Factual and Accurate CVs - Problem Areas in CVs.

Do:

Summarise academic and professional qualifications at the beginning of the CV.
Include brief information on your hobbies and interests if they are relevant.
Include a career objective if you are posting your CV on the Internet or sending it out 'on-spec' to recruitment agencies.

Do not:

Leave a 'hole' in your career history.
Try to dress up 'unimpressive' jobs.
Include irrelevant detail of your hobbies and interests.
Attempt humour.
Exclude yourself from good jobs by the wording of your career objective.

'Holes' in your Career History and Dressing up Inadequacies in your CV.

Hobbies, Interests, Sports and Humorous Content.

Should I Include a Career Objective?

Some CVs include an objective like "Seeking a position in a research environment paying at least £50k p.a." This is a good idea if you are posting your CV on a website or sending it to a recruitment agency, but take care not to rule yourself out of perfectly acceptable jobs.

Your career objective alone will never get you an interview- that will depend on the rest of your CV - but your career objective certainly can eliminate you from consideration, whatever the rest of your CV says.

In the case above, if the job on offer has a maximum remuneration of £45k your CV will be heading for the bin. Or if the job was in Product Development rather than Research (even though the distinction may be slim, it may be important to some people), again the CV is bound for the bin. Are you sure you wouldn't be interested in a job in Product Development for £45k? A better version might be "Seeking a senior position in Research and Development".

In the case of a CV sent to a company for a specific job it should not be necessary to include a career objective. The fact that you have sent your CV to the company indicates that you are interested in the job.

Where to Put Qualifications.

Some people put qualifications at the end of their CV, particularly if they think their experience is their main selling point. I think it is important that your main academic and professional qualifications are summarised at the beginning so that the assessor understands what your basic discipline is. Are you an engineer, a scientist, a doctor, or what? Don't make your potential employer search through to the end to find out.

Normally put the fine details about qualifications and education at the end. This might include college attended, courses taken, grade of qualification achieved, projects undertaken etc. An exception is in the case of a new graduate or someone who has just completed his training. His main selling points are his qualifications and training, rather than his experience. In this case these details should be included at the beginning.

The amount of detail you should include about your qualifications and education depends on how long ago they were undertaken and to what extent you are relying on them to get you a job. If you are a new graduate considerable detail about courses and projects undertaken may be justified, but if you have twenty years work experience your educational history will be relatively unimportant. As a minimum though, always include the name of the qualification, the educational institute that awarded it and the year it was awarded.

'Holes' in your Career History and Dressing up Inadequacies in your CV.

Don't leave a 'hole' in your career history as people will be curious what you were doing then and it may become the (unfortunate) focus of discussion at an interview. If you had a period of unemployment while you were looking for a job just say so, but of course make it clear you were actively job hunting during this time.

Don't try to dress things up too much- employers will easily see through it.

So you spent a few months stacking shelves in a supermarket while you were looking for your job as a rocket scientist?

You could say that you "worked as a store stocking executive at Tesco in order to enhance my retail, interpersonal and logistical skills". I wouldn't though, as the CV would rapidly be heading for the reject pile. Why not be honest and say "did general work at Tesco to earn some money whilst job searching". There is nothing wrong in that and at least it would establish your honesty.

You say you provided "material assistance to a blue sky research team aimed at significantly improving 21^st century communications". Oh, you mean you made the coffee at a mobile phone company?

Keep the language straightforward, factual and accurate. Clear explanation of the facts of your career will rapidly establish your credibility. Adopt a simple factual approach to let the potential employer know you are honest and trustworthy. How about "as office assistant at the Vodaphone research centre, I learnt a great deal about mobile phone operations".