Event Review: A CV Masterclass with the Careers Service

CVS: WE ALL HAVE TO MAKE THEM, AND WE ALL WORRY ABOUT THEM. “IS MY CV TOO LONG?” “IS IT EFFECTIVE?” “HOW DO I EXPLAIN MY DIFFERENT ROLES?” WELL FEAR NOT, AS CAREERS SERVICE MASTERMIND JOS HARRISON SHARED ALL HER SECRETS ON HOW TO MAKE A STUNNING CV

I attended this event in order to gain a few insights into how to make an effective CV and share them with the SELLL community. Jos shared that recruiters spend around 30 seconds looking at each CV, considering whether this person is “worth investing more time in”. For a great first impression, Jos explained the ‘Five principles of CV writing’.

RELEVANCE

Find out what the role you’re applying for involves, and quickly show your background experience in that field. If you’re unsure on how to identify your skills and attributes, Jos has developed a checklist.

This skill grid easily runs through every aspect of the average SELLL student’s study, and helps you translate your experience into short and effective bullet points! It’s available to download here:

SELLL Skills Grid DOWNLOAD

ORDER

Every CV should at least contain these three sections; your personal details (name, contact information, address), your education and references. The following extract is an example introduction for your CV.

If you’re unsure on how to talk about an SELLL degree, here’s a great guide provided by the Careers Service:

Once you’ve finished talking about your education, other sections you might mention include Work Experience – including paid full-time or part-time positions and volunteering – Extracurricular Activities and Interests. If you don’t have a lot of experience, then don’t worry, the most important thing is to make the most of what you have. If, on the other hand, you have lots of experience, you should prioritise the experiences that are more relevant for the job you’re applying for.

FORMAT

Have a professional style, a good balance of text and space and careful use of fonts. Jos suggested that bullet points are a great way to describe your work in bite-size chunks.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Spelling and grammar must be correct. You need to make sure there are no silly mistakes in your CV, as this could reflects poorly when spotted by potential employers.

COVER LETTER

Always include a covering letter unless you are asked not to. It introduces you, lets you highlight the important parts of your CV and your reasons for applying.

MORE TIPS AND TRICKS

Here’s some more great advice Jos shared along the way!

• Having a ‘master copy’ of your CV is an interesting way to divide up your experiences. One would put everything they’ve done on one document, so when applying for specific opportunities you can look through your master copy and choose certain experiences that would reflect positively in that given role. For example, if applying for a role in customer service, experiences in retail would be of more relevance to include than your experience in writing. Both experiences are equally fantastic, but you should make sure to prioritise relevant points on your CV. Most times being able to choose what you include can be seen under the ‘What We’re Looking For’ section of job offers.

You can also look out for key words in the job application, and mirror that language in your CV 

Jos Harrison

• In terms of the extra-curricular experiences, make sure to only reflect on modern experiences, and not go farther back than sixth form (unless something is exceptional and highly relevant).

• Every time you put something down, consider whether this is relevant to your CV or not. Is this a useful vehicle to demonstrate my skills?

• CVs are normally only one or two pages long. At this stage, if you’re worried about filling your CV, just focus on doing things you enjoy.

There are developmental opportunities online, such as the NU Graduate Framework which lists important skills and ideas on how to develop them. If you’ve discovered an aspect of your degree you’ve loved, and want to improve your skills in that area, this framework points out opportunities to aid your passion.

You can visit Virtual Opportunities for those who may want to complete an internship from home, or even check out internships advertised on this blog. 

For those who missed the live event, you can download the presentation below:

CV Workshop Presentation DOWNLOAD

Best of luck on all your future CV endeavours!

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