The Dos and Don'ts of a Strong CV
ISo you’ve decided an apprenticeship is your route to industry or graduation is looming and it’s time to apply for your dream job or maybe you would like a new challenge? Well one thing is for sure, you’ll increase your chances of getting an interview with a quality CV. People have a love-hate relationship with their CV, from how many pages it should be, to should a CV include a mugshot. I am a firm believer that you should take pride in your CV. What does that mean? A CV should be structured and concise, with evidence based content. After all, a CV is the one document which summarises your skills, qualifications and achievements. Its importance cannot be underestimated and that is why, spending the time to perfect it is critical when applying for your a job. Your CV is your chance to sell yourself.
Take pride in your CV.
Information Gathering
Before starting or updating your CV it is important to complete two tasks - a self assessment and a review of the job advertisement you are applying for.
A self assessment is used to reflect and identify your experience, strengths, skills, achievements and qualifications. I find that a good method for self assessment is a mind map - Look out for the upcoming article “The Power of Mind Maps”. Your self assessment is important and something you should continue to do during your career. Understanding you, analysing and identifying everything you are today is both powerful in terms of preparing your CV but also a good way of building self-esteem. Self reflection isn’t something we all do enough, but it is a chance to recognise your strengths and the development journey you have been on. When I spend time with those looking for support, whether that's reviewing a CV, or more generally discussing their career aspirations, self reflection is one of the first exercises we do. This will make you realise your value.
One of the important aspects of self assessment is identifying the skillsets you have developed and demonstrated in your career to date. For students with little or no engineering experience, don’t ignore the skillsets you have developed and demonstrated in part time jobs, placements/internships or volunteering roles. There are skillsets which you will have used, most likely on a daily basis within these roles which will be required as an engineer. Highlighting these skills in your CV will allow you to demonstrate experience and capability. For example, a coffee barista is required to have good communication skills, be a good team member, understand the importance of producing a quality product and demonstrate good time management. Each of the skillsets mentioned can be related to those required of an engineer.
Don't devalue or ignore skills due to the environment you developed and displayed them in.
CVs should be related to the job you are applying for. By tailoring your CV to the job, you can answer the questions asked of you in the job advertisement. It's important to spend time reviewing the job advertisement, identifying the skills, experience and qualifications required for the role. Addressing each requirement in your CV will put you ahead of non-job specific applications. The technique I find most useful is simple; read and highlight the key requirements of the role you are applying for, make a copy of them and cross reference each against your CV. If you need to make changes, do so ensuring you save your CV specific to the job you are applying for. Yes, you may end up with a series of different CVs but by keeping a master document, you can make the changes needed for each job you apply for.
Structure & Content
A structured CV which flows from start to finish will engage the reviewer and help outline your career progress to date. An example structure is below -
Personal Details
Personal Statement
Education
Work History
Skills
Achievements/Qualifications
Personal Details should include your name, address and contact details i.e. telephone/mobile, email address. The personal statement section should be a paragraph describing your strengths, interests and achievements. This section is important, as it will be the first section the reviewer reads.
At this stage in your career, it is unlikely that you will have significant engineering experience, therefore leading with Education over Work History will show off your academic success. Education should present your grades whether this be from school, college or university. If you have received any additional creditation or awards include them in this section. It's also important to list any modules, courses or classes which relate directly to the role you are applying for.
Within the work history section for each position you have held include; the job role, company name, start/finish date and a short summary of your responsibilities and achievements. Avoid writing a generic summary of the job role, be specific about what YOUR responsibilities were and what YOU achieved.
Fine Tuning
When writing your CV, present each section in a logical order, this will allow the reader to generate an idea of where you are in your career today. Using bullet points is a good way of presenting information in a concise and tidy manner.
Across the content of your CV, be concise. This will help get straight to the point. Alongside being concise, your language and word choice is important. Powerful words that can add an extra level of quality to your CV include; managed, delivered, implemented, coordinated and achieved. Only use such words if you can back them up with examples, otherwise you are open to being caught out at your interview.
White space is the space across a document which is blank - don't mix this up with good space management and formatting. When formatting your CV make sure the text is not all cluttered together. Creating a template for each section, such as using a table, can help you have consistency and a format across your CV. Once you have added the content, hide the table outline to give the document a clean finish. The subsequent result of concise sentences, good formatting and the avoidance of excessive white space, should be a CV that is no more than 2 pages in length.
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