Top tips for writing a professional CV
- Name and contact details. Make sure your full name and contact information including all your contact numbers and an email address are clearly displayed at the top of your CV document. You want your future employer to be able to contact you easily without hunting for your information. Make sure your details are up to date, it sounds obvious but if you change your email address or mobile number or move house, make sure you have updated this on your CV.
- Personal Statement. A statement highlighting your main career objectives; key skills and a summary of your background is an excellent way of enticing the potential recruiter to read your CV thoroughly. Make sure you relate your statement to the job you are applying to. For example; if you are applying for a Spa Manager position, present yourself in your statement as ‘a highly experienced Spa Manager’ (providing you are of course).
- Career history / experience. Following your personal statement is your career history starting with your most recent experience. Clearly show the job title; full company name and the dates (including month and year) from when you started this role to when you left or if you are still in the role you can state ‘until current day’. Most people make the mistake of providing a lengthy description of their job role and responsibilities. If you think about it, most job titles are quite self-explanatory. For example: Beauty therapist – the job role is likely to be the same or very similar regardless of the place of work. So to make you stand out we recommend that you bullet point up to 5 key achievements that you are most proud of – things that you personally did or contributed to the success of. This will give a future employer a much better idea of your attributes and what you can potentially bring to their company. If you know the company are looking for someone who is strong at a particular skill such as ‘retail sales’; try and give an example of your own ability to retail / sell. Eg: ‘I won the award for top sales person in three consecutive months achieving a total of £5,000 revenue’.
- Qualifications and Education. Clearly detail your qualifications including the dates you studied along with your education history. If you have obtained additional training for example in specific product houses, it is advisable to add these in this area too.
- About me. This section is optional where you can provide your future employer with some additional information about you. You may like to include any major achievements which demonstrate drive, determination such as running the London Marathon; or if you have been involved in any charity work or have a particular interest. Be careful not to become too casual in this section and avoid saying that you enjoy going out with friends to the pub! Create the right impression! You would be amazed at how many employers choose not to interview a candidate because of the information they provide in this section.
- References. Most people choose to say something like ‘excellent references on request’. Why not stand out by providing the name, full contact details and maybe a brief statement from your referee saying why they recommend you!
