Arguably the hardest challenge you will face during your job hunt is making your CV stand out from other applicants. Hiring managers will often only spend a few seconds scanning through your CV before deciding ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Therefore, having a clear and easy-to-follow CV that really makes your experience stand out, is essential when trying to secure your next role.
The below tips on how to lay out your experience will not only help you in making your CV easier to read for hiring managers, but also help us as your recruitment consultants to recognise and understand your experience, and get you forward for the roles that suit you best.
Having a uniform, easy-to-follow layout on your CV is, in my opinion, the most crucial thing to get right when putting your CV together. Remember, your CV is the best tool for selling YOUR experience, so make sure to highlight it! The best CVs I have seen all followed a similar layout, as seen below:
NAME AND PROFESSIONAL TITLES (MTRPI, MRICS ETC)
Quite self-explanatory, but we need to know who you are! Some roles also explicitly look for those letters after your name, so if you have got them, make sure they are there.
CAREER SUMMARY/PROFILE/OVERVIEW
The most important part of your CV. This ‘blurb’ should outline how many years’ experience you have in your given field, examples of interesting projects you have worked on and what you would be able to bring to the team should you be appointed. The is the part of the CV that the hiring manager is going to read, so really make sure you highlight your key skills and experience here.
CAREER HISTORY
This is where you run through the roles you have had over the years. Always start with your most recent position and work backwards, providing the month and year you started and finished a role. This is another place to put some examples of the projects you worked on, but it doesn’t need to be an exhaustive list (2/3 examples is just fine!).
EDUCATION/CPD
Here is where you let the hiring manager know about what formal qualifications you have for the role. As proud as you may be of that A in GCSE Maths, it really doesn’t need to be front and centre here! Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses are vital to include. Do let the hiring managers know of any CPB (Continuing Professional Development) you have undertaken that is specific to your field of work – it’s always great to show a willingness to carry on learning!
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Can you drive? Do you have access to a car? Have you used (at least in the planning world) iDox, Uniform, Ocella? Are you comfortable using MS Teams, Skype or Zoom? The information here is crucial for us recruitment consultants to know as these are the questions the hiring managers will ask us – it always helps to be in the know!
INTERESTS AND HOBBIES
Not strictly necessary, but I always feel this does add a bit more about you as a person, and not just the experience you’ve had in the working world. Plus I’d love to know if like me, you suffer with having to watch Arsenal play on the weekends!
REFERENCES
If you are able to provide contact details of the best person to secure a recent reference from, we’ll go ahead and secure one on your behalf. References are always great to have to hand and having them before even being asked is even better!
