Hello!
After a series of training sessions with social media expert Sarah Pascaru from Social Jooce, we have decided to start a blog to keep our followers up to date with the goings on at Red Door Recruitment.
As part of this blog we will also be posting what we think are really helpful tips and advice. In the weeks to follow we will cover subjects such as interview preparation, personal statements, job searching and much more! We have decided to kick off the blog with the first step in your job search, writing your CV — dos and don’ts!
We’ve created a list of CV writing tips to follow to make your CV stand out from the crowd, as it is easy to underestimate how important a carefully constructed CV is to your job application.
We have also included a CV layout template if you are unsure of where to start.
Typical CV Layout
Name and contact details
Summary paragraph
Employment history — reverse chronologically
Education
Training courses
Key skills
Achievements
Interests
References
Do…
Use a clear font and spacing — chose a simple font to ensure you don’t distract from the content and make sure your spacing is equal between paragraphs
Work in reverse chronological order — start with your most recent role (or qualification if you have been in education) and work backwards
Use concise bullet points — they need to be easy to read and we recommend 5–7 points per job
Keep it short and sweet — two-three pages maximum depending on how many roles you’ve had
Include key skills — but keep these relevant to the job you are applying for, if you’re applying for an admin role it isn’t relevant you list plate spinning as a skill!
Tailor your CV to individual roles — small changes can make a big difference, look at your summary, key skills and employment history to make sure the content is appropriate for specific roles
Always include months and years of employment
Explain your gaps briefly — it’s okay to have some time off from work, but we don’t need to know that you refurbished your bathroom in that time!
Don’t….
Make grammatical mistakes — make sure that you correctly use capital letters, full stops, punctuation, and don’t overuse the ‘&’ sign
Include irrelevant information — less is more! This includes oversharing personal information
Use jargon, abbreviations or ‘slang’
Go too far back in time — keep it in the 21st century, recent job roles only! Use ‘further history available on request’ if need be
Switch between tenses — try and keep it in the first person and when writing about previous jobs don’t write in the present tense
If you ever need any advice on writing a CV, you can contact us at info@reddoorrecruitment.co.uk, call us on 01727 899490
Written by Heather Mustard and Olivia Nieberg