with James Brent, Manager, Hays Recruitment and Simon Galan, Graduate Recruitment Manager, KPMG

Simon: Include professional letters after your name, eg ACCA, MBA. Email and phone are ample contact details. James: you should not be judged on your age or appearance

CV Advice Clinic

Name, contact details (email, phone) Home address, photo, date of birth

1-2 sentences. Key objectives. Key qualities. Who you are. Buzzwords. Dishonesty. Too wordy and long.

James: Market yourself quickly. Keep it short, two sentences. Avoid buzzwords. Be honest about yourself, what you want and what you can offer. James: add company turnovers, industry and systems used under the company name. Gives reader greater understanding of candidates experience and ability. Use bullet points, not a storytelling form, making it easy to identify your skills. To really stand out, after the bullet points, put 3 personal achievements you made in the role, this will highlight the value you bought to your employment. Experienced candidates should mention professional qualifications and degree upwards. If youre fresh out of school list A-levels and grades, especially if these are in core subjects like math, English and science. Many employers consider A-levels in these subjects to be more valuable than degrees, according to James. James: for finance roles, excel is an important package so provide examples of what you can do with it; Ive seen people get interviews on the fact they can write macros. Employers will look for soft skills at interview, so just writing that youre motivated doesnt count for much.

Most recent job first, with the most detail. On first line: company name, job title, employment period. Bullet point duties/ responsibilities. Use figures and values. Revenue, profit and savings made. Narrative style. Too wordy. Buzzwords.

Personal details Personal or mission statement Work history

Top of page if no work experience. On first line: school, course, study period. If you are ACCA part-qualified, list your exam marks.

Education Skills

Hard skills, eg IT/software, and your level of ability. Only a few soft skills. Bullet points. Long list of soft skills and experiences.

Interests Referees

One sentence or a few bullet points is plenty. Be creative and honest. Accountants work with clients, so social activities look good. Long paragraph. A long list of bullet points. Dont be embarrassed. No

Avoid things like reading, watching movies and socialising very common. Playing rugby, rock climbing or acting sound sociable. Interviewers may share your interests, giving you something to talk about. Dont put them on your CV. You dont even have to write available upon request. Employers will ask for them when theyve decided to offer you a job.

Things to consider

James: of 200 CVs that I might look at for a single job, maybe two will be any good. The biggest problem is that people dont research and adjust their CV to the role theyre applying for.

James: your most recent job tends to get you your next job, so go into a lot of detail on your recent history, and less so in the distant past. If you have no work experience, academic record goes first.

Experience, so how do you get some? James: if youre a member of a sports club or a church group, ask to help with their accounts; approach small accountancy firms and offer to work free of charge; network with friends, family, teachers, colleagues and online.

Your CV needs to be adaptable to different job descriptions, companies and industries. Some people keep up to three or four different CVs, each aimed at different roles or industries. Dont fire your CV at every job on the internet. As James says, youll have more success applying for five carefully researched jobs than you will throwing the same CV at 20 online job adverts. So, get in touch with the company offering the job, get as much information about the job as you can; try and get names of the people who might interview you.
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