When applying for a job most hiring managers will request that you email them a copy of your CV. Your CV is typically a two-page document that showcases your skills and accomplishments, to represent you as the best qualified candidate.

If you’re entering the world of employment for the first time, or getting ready to make your next career move, follow our advice to writing the perfect CV.

What should a CV include?

1. Contact details
You should always include your contact details at the top of your CV. This is a call to action for the employer therefore should be at the top of your CV. You should include the following contact details:

• Full name
• Phone Number
• Email address
• The city where you live

It is not necessary to provide your full address at the initial application stage.

Example of CV contact details:

2. Personal Statement
A personal statement should be one paragraph, immediately underneath your contact details, to highlight your relevant skills and experience to the employer. You should adapt this to every job that you apply to show the employer what you are capable of.

Along with the personal statement you can also include a list of your key skills and proficiencies. Link these as much as possible to the skills and experience required in the job description of the position you are applying for.

Example: 

3. Work Experience
This is to show your work history over the years, highlighting your key achievements to show how qualified you are for the role.

Try to use short statements, rather than wordy paragraphs, so that the hiring manager can easily scan through your CV to see that you have the relevant skills and experience for the job.

Always try to quantify your achievements to back up your skills and experience. For example:

• Unquantified statement: Improved social media following through strategic marketing.
• Quantified statement: Increased social media following by 65% in 6-month period, through strategic marketing initiatives.

Start with your most recent work experience and work backwards.

4. Qualifications and Education
State your record of education and training, starting with your most recent achievements. This should include any qualifications gained at school, college and University. Along with any other training programs that you have enrolled on that are relevant to the job that you are applying for.

Example: 

5. Hobbies & Volunteering
Stating your hobbies and interests can be a great way to stand out from the crowd and show off what relevant transferrable skills you have.

6. References
You typically only need to provide a reference after you have been offered a new position. You will need to provide the contact details of two referees which are usually your last two previous employers. If it is your first job then you can provide the details of your teacher or lecturer.

Apply for a job

Pin Point Recruitment have vacancies throughout the UK, we specialise in warehousing and logisitcs, engineering, production, education, and health and social care. Visit our jobs page for our latest vacancies.