A Brilliant Cv

A great CV lands you more interviews and better interviews. In an interview, a great CV encourages the interviewer to want you, giving you an easier interview. And once you get the job, you will have greater recognised value - giving you negotiating power over contracts, speeding your rise in the organisation and helping you to avoid layoffs. It`s the one time that it`s acceptable to brag to your employer, who wouldn`t want to make the most of it?

So how do you write a brilliant CV?

Style:

Google `CV layouts` and one that you like. Professional is almost always better. Stick to one style - Same fonts, sizes colours, uses of space.

Colours:

For a friendlier CV, for entry level and graduate positions, use one colour and black. More colours looks unprofessional. One colour is friendly and inviting and ensures that your CV won`t be overlooked. For colour, I use sky blue, but navy blue is also good. Blue connotates responsibility, trustworthyness, safety. As second choice, Green or a darker red can work. I would stay away from dark red and brown, as they can come off looking oldfashioned. Grey is a little dull and without personality. Yellow, pink are weaker colours, orange is a little attention seeking but might work for some artistic industries - website design or possibly marketing.

For a more serious CV, black and white. Law, banking, managerial positions. An alternative to black is dark grey, however this can look weak.

Fonts: San Serif: Calibri, Helvetica, avoid Arial Serif: Times New Roman, Cambria, Garamond

Font Sizes: Name at the top should be relatively large. This says a lot about your opinion of yourself - too small and you`ll come across as insignificant.

Size 9 to 11 fonts for text, 14 - 16 for titles. Titles might be bold but should not be underlined or italicised. Nothing should be underlined, and italics can be used for the names of things or for text that should go in parenthesis. For example: "Hitachi Consulting Three month internship November 2012 - February 2013" Here, on one line, Hitachi Consulting is size 14, Three month internship is size 11 and italics, November 2012 - February 2013 is size 11 non-italics.

Randomly putting words in bold looks unprofessional.

Layout:

An attractive CV says that the applicant is cares about the small details and puts effort into everything they produce.

White space: "the balance between positive (or non-white) and the use of negative spaces is key to aesthetic composition. When space is at a premium, such as some types of magazine, newspaper, and yellow pages advertising, white space is limited in order to get as much vital information on to the page as possible. A page crammed full of text or graphics with very little white space runs the risk of appearing busy, cluttered, and is typically difficult to read. Judicious use of white space can give a page a classic, elegant, or rich appearance"

So how do we use this? Don`t cram paragraphs together, leave a normal sized gap between paragraphs Leave space beside the heading. Don`t include more information on any one line than is necessary. No large blocks of text. - Do not box anything. - Use a minimal number of thin horisontal lines. Grey can be used to make lines look thinner, but make sure it fits with your colour scheme. - Wide is good, but do consider your - Two pages maximum - and only if you have content that is truly useful on there.

Under your name you need your email address, a contact phone number and the city that you live in, if you have car, write "Can drive". Before your email you can use the word `Email: ` or an icon of an envelope, or nothing. Before your number, `Tel: ` or an icon of a phone or nothing. You do not need to give your address in your CV. The content:

After name and contact details, you will have the following sections: Personal Branding Key Abilities Experience Education Interests and activities

If you are applying for a role outside of your usual area of expertise, it can be worth separating experience into `key experience` and `further experience`. Experience should be chronological, starting with the most recent. If you are only two years out of education, it is often best to include education before experience.

Experience section(s): Follow the following format for each entry: 1.) Title row 2.) 1 - 5 bullet points

The title row gives the name of the place (title sized font), the months of employment start/end (normal size font) and any details regarding the type of work - work experience, 3 month internship, whatever (normal + italics).

The bullet points that say what you did. They connotate positive traits that make you suitable for the job, through actions and achievements. NOT responsibilities and job descri ptions.

Avoid flashy bullet points. Circles, squares and dashes are fine. If there is only one bullet point, you don`t use a bullet point.

The first point describes your role (through an action, e.g. `worked with business intelligence team`). Subsequent points should be ordered by how impressive they are. The first word of each point is a past tense active verb. "organised" "created" etc. It should be chosen to sound similar to the role that is being applied for. For example, if you are applying for a consulting role where people work in small groups, and you have experience teaching with others, you may want to draw attention to where you have "created a lesson plan together as a group, based on analysis of the group`s needs".

On creating content:

There are countless positive things that are interesting and part of the job that you can include. Often things that are easiest for you personally to do are easiest to overlook. For example, a referee will have had to make fast decisions, control explosive situations between players and face to face, defend judgements, maintain authority etc.

Omit `I`. But where `we`, say `we`.

Heirarchy of traits to include: Good at your job Proactive Leadership Responsible for large groups/funds/projects Social organiser Commitment + Going the extra mile Energy + Enthusiasm Hard working Positive attitude

Quotes are great. Save them from your previous work, write them down if they were said verbally. Include them in small, possibly grey font at the side or in between sections, or by the work that you were doing.

Usually, `References available on request` (normal + italics) at the bottom should suffice, unless the job advert specifically requests otherwise.

Your CV should be tailored towards your target job. Look for clues for what to include in the job listing. Matching the tone of your CV to the culture that you`ve worked with can be important.

Save the CV as a pdf and as a word document. The word document is to keep and update, the PDF is to send. The pdf has a fixed layout and will look the same on any computer.