How to write your CV?

• Choose clear, legible fonts:
  • It is recommended to use Arial, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Helvetica and use 11 and 12 size font size for your CV.
  • Use 14 to 16 font size for names and titles.

• Defining your personal profile on your CV: a personal statement/profile is a sentence that sums up who you are as a professional and what you could potentially offer to the employer.
  • An example could be: ‘A passionate and innovative young professional with academic excellence and professional experience in computer science looking to build a strong career in information technology.’

• Highlight your skills: This section should include both hard (coding, marketing, computing) and soft skills(communications, teamwork, leadership) and be relevant to the job posting. This section should be adapted with the job requirements and you must use keywords and phrases from the job posting.
  • In addition, if you have online certificates/ trainings from any websites such as Coursera , Udemy , Linkedin Learning etc, make sure to highlight them under the training/certifications part of your CV.
  • If you have no job experience, you can still use your CV to talk about your hard and soft skills you have picked up at school/university.

• Work experience on your first CV: if you have had no full time jobs before you may still be able to fill out this section if you have had the following:
  • Volunteering experience
  • Work experience/placements
  • Part time jobs
    • For each bit of experience, include the name of the place you worked at, duration of your experience, key achievements in that role, and examples of tasks you did.
  • Tip 1: Arrange your Work Experience and Education with the most recent one first and then proceed chronologically.
  • Tip 2: If you are a fresh graduate, your education section may go above your work experience section.

• Interests/Hobbies: it is important to write about your interests and hobbies, as the employer can generally connect to these and bring that up during your interview.
  • For example: if you are a very good football player, chances could be that your employer is a football fan and that becomes a conversation starter!
  • Final Tip: Save and send your CV in .pdf format where possible so as to ensure the contents of the CV stay intact.

You can find a downloadable CV template here.