Writing a CV/rsum

Before beginning to draft your CV/rsum, read the advert carefully so

that you are clear about the specific requirements of the job youre
applying for. Its important to tailor both your application letter and the
CV/rsum to the job in question, focusing on qualifications and
experience that are particularly relevant.

Dos and Donts
Here are some general points to bear in mind when preparing your
CV/rsum:
Do
keep your CV/rsum brief and concise: there is no need to go into
a lot of detail about your education or employment history.
try to keep your CV/rsum to one or two sides of A4 paper.
use brief, informative sentences, short paragraphs, and standard
English.
when describing your responsibilities and achievements, start each
point with an action verb (such as teaching, leading, developing):
this creates more impact.
use bold type or bullet points to highlight key information.
proofread for spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes: many
employers routinely discard CVs/rsums that contain this type of
mistake.
update your CV/rsum regularly as your situation changes.
Dont
go into too much detail: employers are too busy to read rambling or
unfocused CVs/rsums.
leave gaps in your employment history: add a sentence or two
explaining any periods that are not accounted for.
use too many different fonts or typefaces: keep to one or two that
are clear and easy to read.
use inappropriate colours, graphics, or photos.
name people as referees unless youve confirmed that theyre
happy to provide a reference for you.

Structuring your CV/rsum
A CV/rsum should be clear and well structured, with a limited
number of main sections, so that an employer can pinpoint the
information theyre looking for quickly and easily. Here are some broad
guidelines on how to structure an effective CV/rsum.

Personal details
Always begin with your personal details, i.e.:
name
address
telephone number (home and/or mobile)
email address (personal, rather than work)
personal profile
Theres no need to include your date of birth, your marital status, or
your nationality unless the job advert has specifically asked you for this
information.
A personal profile is a way of introducing yourself to a potential
employer. It outlines who you are, what skills and qualities you have,
and why you would be an asset to the company. It also provides a
good opportunity to tailor your application to the requirements of a job
before you move on to the details of your experience or qualifications.

Employment history
Beginning with your current job, if you have one:
Give a brief outline of your current role, responsibilities, and skills,
focusing on those which are most relevant for the job youre
applying for.
Work backwards through other jobs youve held, giving a brief
summary of each, highlighting any aspect thats particularly relevant
to your application. Include work placements and voluntary work, if
applicable.
Unless youre very young, or youre applying for your first main job,
it isnt necessary to list all the less important jobs you may have
done. You could summarize them as, for example, various
temporary administrative posts.
Avoid leaving unexplained gaps in your employment history as this
can create a negative impression. If you've been bringing up a child,
unemployed, or taking a career break, for example, add a sentence
explaining this.
Treat any significant periods of unemployment in a positive way: you
could outline any activities you engaged in while you were out of
work, such as carrying out voluntary work or learning new skills.

Educational qualifications
If youre still studying, start by giving this information, making it clear
that your studies are ongoing and when the course is due to end.
If youve completed any other further or higher education, outline
this next.
Then give your secondary school or schools and the dates you
attended, together with:
o a list of your A level (or Scottish Higher or equivalent) subjects and
grades
o brief details of GCSEs, Scottish Standard Grades, NVQs, or
equivalent qualifications (only give full details of these if the employer
has specifically asked for them or the subjects are relevant to the job in
question)

Any other skills, achievements, or training
List any relevant courses or training youve completed (e.g. to gain
IT skills or knowledge of a foreign language).
Mention any significant awards you have received or other
professional achievements that would be relevant to the job you are
applying for.
Interests or pastimes
A brief outline of your interests and hobbies can help to give a
potential employer an insight into the type of person you are. They
may also indicate skills you have that you are not using in your
current position.
Referees
Give the names and contact details of people who would be willing
to give you a reference. Ideally, one person should be from your
current (or most recent) place of work, while the second could be
from a previous employer.
If youre applying for your first job, you could give the name of a
tutor, teacher, or anyone who knows you well enough to vouch for
your character (apart from members of your family).
Always make sure that the people you have in mind are happy to
provide a reference for you before you add their names to your
CV/rsum.

Sample CVs/rsums
Here are two examples of CVs/rsums. The first CV/rsum is for a
student starting out on her career whos applying for a job as a
Business Analyst with an international company. See her
accompanying job application letter.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/writing-a-cv-resume
The second CV/rsum is for a person whos planning to change his
career from teaching to social work, after having returned to college.
See his application letter.



.--------------------
What are the ten most
common questions asked at
graduate interviews?

At the University of Kent we asked students what
questions they were asked at graduate selection
interviews by a variety of employers and for a
range of jobs. Whereas we doubt if this survey is
very reliable it does give an idea of the key
questions to watch out for, and to prepare
answers to, at interview.
Of course questions were sometimes asked in
slightly different formats. For example,"Why do
you want this job?" was sometimes phrased
"Why do you want to be an accountant/social
worker/journalist?"
1. Why do you want
this job?
One of the most
predictable questions
and very important!
You need to demonstrate that you have
researched the employerand tie your
knowledge of them into
the skills and interests that led you to apply. For
example, an interviewee with a small public
relations agency might say:
"I'm always ready to take on responsibility and
feel this will come more quickly with a firm of
this size. A small firm also gives the chance to
build closer working relationships with clients
and colleagues and I've found through my past
work experience that this makes an organisation
more effective as well as more satisfying to work
in."
Try to find some specific feature on which
the employer prides themselves: their
training, their client base, their individuality,
their public image, etc. This may not always be
possible with very small organisations but you
may be able to pick up something of this nature
from the interviewer.
See our Commercial Awareness page for
more help with this
2. Have you got any questions?
At the end of the interview, it is likely that you
will be given the chance to put your own
questions to the interviewer.
Keep them brief: there may be other
interviewees waiting.
Ask about the work itself, training and
career development: not about holidays,
pensions, and season ticket loans!
Prepare some questions in advance: it is
OK to write these down and to refer to your
notes to remind yourself of what you wanted
to ask.
It often happens that, during the
interview, all the points that you had
noted down to ask about will be covered
before you get to this stage. In this
situation, you can respond as follows:
Interviewer: Well, that seems to have covered
everything: is there anything you would like to
ask me?
Interviewee: Thank you: I'd made a note to
ask about your appraisal system and the study
arrangements for professional exams, but we
went over those earlier and I really feel you've
covered everything that I need to know at this
moment.
You can also use this opportunity to tell the
interviewer anything about yourself that
they have not raised during the interview but
which you feel is important to your application:
Don't feel you have to wait until this point to ask
questions - if the chance to ask a question seems
to arise naturally in the course of the interview,
take it! Remember that a traditional interview is
a conversation - with a purpose.
Exa
mpl
es
of
que
stio
ns
you
can
ask
the
inte
rvie
wer
These are just a few ideas - you should certainly
not attempt to ask them all and indeed it's best
to formulate your own questions tailored to your
circumstances and the job you are being
interviewed for! Make sure you have researched
the employer carefully, so that you are not
asking for information which you should be
expected to know already.
Is there a fixed period of training for
graduates?
I see it is possible to switch job functions -
how often does this happen?
Do you send your managers on external
training courses?
Where would I be based - is this job function
located only in ...?
How easy is it for new graduates to find
accommodation in this area?
How often is a graduate's performance
appraised?
What is a typical career path in this job
function?
Can you give me more details of your
training programme?
Will I be working in a team? If so, what is
the make-up of these teams?
What is the turnover of graduates in this
company?
What are the possibilities of using
my languages?
What are the travel/mobility requirements of
this job?
How would you see this company developing
over the next five years?
How would you describe the atmosphere in
this company?
What is your personal experience of working
for this organisation?
3. Describe a situation in which you lead a
team.
This is an example of a competency-based
question. Many graduate positions involve people
management, where you will be expected
to plan, organise and guide the work of others as
well as motivating them to complete tasks. The
interviewer needs to assess how well you relate
to other people, what role you take in a group
and whether you are able to focus on goals and
targets.
Outline the situation, your role and the task
of the group overall. Describe any problems
which arose and how they were tackled. Say
what the result was and what you learned from
it. Examples could include putting on a drama or
music production; a group project at university;
a business game or Young Enterprise scheme or
being team leader in a fast-food restaurant.
This, and other skills which the employer
considers essential for effective performance in
the job, should have been highlighted in the job
description or graduate brochure - so always be
prepared to give examples of situations where
you have demonstrated these qualities! While
your example should indicate the nature of the
team and the task, you need to focus on your
own role as leader and on the personal qualities
that led you to take on/be nominated for this
role and which helped you to succeed in it.
Leadership involves many
skills: planning, decision-making, persuading,
motivating, listening, co-ordinating - but not
dictating!
See our Leadership Styles page for more help
with this
4. Describe a situation where you worked in
a team
Another competency-based question. Most jobs
will involve a degree of teamwork. The
interviewer needs to assess how well you relate
other people, what role you take in a
groupand whether you are able to focus on
goals and targets.
Outline the situation, your particular role and the
task of the group overall. Describe any problems
which arose and how they were tackled. Say
what the result was and what you learned from
it.
Examples could include putting on a drama or
music production; a group project at university;
a business game or "Young Enterprise" scheme
or working in a fast-food restaurant.
See our Teamworking page for more help with
this
5. What do you expect to be doing in 5
years time?
Try to avoid vague or general answers such as I
would hope to grow with the responsibility I am
offered and to develop my skills as far as I am
able or I would expect to be in a management
role by then.
Be specific, but flexible: recruiters want to know
you know what you want. Hiring, training and
developing staff costs a lot of money, something
like 7,000 to recruit a new graduate, so they
want to make sure that you are committed to
staying with the organisation. "I'd like to
gradually take more and more responsibility and
perhaps by then be a brand manager for a major
product."
Talk about your interest in the industry in which
the company with operates. Emphasise the value
you can bring to the organisation and what you
can do for it.
You need to show that you are ambitious but
also your goals must be realistic - saying you
expect to be a senior manager after two years is
unlikely to go down well! Use the employer's
website or LinkedIn profiles to gain an idea of
the career paths followed by past graduates. You
may be able to supplement this by showing your
knowledge of professional bodies and the steps
you will need to take to gain their qualifications,
e.g. in areas such as marketing or HR.
This question allows you to demonstrate that you
have done your research on the career routes
open to you within the organisation and so you
should try to be more specific - not necessarily
tying yourself down to a particular route, but
showing that you have at least a general idea of
where you want to go.

Talk about responsibilities you would like to have
and expected achievements rather than how
much you would expect to be earning in five year
time as this will make an employer think you're
more interested in the material benefits than the
career itself. Talk about your career
development: skills you'd like to acquire or you'd
like to be using, and professional qualifications
you'd like to get.
See our Commercial Awareness page for
more help with this
6. What are your weaknesses?
The classic answer here is to
state a strength which is
disguised as a weakness, such
as "I'm too much of a
perfectionist" or "I push myself
too hard". This approach has
been used so often that, even if
these answers really are true they
sound clichd. Also,interviewers
will know this trick. If you feel
they really apply to you, give
examples: you could say that
your attention to detail and
perfectionism make you very
single-minded when at work,
often blotting out others in your
need to get the task done.
A better strategy, is to choose a weakness
that you have worked on to improve and
describe what action you are taking to remedy
the weakness. For example: "I'm not a very self-
confident person and used to find it very difficult
to talk to people I didn't know well, but my
Saturday job in the local library meant that I had
to help people with all kinds of queries and that
helped me a lot. Now I'm perfectly happy talking
to anybody on a one-to-one basis and I've joined
One
interviewee,
asked about
her
weaknesses,
thought
briefly and
then
replied "Wine,
chocolate and
men - though
not
necessarily in
that order."
She got the
job!
the debating society this year to give me
experience ofspeaking in front of an audience."
Don't deny that you have any weaknesses -
everyone has weaknesses and if you refuse to
admit to them the interviewer will mark you
down as arrogant, untruthful or lacking in self-
awareness
This question may be phrased in other ways,
such as "How would your worst enemy describe
you?"
7. Who else have you applied to/got
interviews with?
You are being asked to demonstrate
the consistency of your career aims as well
as yourinterest in the job for which you are
being interviewed. So if you have applied to one
largeaccountancy firm it is reasonable to assume
you will be applying to them all.
What you can certainly say in your favour,
however, is that the present employer is your
first choice. You may even answer the question
by explaining you have yet to apply to any other
organisations for this very reason. Perhaps your
application to the other firms is imminent,
depending on the stage you are at in the
recruitment cycle.
Give examples that are:
Relevant - related to the business you are
presently being interviewed for
Prestigious. They will reflect well on the
firm interviewing you
Consistent. Not from lots of different job
areas or employment groups of less interest
to you than the present opportunity
Successful so far. Do not list those firms
who have rejected you.

See our Commercial Awareness page for
more help with this
8. Why did you choose your university and
what factors influenced your choice?
If you had, in fact, no real choice in where you
went to University - e.g. if you had to study close
to home for financial or family reasons - you can
talk about the more general issues you had to
consider in coming to University and perhaps
lead the question round to your choice of course
rather than institution.
Your actual answer is less important than
the evidence of decision-
making, planning and logical reasoning
skills that it should demonstrate. This is an
opportunity for you to demonstrate these key
skills.
9. What are your strengths?
This allows you to put across your "Unique
Selling Points" - three or four of your key
strengths. Try to back these points up
with examples of where you have had to use
them.

Consider the requirements of the job and
compare these with all your own attributes -
yourpersonality, skills, abilities or experience.
Where they match you should consider these to
be your major strengths. The employer certainly
will.

For example, team work, interpersonal
skills, creative problem solving, dependability,
reliability,originality, leadership etc., could all be
cited as strengths. Work out which is most
important for the particular job in question and
make sure you illustrate your answer with
examples from as many parts of your
experience, not just university, as you can.

This question may be phrased in other ways,
such as "Tell me about yourself" or "How would a
friend describe you?"
And some less
common
questions
which have
been asked in
interviews
Why aren't
you in a more
interesting
10. What has been your
greatest achievement?
To say that your greatest
achievement was getting to
University, or getting your
degree, will do nothing
todistinguish you from all
the other candidates.
Unless you have had to
contend with exceptional
difficulties to gain your
academic qualifications -
such as illness or major
family problems - try to say
something different that will
make you stand out.
This doesn't have to be an
Olympic medal or an act of
heroism. Ideally, it should
give evidence of skills
relevant to the job such
as communication, initiative,t
eamwork, organising or deter
mination:
Duke of Edinburgh's gold
award - especially the
expedition and
community service parts
Organising a sports or fund-raising event
"Overcoming my fear of heights and learning
to abseil"
business?
Does your
health
insurance
cover pets?
Does your
company have
a policy
regarding
concealed
weapons?
Do you think
the company
would be
willing to
lower my pay?
What are the
zodiac signs
of the board
members?
What is it that
you people do
in this
company?
What is the
company
motto?
"Learning enough Spanish in three months
to make myself understood when I traveled
around Mexico"
Training for and completing a marathon .. or
even a 5 Kilometre race
Other common questions (in rough order of
popularity) were:
Why do you want to join our organisation?
What would you do if ........ happened?
(hypothetical questions)
Describe a situation in which you dealt with
confrontation (for example a difficult
customer).
Describe a situation in which you influenced
or motivated people.
What other careers have you
considered/applied for?
Why did you choose your degree subject?
Describe yourself (in one word).
Are you prepared to be mobile?
Describe a situation in which you
used initiative.
Describe a situation in which you solved a
problem.
Describe a situation in which you took
responsibility.
What are your hobbies?
What was your biggest setback? (How do
you deal with adversity?)
Tell me about your project
Describe a situation where you had to plan
or organise something.
What computing skills do you have?
What is your usual role in a team?
Describe a situation where you had a difficult
decision to make.

If you don't know how to answer any of
these questions, go to our Answers to 150
common interview questions and to
our Practice interviews where you will find
detailed tips.