The content in your CV should be in a uniform format and structured in the manner set out below. This structure will maximise the chances of your CV standing out to prospective employers by ensuring that an employers notices any relevant information within the first 30 seconds of looking at your CV. This will intrigue them to read on further.
1. Name & Personal Details
Your name should come first in a slightly bigger font and in bold. This will make your name stand out, making it easier for the employer to remember. Follow this with your address, contact numbers, email address, date of birth (this one is completely up to you), marital status (if you feel it is applicable) and nationality. Do you need/have a work permit? List these details immediately. Do you have a driving license? Is it clean? Do you have your own transport? List it here.
2. Personal Statement/Summary
Concisely state your key skills, experiences, personal qualities and achievements. List your careers goals and aspirations, but make sure these are tailored to meet the needs of the organisation and role that you are applying for.
3. Skills Matrix
Accurately and concisely list your key skills. These may be technical or relate to technologies that you have used and methodologies that you have adopted. This will give an aesthetically pleasing summary to the reader of the CV that will give them a very quick idea of your suitability for the post rather than making them wade through text looking for each criterion.
4. Work Experience
This is the most important area of your CV in terms of content and should therefore be the longest. This should be in reverse chronological order (i.e. with your most recent experience first) with no exceptions. As a heading state your job title, employer and dates that you were employed. Underneath write about your responsibilities and achievements. It is key that you strike a nice balance between the detail of your answers (do not leave the reader to assume anything) and the length of each précis (do not overwrite or waffle). Bullet points are often criticised, but if used as part of a précis (do not include bullet point alone to describe your role) to strike home to the reader key achievements then they can be most effective. DO NOT LEAVE GAPS. This is viewed as suspicious, so make sure all employment gaps are catered for, be it to travel, care for ill family members or as a sabbatical - make sure they are included.
5. Professional Qualifications
Briefly list any professional qualifications, including memberships and registration/membership numbers.
6. Education & Academic Qualifications
List your academic qualifications again in reverse chronological order. For example
| 1997 - 2000 | BSc (Hons) 2:1 in Computer Science at Sheffield University |
| 1995 - 1997 | A Levels: Maths (A), Biology (B), Chemistry (C) at Tapton School |
| 1990 - 1995 | GCSE's/'O' Levels: Maths (A), English Language (A), History (A), Geography (B), French (F), Chemistry (C), Biology (C) at Warwick Secondary School |
7. Other
This could be anything else that you think would be positive to your cause. For instance any language skills and how adept you are with each language (basic, intermediate or fluent - relating to spoken & written.)
8. Interests/Hobbies
This lends a personal touch to the application and sheds light on you as an individual. Sometimes candidates that are border-line for an interview have been picked based on sharing similar interests as the person short-listing. Not something that you have any control over but worth bearing in mind.
9. References
It is completely up to you whether you list referees or not ('Referees available on request' is standard on a CV and protects your referees anonymity and time) but never list your current employers. If you do not list them make sure you know who you are going to use, and more to the point, make sure your referees know!