Ultimately the purpose of a CV is to get you an interview with the employer and therefore it needs to reflect what the employer is looking for. It’s not an opportunity for you to tell them your life story or everything you’ve ever done.
Below are some topics that you may want to consider including in your CV, but please remember that your CV is individual to you, your experiences and your career aspirations. Therefore, you should create headings and sections that best present your experiences in relation to the job or further study applied for. It is common practice to use your name as a heading on the first page of your CV, in bold letters and so it is not necessary to write ‘Curriculum Vitae’ (CV) at the top of the page.
Personal details
Here you should include your name, address, telephone numbers and email address. Try and stick to just one address and telephone, if you do include more make sure that it is clear e.g. term time and home time addresses (though don’t presume that employers will know the dates when you are at university or at home) and mobile and landline telephone numbers. You do not need to put your nationality, date of birth, religion, marital status or gender unless you feel it is really necessary.
If you are an international student you may want to put your nationality and visa status so that it is clear to the employer.
Career objectives or personal profile
These are optional sections and, if done well, they can be used to make a successful pitch to an employer identifying your career aspirations, key skills, experiences or selling points that you have to offer. If they are done badly, they will leave the reader thinking “so what?” So make this section focused and avoid vague statements.
Education
Starting with the most recent first, outline the dates of study, the institution studied at, the title of your qualification and grades or expected grades wherever possible.
Depending on your year of study, relevance of your degree and what job you are applying for, you may want to expand on the detail of your course. So, for example, by choosing the modules, projects, dissertations and placements that are most relevant to the job and summarising the main skills you have developed as a result. List pre-university qualifications like A Levels or Access course and summarise earlier qualifications such as GCSEs.
International qualifications may need a brief explanation if you are not applying for work in your home country.
Work experience
You can put your most recent experience first or you can split this section into relevant and other work experience to emphasise relevant work even if it isn't in date order. Using section headings such as ‘Relevant Experience’ and ‘Other Work Experience’, or ‘Employment History’ and ‘Voluntary Work’ helps to clarify the different aspects of your work experience.
All jobs and voluntary work can be used, so you can include placements, part-time and voluntary work as well as permanent and temporary jobs. When describing your experience make sure you include your achievements and emphasise the relevant skills you have developed. Try to be focused and concise about the duties undertaken and skills you developed as a result. The level of detail that you give about each role will depend on its relevance to the job that you have applied for.
You can also group similar jobs together e.g. 3 jobs in retail with different employers but doing very similar roles. Interests, responsibilities and achievements
This section can be used to show a more personal aspect of your life and demonstrate some level of motivation and participation in the activities mentioned. It’s a good place to show skills relevant to the job and you can provide some details about particular experiences. So, if you have taken any positions of responsibility within a team, club or society for example, these could be incorporated here.
Referees
Usually two referees are required; one should be from the Business School and one should ideally be a current or recent employer from paid or voluntary work. Do not use family or friends. Give the name and contact details including email addresses. Make sure that you talk to your referees to check that they are happy to provide a reference for you and tell them the type of posts that you are applying for and ideally, give them a copy of your CV.
If you are short of space you can simply write ‘references available on request’ but this does create more work for the employer who will have to get in touch with you first if they want to obtain references. So in general, it is better to include names and contact details for referees.
Other headings
Other possible headings include; Voluntary Work, Relevant Commercial/Banking/Finance Skills, Technical Knowledge, Achievements, Positions of Responsibility, Awards, Additional Skills (you could include language or IT skills here), Projects and so on. Once again, make sure that what you include is relevant to the job that you are applying for.
