CHAPTER FOUR:

Graduate CV What to include
What you include is to some extent up to you. There are however some fundamentals which employers look for in order to base decision and should not be excluded:

• name
• personal details
• education and qualification
• skills
• work experience and employment history
• interests and hobbies
• references

Getting stuck in...lets make a start:
First of all we don't advise you put curriculum vitae across the top of your CV in big letters. It just takes up space and surely it’s obvious? Then start with your name (you'd be surprised how many forget) this can be accompanied with a personal profile. The aim of these is entice the reader to continue to read the full CV. It’s like the front page of a magazine; it’s used to convince the browser to buy in over and above all the other magazines on the shelf. Keep the personal profile brief maybe mention skills, experience and what makes you...you. You may also want to add some information about what your career ambitions.

Personal Details should include the following: Surname, First Name, Home address/Term address, Tel number / mobile / email.

The Education section should list your University and the title of your degree studied with the predicted or actual degree result. Also list the topic studies during your course which relate to the role you are applying for along with the result of each module. It might be worth listing out all the modules you studies in a separate documents so that you can cut and paste and adapt your CV to the roles that you apply for.

Secondary Education: Generally keep it brief. This only needs to be a summary of your a levels (or equivalent) and the results. You should also summarise your GCSE results eg 8 GCSEs grade A-C (including English and Maths) rather than go through each one. They aren’t interested in anything else.

Skills: how you construct this section will depend entirely on the vacancy you are applying for. You should tailor make the skills you highlight for the role and the competencies (skills) that the employer has outlined in their job description. Some areas to consider would be your ability to problem solve, communicate, numeracy, adaptability etc.

Work Experience: the length of this section will vary from person to person depending on how much you have done. Regardless of how much experience you have you should include the dates, the employer, your situation, your role and responsibilities and the skills you gained whilst working there.

Interest and Hobbies: keep this section brief and again focus on the skills that the employer has outlined in the job description. For example, if you played sports emphasise how long you have been in the team (this shows commitment etc)

References: in general it is ok to put “to be provided upon request”

NEXT