Your Name

07123 456 789

Street, Town, Postcode

Personal Statement

This only needs to be a few lines really, don’t bang on about yourself as if you’re already in the interview. All the recruiter is looking for is a teasing flavour of who you are, what you do and how you’ve chosen to introduce yourself. DO NOT say, “I work well individually or as part of a team”! Everybody has that on their CV and it irritates recruiters.

Work Experience

There’s no need to put EVERY Job you’ve had here, just list the relevant ones on reverse chronological order, then summarise less significant jobs at the end (see below)

Current/Most Recent Job Title – Start Date – End Date

Company Name

Location

Firstly, write a succinct couple of lines which summarise your remit in this job, only saying positives! (no complaining about having to do more than you were paid to do, or how you’d have been doing more important things if your boss wasn’t such an ASS).

Responsibilities(short sentences)

  • Things you did
  • Things you didn’t need to do that you did
  • Things that you didn’t know how to do that you learned to do
  • Things you were recognised for doing

Achievements(short sentences)

  • Something impressive that can be quantified (numbers of sales for example)
  • Something that made money (and quote the £cash value)
  • Something additional that you delivered that others didn’t

Previous Job Title – Start Date – End Date

Company Name

Location

This needs to be much shorter and give a summary overview of the position and what was entailed.

Responsibilities & Achievements (short sentences)

  • Things you did
  • Things you didn’t need to do that you did
  • Things that you didn’t know how to do that you learned to do
  • Things you were recognised for doing

Education

If you’re looking for your first job, write this education piece in more detail and expand about extra responsibilities undertaken at school, collage or uni. If not, simply list qualifications reverse chronologically as follows:

BA (Hons) 2:1 Subject Name – Start Date to Finish Date

University

A Levels – Subject & Grade/Subject & Grade/Etc…

School/College Name

GCSE –Subject & Grade/Subject & Grade/Etc…

School Name

Personal Interests

Don’t go overboard! Nobody is going to believe that you climb Everest every month, coach jet skiing and base jump every Thursday with a well-known celebrity. Just casually describe what you do in your spare time, so that the recruiter can get an idea of who you are. If you’re a boring family person, just say that… If you just watch Netflix and get drunk every Saturday, just say that. Recruiters methodically check social media accounts prior to interview anyway, so if you say you go to church on Sundays and your last Facebook post was you on a Sunday, face down in a gutter covered in vomit, it may reduce your chances of being invited for interview.

References

Available upon request… That’s all it requires. If they want to hire you, you can choose who to give them as referees at that time.

General Notes:

  • Keep it under 2 pages in length – recruiters have many CV’s to read and will bin long ones
  • Don’t lie to the point that you can be tripped up at interview. Everybody exaggerates a bit though
  • Leave the font alone! Various font sizes and styles does NOT enhance a CV
  • DO NOT paste a selfie in the top corner… it’s unprofessional and creepy
  • Don’t save your CV as ‘Sales CV’ or ‘Receptionist CV’… it suggests you have a few versions and this is merely one version of the truth
  • If your email address is , create another one for CV use… it’s just wrong
  • Save as a PDF before you distribute. It looks cleaner and shows you care and you know a bit about I.T.

Job Donkey