What is a CV?

A curriculum vitae or CV is a personal marketing tool for an individual. It is a comprehensive document that highlights your skills and achievements from the past. A CV is the first and the most important step in searching for a job. An impressive CV helps you to be contacted by a prospective employer for an interview.

A CV should be brief and factual, outlining your career history to date and should be geared to the kind of position that you are looking for.

The key areas covered in a CV are:

• Your personal details
• Your educational qualifications
• Your job history
• Your achievements
• Your Skills
• References

How to create an effective CV?

• Be focused. Use the key aspects that the employers are looking for correctly and throughout the CV - this will not only attract their attention but also demonstrate your overall awareness.
• Format the CV. The appearance of your CV is part of the marketing process; set margins on both sides, justify the text, consider selective use of CAPITALS, italics and bold to highlight information.
• Keep it short. A CV should be one or two pages - no longer.
• Keep it simple. A CV should be interesting and easy to read. Include short sentences if you need to elaborate and bullet points when you need to list.
• Be impressive. Highlight clearly what value you can add to the job.

What the employer wants to know?

• Your personal details including your name, surname, local address, email address, telephone number, mobile number, date of birth and marital status.
• Your educational qualifications : (From past to present status )
• What relevant or potentially useful options you have taken (e.g. statistics, languages, computing).
• Success; list any merits, prizes and awards
• Employable Skills including: report writing, presentations, leading discussions, IT skills, project work, fieldwork and research.
• Your job history: work experience including your responsibilities, what you have learned and skills gained.
• Your skills or activities and interests: membership of societies, groups, teams inside and out with university, committee experience, representational experience.
• References: provide the names and contact details of two people who have agreed to write a reference for you. The most obvious choice is one educational contact and one work-related contact - make sure you ask their permission and keep them updated with your activities.

Useful websites

http://jobsadvice.guardian.co.uk