How to Format a Winning CV

 

This may seem self-explanatory, but it is so important to format your CV properly! Our team go through hundreds of CV’s per day and I can tell you now, they are definitely not all formatted to the expected standards. It sounds harsh, but for the most part, your CV will not even have a look in if the first impression of it is poor formatting.

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To help you out, we have broken down some of the key elements:

Font Style and Size:

  • Generally size 12pt and Times New Roman, Arial, Cambria, Calibri or even Helvetica are good font options.

  • When choosing which font style, consider the type of company that you are submitting your CV to, a dynamic start-up will probably not expect you to be as formal as you would be for a large corporate firm

Tone of Voice:

  • This ties in quite well to the font style as with your tone of voice you want to reflect the style of the company that you are applying to work for.

  • Regardless of the type of business, you want to ensure to portray yourself in a clear and professional manner, needless to say there should be no slang words or colloquial expressions

Structure:

  • You should have clearly headed sections throughout your CV to make it clear to navigate. Each section of your CV should be titled accordingly and the text for the heading could be bold and a few sizes larger than your paragraph text to stand out

  • You may also have sub headings within your CV, for example for your various job titles, which can be slightly bigger than your paragraph text but not as big as the main headings

  • Within these headed sections, you should use bullet points in some areas to make it easier to read. This is probably most useful to list your key responsibilities within a job

Saving and Submitting:

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  • Your shiny new CV should be written on an A4 portrait document

  • Unless stated otherwise, your CV should be saved in a Word document, some employers may request a PDF so make sure you check if there are any requirements

  • Name your CV properly!!! This cannot be stressed enough, as it can look so unprofessional. The best way to name your CV is simply use your full name followed by ‘CV’. 

 
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