By: Steve Patterson
Submitted: 2010-11-22 14:15:09 | Word Count: 582
No serious job applicant should take lightly the task of writing a CV (known in the US and Canada as a resume). It is almost always the first point of contact with a prospective employer, and while a professional CV will improve the applicant's chances, an unprofessional one may go straight into the bin. For those unsure of their ability to write a good CV, there are professional CV writing services, but it is a skill which anyone can learn.
Making a CV: the Basics
Making a CV is really not that difficult, but making it look professional demands care. A hard-copy CV should be on good-quality A4 paper, using only one side of each page, and unfolded. Avoid unusual typefaces. The most readable hard-copy typeface is Times New Roman, but Georgia is one of several good alternatives.
Writing a CV in fact means typing a CV. It should be set out clearly and checked carefully for errors in spelling or grammar. It is best to have it looked over by someone else before sending it off.
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A Professional CV
The CV usually has one section for education and one for professional experience, and is set out in chronological order – most often, reverse chronological order. A professional CV of this kind has the dates on the left side of the page, and the other information carefully aligned on the right. Many take it for granted that this is how to write a CV.
Only brief details are normally required: two A4 sides is as much as most employers want to deal with. There should be no blank years. A year spent on a round-the-world trip, for example, may not be very relevant to the job, but it should still be mentioned. Blank years look suspicious.
An alternative to the chronological CV is the skills-based CV, in which the applicant concentrates on his or her qualifications for the job in question. This is trickier to do, but may work well for an applicant whose skills are particularly well suited to the post.
Generally speaking (and for legal reasons) employers now prefer not to ask for a photograph or for date of birth. In making a CV, there is nothing to stop an applicant from including either or both of these, but where they are not demanded, it is unlikely that anything is lost by including neither.
How to Write a CV Online
With many employers now asking for electronic copy, something should be said about the online CV, which will almost always take the form of an email attachment.
The best typefaces for online reading are Arial and Verdana. Layout again demands care, with plenty of white space and clear headings. And it is best to convert the file to pdf, so that the formatting is fixed. Even today, a carefully-formatted Word document, for example, may become a mess when downloaded onto a different system.
CV Writing Services
For those who prefer to look for help writing a CV, there are professional CV writing services. Assuming that they know their job, they should be able to write a good professional CV, provided that they are given all the necessary facts, including information about the job being applied for.
But for anyone worth employing, help writing a CV should not be necessary. Samples are available online, for example from the University of Kent. A little time spent reading the advice and studying the examples should tell anyone how to write a good CV.
