AHP CV and Tips

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What Should my CV include?

Modern day CVs should include the following information (if relevant) as a bare minimum. As experiences differ from person to person, so too may the information/data that you choose to include as part of your CV.

When you decide what to include and exclude consider what it is relevant and appropriate and whether it will support your application or not.

Essential Information includes:

Contact Details

Name, address, telephone numbers (home only), mobile, and email. This may seem really obvious but I have seen many CVs with no contact information. Nothing will frustrate a recruiter or hiring manager more than not being able to get in contact with the ideal applicant.

Professional Profile

These have replaced the traditional objective where you outline what type of person you are and the role that you are ideally seeking. Professional profiles are marketing statements that highlight your skills, knowledge, experience, and abilities as they relate to employer needs. If you are applying for many roles, you may choose to have a professional profile that is targeted to each position.

 CV Keywords

These may be referred to as areas of expertise, core skills, competencies, professional strengths, capabilities, and value offered. They relate mostly to “hard”/technical skills and will also be scanned by recruitment software so it pays to think about the keywords that you intend to use as part of your CV.

Employment History

Raw data should include employer name, position (s) held, dates of employment, overall job accountabilities (summarised), and key achievements and accomplishments. The most important element in this section (per job) will be your achievements and accomplishments.

Voluntary Employment

For some industries and roles it may be relevant to include your voluntary contributions. These may strengthen your application if you lack relevant paid experience, are seeking to explain gaps in employment, or are trying to demonstrate your personal qualities as they relate to the role requirements.

Education & Training

Include information that is relevant to your application. If you have attended many training courses over the past 5 years it may not be important to detail all courses completed, however you may choose to summarise your professional development and highlight those courses directly relevant to the position that you are applying for.

Memberships/Affiliations

If you are a member of professional organisations or are affiliated to them in any way it makes sense to include them.

Awards/Publications/Articles

These should be included if they relate to the roles that you are applying for.

Referees

Although there is great debate in relation to this, I would always recommend including the names of referees at application stage. If you are concerned about prospective employers contacting them you could always say “Referee details available upon request”.

Anything else?

CVs are no longer a lengthy list of your core job functions.

To stand out from other job-seekers, you need to ensure that your CV captures the essence of your experience and highlights your unique value and strengths in relation to jobs that you are applying for. In today’s competitive job-market CVs are vital components in marketing your skills, knowledge, experiences, and abilities and are vital in interview and job search success.

In reviewing your CV you need to ensure the following:

Your CV should be targeted and specific to the role that you are applying for

This does not mean that you need to have several versions of your CV in relation to the roles that you are applying for. However, if you are seeking graduate roles and junior positions you would consider how you write your CV for each of these roles. In some cases, the differences in your CV will be minimal however in other cases they may be quite dramatic.

An example of this includes applying for a graduate job in a highly competitive job market. If this is the case you need to consider those points of difference that will set you apart. These may relate to post-graduate study and qualifications, educational results, and relevant work experience.

Proper inclusion of keywords/industry jargon

With the advent of modern technology and electronic information and data management systems the initial short-listing process may be conducted by relevant recruitment and selection technology. These new programs search for relevant keywords within your CV to match the targeted vacancy. If they do not find them, you may not progress further.

Discussing your previous roles

Highlighting your unique contributions within a role will set you apart from other job-seekers and ensure that what you have achieved translates to employer needs. When uncovering your achievements consider the challenges/problems that you have overcome, the actions that you have taken, and the results of these actions. Achievements mean more to employers when you are able to quantify them:

For example: how much, how many, how big, how small, how well, and how often?

Should be visually appealing

Unfortunately, no matter how strong your content, if your CV is hard to read and lacks structure and order, the reader (in this case the recruiter) will not be encouraged to read further. Ask yourself the following questions:

1.Is there good use of space?

2.Have you used an appropriate font? Be aware that some professions are more conservative than others and therefore require conservative fonts.

3.Does all the relevant information stand out?

4.Is the information organised to ensure that your unique marketing points are highlighted?

I hope that this helps you in putting together a modern day CV that competes with other job-seekers, sets you apart as a competitive applicant, and ensures interview and job success.

Proof Reading:

Without proofreading your CV, cover letter, and job application you are literally sabotaging your chances of interview, job, and promotional success.

It goes without saying that you MUST proof-read your application prior to submission and if you are able to, ask someone else to proof it for you.

Here are some practical tips to ensure that your CV, cover letter, and application are error-free:

1.Print out a copy of your CV, cover letter, and job application. It’s easier to pick up mistakes on hard copy versus online. You may feel crazy but read your application out loud – this way you will ensure that you are reading what is actually on the page rather than what you think is there. We all have a tendency when proofing documents to “fill in the blanks” and if you are missing words or information, you may be likely to think that the words/and information are there, when in fact, they are not.

2. Get someone who is good with English and grammar to read your application for you. They are more likely to pick up errors, mistakes, and typos than you are.

3.Set your spelling/grammar check to UK-English, rather than English US which will avoid common differences in spelling such as organisation/organization, behaviour/behavior, and maximise/maximize. Unfortunately this won’t pick up other common mistakes such as using words that sound the same but have completely different meanings or common typing mistakes.

4.Check for one error at a time. If you are reviewing word use, check this first. If you are checking tense use, check this next. Unfortunately, no matter how clever we are, we can only detect one type of mistake at a time.

5. Give yourself some time away from the document. A day is great however it you can’t afford this, take some time out, go for a walk, make a cuppa, or just relax. Time away will ensure that you are able to “see” the document with “fresh eyes.”

Good luck with your application.

Nikky @ CareerPro