your CV clear, concise, and easy to read – Remember that a CV is there to stimulate the reader’s interest not to bore the reader.
- A CV that is hard to read is mostly forgotten so structure will play a large role in aiding the reader.
- Keep your CV honest – never ever include anything that you cannot defend.
- Spellcheck, spellcheck, spellcheck and spellcheck again!
- Do not include a photo on your CV – the employer is looking for information and facts about you, not what you look like.