Employment

Information for jobseekers - writing your CV

Summary: Guidelines on producing a Curriculum Vitae (CV) outlining your general personal details, your relevant skills, experience and qualifications.

• Get help with your CV
• What is a Curriculum Vitae?
• When would you use a CV?
• General tips on writing a CV
• Types of CV and when to use them
• Examples of different CV styles
• Buzz words
• Skills and achievements
• Personal profiles
• SWOT analysis
• Summary

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Get help with your CV

Do you need some help writing a CV? RNIB Employment Officers will be happy to check through your CV and give you feedback and advice. By sending your CV through to us you will also get email updates on the latest vacancies from RNIB and other organisations!

Send our CV through to employmentline@rnib.org.uk or call 0870 013 9556 for more information.

What is a Curriculum Vitae?

A Curriculum Vitae (CV) is a brief document which outlines your general personal details, your relevant skills, experience and qualifications. It is used to help you “sell yourself” to a prospective employer by highlighting your strengths and achievements. The main aim of a CV is to get you an interview; if it does that than it is working for you.

When would you use a CV?

• Replying to an advertised vacancy where the employer has asked for a CV.
• For speculative applications – where you are keen to make contact with employers but where you haven’t seen any vacancy.
• For your own personal reference. It can be useful when completing application forms.

General tips on writing a CV

Here are some tips that you should consider when producing your CV:

• Use good quality A4 paper (white or pale background)
• Limit it to a maximum of 2 sides of A4 – keep it concise!
• Keep it clear and specific – simple language works best.
• Remember employers do not have time to read masses of information on your past employment
• Use positive and active language
• Highlight your selling points clearly e.g. your key skills or achievements
• Career history and education should be most recent first
• Do include hobbies and interests and explain any gaps in employment history
• Always type or word process your CV and get it checked for spelling, grammar and ease of understanding
• Employers may be deterred by unusual or silly email addresses or answer phone messages
• Do not include names and addresses of referees
• You may need to prepare more than one CV depending on what you are applying for
• Always include a covering letter

Types of CV and when to use them

There are three common types of CV:

Chronological

• A traditional format where work experience is organised in date order.
• Use when staying in a similar field, job history shows career development or if last employer’s name may be advantageous.
• Don’t use when changing career direction, employment history is varied or when re-entering employment after a career break.

Functional

• Gives an emphasis to the transferable skills and experience gained, avoiding any reliance on work in date order.
• Use when changing careers, skills are more impressive then employment history, you have had a range of unconnected jobs.
• Don’t use when you have limited skills.

Targeted

• Aims at a specific job and highlights the skills and experience relative to the post, leaving out unnecessary information.
• Similar in layout to a functional CV but the key skills etc would be directed to the specific requirements of the advertised job.
• Use when clear about the type of job wanted or when the requirements of a particular job are known.
• Don’t use when not completely sure about the skills needed for a job or if you want one general CV.

Examples of different CV styles

You can download an example of the difference CV types:

• Chronological CV (Word 22KB)
• Functional CV (Word 23KB)
• Targeted CV (Word 22KB)

Buzz words

Through a CV you are saying to an employer “I can do this job” and “interview me”. This means that you need to present yourself in the most positive was possible. One way you can do this is through the words you use to promote yourself. The following work areas and associated words may help when putting together your CV:

• Coping with routine – conscientious, consistent, controlled, coped, dealt with, efficient, managed, performed.
• Working with others – advised, co-operated, counselled, facilitated, guided, managed, negotiated, participated, presented, supervised.
• Achievements – accomplished, achieved, co-ordinated, created, developed, formulated, revitalised, recommended.
• Problem-solving – implemented, improved, instigated, interpreted, initiated, inspired, introduced, investigated.
• Initiative - created, designed, developed, devised, directed, established, formulated, innovation, motivated, negotiated, organised, originated.

Skills and achievements

This section of your CV allows you to sell yourself through listing your main skills and experience. You can use the following outline of skills to help you judge your abilities:

Skills with individuals

• Communicate well using the telephone
• Persuade or sell to individuals
• Deal with customers
• Manage and supervise individuals
• Delegate work to others

Skills with groups

• Communicate to small groups
• Lead seminars
• Perform or entertain people
• Persuade a group
• Take part in group debates
• Brief a team
• Chair meetings

Commercial skills

• Manage or run a business
• Spot potential markets
• Develop a new business
• Design a marketing campaign
• Look after customers well
• Develop new sales initiatives
  Promote or sell by telephone

Skills with information

• Search for or research
• Gather information by interviewing people
• Check information for errors/proof read
• Analyse information
• Organise or classify data
• Retrieve information
• Write reports

Physical skills

• Manual dexterity
• Ability/strength/speed
• Craft/sewing/weaving
• Painting/finishing/restoring/washing/cleaning or preparing
• Setting up or assembling
• Growing/tending

Personal profiles

Personal profiles introduce you as an applicant. They are one paragraph and outline your key strengths, achievements and goals. The following examples offer an outline of the different styles of personal profiles that you can use with your CV:

• A college leaver with excellent computer skills. My college course work and work placements have enabled me to gain good research and presentation skills and an ability to communicate with the general public. I also see myself as an enthusiastic and reliable team player who is willing and able to develop new skills quickly.
• A reliable and conscientious employee with good customer service skills and a proven record of achieving targets and goals, looking to move to a more front line management role.
• I regard myself as a cheerful and friendly person, who is reliable and trustworthy. I am keen to learn new skills and use my considerable abilities within a garage/car business environment.
• I am currently looking for work in the computer industry, I am very familiar with most aspects of computing and have used computers for many years. I am always confident in learning anything new.

SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis is an exercise that can help you prepare your CV. The exercise gets you to think about your strengths and weaknesses and what opportunities are open to you and what threats exist. Think about it in the following way:

When you have thought up your list of strengths you can use the previous sections on buzz words and skills and achievements to help put them into active and positive language to use on your CV.

Strengths

What are you good at? This is the section that will be used on your CV.

Weaknesses

What can you improve? Remember weaknesses can be identified and turned into strengths. This section identifies what training needs you might have.

Opportunities

What is available in the external market to help you achieve your goals? This section gets you to think about what help is available.

Threats

What do you consider as a threat that may prevent you from achieving your aims? This section gets you to think about possible problems so that you can try to avoid them in future.

Summary

Your CV has around 10-15 seconds to impress a potential employer. It is vital that you sell yourself effectively by using positive language and by easily highlighting your key skills and achievements.

If you would like someone to check your CV and give you feedback then you can send a copy to the RNIB Employment Line.

Back to information for jobseekers index

Content author: employmentline@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 20/11/2008 11:13