Preparing your CV

• One page is too short, two or three are about right.
• Ensure your CV is saved in an electronic format which can be easily emailed and opened. Try and avoid saving it as a document using the very latest format if clients or people with earlier software may be unable to open it.
• For physical copies of your CV, avoid coloured or textured paper – your CV needs to be friendly to photocopiers and scanners.
• All contact details, summary of education and qualifications ( including language fluency) should go on the first page, followed by your current or last position.
• Always list employment in chronological reverse order.
• If you have an unusual or company specific job title that means little to the outside world, give a generic description of your role.
• Give a brief description of what you are or were responsible for- and bring to life with some dimensions, numbers of people, value of sales, length of projects.
• A CV is not just a record of your responsibilities, employers need to understand what you achieved in each role – bullet point achievements.
• Describe each employer briefly. You can count on most people having heard of Microsoft but many companies or their subsidiaries require some sort of introduction.
• Employers do not need as much detail about what you were doing five years ago, still less ten years ago. (Unless specific to a particular job for which you are applying).