A compelling CV is key to landing your dream job. To help your CV stand out in the crowd and land you the interview for your dream job, our KiddyKare experts have created this guide to writing the perfect CV.
Top tip: remember your CV (Curriculum Vitae) is often the first impression you make on potential employers. It’s more than just a list of your experiences; it’s a reflection of your skills, achievements, and professional journey, so let’s make it shine.
What to include in your CV
1. Personal Profile
This is your chance to sell yourself and the traits you think make you a great candidate for the role. You can do this by describing yourself and your goals in a few sentences. Tailor this to the role you are applying for to highlight the skills you can transfer across to your new role.
2. Highlight Your Work Experience
We find starting with your most current role allows your career timeline to be followed easily. In each section include your job title and a description that details your job specification. This allows future employers to match your skills and roles to the job specification of their vacancy.
Top tip: if you’ve had a break in your employment history, regardless of the reason, make sure to include this period in your CV. Whether it was due to job searching after a temporary contract, parental responsibilities, further studies, or taking a gap year, detailing these intervals helps maintain a clear and complete employment timeline.
3. Showcase Your Education
Include your most recent and relevant education, and add in any courses you’ve undertaken – however make sure they are relevant to the job in question.
4. Key Skills
This is where you can highlight any professional skills you feel would make you stand out from other candidates. These can be personality traits you can bring to the company that will ensure you succeed, or knowledge-based skills that you have learnt throughout your experience.
5. Tailor Your CV for Each Job Application
If you’re applying for a different role, that isn’t like your current or previous roles, it is best to tailor your CV to show how your skills, experience and personality traits match with the new role you’re applying for.
As you know, lots of skills can be transferred across to many roles and sectors, however tailoring you CV to highlight your most relevant skills for a new role, allows your suitability to come across clearly to the hiring manager.
Final Tips
Keep it concise: keep your CV short and to the point, this helps the company read about you without running out of time. Two pages is ideal.
Use a professional format: a fancy font, won’t help and if anything, it could put someone off. A most used font like will keep it clear and save you some time.
Proofread: spell check is there for a reason and will really show attention to detail. Also ask someone else to read through your CV to spot any errors and make sure it makes sense.
Writing a good CV takes time and effort, but it’s worth it to create a document that truly represents your professional journey. This way you can add current experience to an already strong document.
Good luck with your job search!
Author: Jodi Walden
