The purpose of a CV is to persuade someone to grant you an interview. That is its only function. It won’t directly get you the job. It is your way of asking someone to get to know you and learn more about you. Writing your first CV can be a daunting task simply because you’re not sure where to start. This article will try to guide you through those first steps and collect all the data you need to write a good first CV.
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A CV can include the following sections. You don’t have to include them all; Pick and choose which ones are most relevant to you based on the type of position you are applying for. Are you going to try to get a summer job? Maybe you want to apply for an internship at the end of university or college? Or maybe you are looking for a volunteer role. Some of these sections are absolutely essential (for example, contact details). Others may be included or excluded (for example, you may not feel like you want to write a ‘Personal Profile’).
Write everything you could include in the following sections:-
Contact details – This is an essential part of the CV to complete, but you can choose not to give all its details. Include at least an email address and a mobile phone number. You can also give a location (for example, “Bristol” or “Oxford”), so the employer knows you live close enough to the place of work.
Personal profile – Some candidates choose to give a short presentation about themselves. You could write: “Self-confident biology graduate looking for an internship in the environmental management industry” as an example. He gives insight into your personality, your skills, and perhaps the kind of role you’re looking for. It gives the recruiter an at-a-glance summary of who you are.
Education – At first you’ll list everything from your GCSE subjects and grades to postgraduate studies, but as you progress through your career you’ll find that previous qualifications become less relevant to recruiters.
Work experience – At the beginning of your working life, all of your work experience may have been in an unpaid capacity. List everything in this section in chronological order. Did you volunteer for a town party? Were you a student representative in the first year? List anything that shows you have skills and are able to carry out duties and responsibilities. Some resumes will separate this section into paid work and volunteer work.
training runs – You can list any office skills or vocational courses in a separate section. This could include BTEC, SCOTVEC, or university certificates in skills-focused courses.
References – You can list referees here with their contact details or simply write “References available on request”.
Personalize your resume
Actually, you won’t just have a resume. You have a basic CV, but each time you apply for a job you tweak it slightly to highlight the skills that the particular job vacancy asks for. Some experts suggest that you not only change it for each job you apply for, but also update your CV with your new experiences and accomplishments three or four times a year.
Presentation
Your CV may only have 30 seconds to persuade the recruiter to read the entire document in detail. You need to make sure it is an eye-catching document. Leave a clear space between each section so that the CV is clear and easy to read.
study examples
Study as many CV examples from other people as you can. To see examples of designs, you can go to Google images and search for “examples of resumes”, but beware: you will find examples of good and bad resumes. If you are really struggling to produce a CV, your school or university may be organizing a CV workshop or you can pay to have a CV produced for you.
