As Recruiters, my team and I see hundreds of C. V’s in a week, many C.V’s are haphazardly done and consist of spelling errors, incorrect, missing or too much of information.
We have decided to put together some guidelines to assist those who need to update or revamp their C.V’s as you may now have the time to do so.
Our guidelines are as follows:
- Ensure that your C.V. is in word format as it makes it easier for reformatting and saving it on a database system
- Ensure that the font that is used is standard and the size is not too big (suggested font is Calibri or Arial and size is 11)
- Ensure that your C.V. is not typed in CAPS as this has a shouting tone and can be frustrating for Recruiters or potential Employers
- Do not include a table of contents as this just makes your C.V. longer and is unnecessary
- You can use simple subheadings, for example:
- Resume Summary
- Personal Details
- Education
- Computer Programs
- Work Experience
- Personal Details:
- Ensure that all personal and contact information is on your C.V., this includes:
- Current location (this means where you are currently living)
- Current contact number and an alternate contact number
- Email address
- ID number
- A link to your LinkedIn profile
- Include a small photo of you on the top right corner (head and shoulder, front facing), this is optional
- Education:
- Include all completed qualifications including matric e.g, Matric; Queensburgh Girls High; 2010 (do not put your subject passed and if you are currently studying towards a qualification, please state this)
- State your highest qualification first
- You may also list courses that you may have attended and certificates that you have received
- List the Computer programs that you have worked on
- Work Experience:
- Your work experience should be documented using reverse-chronological order, this means you should start from your most recent job and work your way back
- Ensure start dates and end dates have the month you started and the month you ended (Not just the year)
- If there are gaps in your C.V. (periods where you did not work) please ensure that you include a short explanation of what you did during this time
- You must include clear reasons for leaving each Employer
E.g.
Company Name: Lacey’s Bar
Duration: January 2009 – July 2017
Title: Waitress
Duties: Serving customers, cleaning up the tables, assisting the Manager and cashing up
Reason for leaving: Received better offer from another company
- When listing references, please state which Company the reference is from
- Write out a short summary (not more than 5 lines) to introduce yourself and highlight your key strengths (do not make this too fluffy)
- List your achievements in the last three Companies that you worked for, this should be short, to the point and not more than 3 per Company. This can be listed after your duties and stated separately as achievements. Achievements vary and depend on the type of industry that you are in or the type of work that you do. Achievements are important as they separate you for others who have the same or similar qualifications as you and the same or similar work experience. Some examples are:
- Special awards received from the Company
- Projects that you have led and what was achieved
- Any streamlining activity that you have implemented that has saved the Company money or improved efficiency
- Promotions
- Templates that you may have created
- Employees that you have trained
- Name your document correctly e.g. C.V. of John Smith
Your C.V. is the first impression of you and should make a prospective Employer or Recruiter want to call you, out of all the C.V’s they are viewing for a position, so it is important that you take the time to ensure that it is done well and is easy to access and read. We hope that our guidelines assist you in creating a comprehensive C.V.
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