Potential employers will often decide whether they are interested in a CV after 10 seconds, so you must sell yourself in that time. It is therefore vital to present your experience with the most important and relevant information first.  Avoid typing errors and irrelevant information.

A CV Builder has been created on the Jigsaw Search & Selection website to help you put these details together in a straight forward and effective way. However, if you would prefer to draw up your own CV then consider the following tips and guidelines.

• Name, contact details, date of birth and nationality (visa information) need to be clearly outlined at the top of the CV.
• Include a brief profile or synopsis of your key skills. Keep it clear and succinct.
• Education details should come next, in reverse chronological order.  Include degree subject and classification, and A-Level subjects and results
• The next section should be your employment history.  List your experience in reverse chronological order - with your most recent position first.
• For each position list the projects you worked on and their values
• Be honest
• At the end of your CV you may want to include a final section for personal details/interests/further information not covered earlier e.g. driving licence, hobbies and interests etc.
  
• There is no need to include referees, unless specifically requested in the job specification, as it wastes space. You should simply write: References By Request.
• Keep it simple - NO photos, NO fancy borders or coloured fonts. Use formatting tools to make your CV easy to read, e.g. bold for titles etc.
• Make sure it is easy to read - font size should be 12pt
• Try and keep your CV to 2 or 3 pages; consider providing a separate project portfolio if necessary
• Highlight your individual contribution and responsibilities on each project
• Double check your CV for typos and get someone else to proof read it as well
• Give all dates (month and year) for employment and education.
• Avoid long paragraphs - bullet points have more impact and are easier to read.
• Don’t leave any gaps in your CV
• Don’t refer to yourself in the third person - it can make the CV look like you haven’t written it yourself

CV Builder