Hello there.
My name is Richard McMunn.
I'm from how2become.com, and during this presentation I'm going to talk
to you about how to write a CV Basically, I'll provide you with some essential
tips for creating what I call "a winning CV" Now, winning CV
Is a CV that gets you through to the next stage of the selection
process.
That might be an interview or an assessment centre.
Now the presentation that I'm going to give you is really simple.
It's very basic and I guarantee that if you follow
these tips, then you should see that your success rate at submitting
CV's increases.
Now a CV, or a Curriculum Vitae as it is otherwise
known, is basically a story of your life so far.
So when you present it to an employer, he or she reading it needs to be confident that
you have the potential to carry out the job that you're applying for.
Now I get lots of people contact me on a regular basis and they say,
"Richard, I've been submitting CV's now for ages and I don't hear
anything back.
It's really frustrating."
I can understand how frustrating that can be.
But the first thing to remember from the offset is the vast majority of employers are
not going to respond to all of the CV's that they receive.
They're generally busy.
Now, I'm not saying that's an excuse.
I think that employees should respond to people who submit CV's, but they don't generally
have the time.
So have the mindset that if you don't hear anything,
don't get down about it but more importantly, try to create a CV
that is going to grab the assessor's attention.
Now, I've marked many CV's in the past, and I'll talk about that as I
progress through this presentation.
What you have to do is you have to get the employer's attention and there's a
very, very simple way that you can do that.
So the presentation, as I say, is very simple and
follow these tips.
There is no exact science to writing CV's.
There is no right or wrong way, but I have found that
this method generally works.
Okay.
Follow these tips.
First of all, very important, keep it simple.
I've had lots of CV's before come through and they're sometimes five
or six pages long.
Now, there is no guideline for how many pages that
a CV should be but, generally, I find two or three pages should be
sufficient for the vast majority of jobs out there.
Of course, if the job that you're applying for is extremely
technical, then you may need to complete a longer CV but, generally, I
would say two or three pages at the most.
Any CV's that I used to submit in the past were just two
pages long.
They didn't need to be any more.
Okay.
So keep it simple and there is a way that you can keep your
CV simple.
The other area is to keep it neat, relevant and concise.
So keep it neat, i.e., the person, the employer who's
reading it can actually read it.
It is relevant to the job that you're applying for.
This is very, very important and it is also concise.
Just to come back to this relevancy bit, the vast majority of people
write one CV and they submit it to scores and scores of different
employers.
This is where they are going wrong.
Now it takes a little bit longer, but you should
mould your CV around the job that you're applying for.
The mistake I find that people make is they create their CV around
themselves.
Now that sounds stupid.
Why wouldn't you do that?
Well, the important thing is to create your CV around
the job that you're applying for and in order to do that, you're
going to need what is called a job description or person specification.
Now you can get that, usually from the website that the person
has advertised a job for.
There will be some kind of a description around the job and I'll
give you an example in a minute.
That is very, very important, guys.
Make sure that you mould the CV around the job that you're applying
for.
Obviously check your spelling, grammar and punctuation.
If I see a CV and it's got loads of spelling mistakes, then
it puts me off.
There's a few other tips which I would urge you to
watch the full length of this presentation because there's some other
key, important tips that you probably won't be aware of in relation
to CV's.
Number four, this is real, real important.
Use key words and phrases from the person specification and the job
description.
Now, what happens?
Let's say I am going to advertise a job.
Let's say it's for a customer service assistant.
I'll write down and I'll think about the key skills and qualities that I want that
person to have.
I will use certain keywords like "an ability to work
under pressure", "be able to demonstrate excellent customer service", so
I'll put those in the job description and I will be looking for those
in the keywords in the CV So when you apply for a job, try as hard as
you can to get the person specification and or the job description for
the role that you are applying for.
Okay.
A job description, let's take a look at a sample job
description.
Now as I've already mentioned, the employer will create a
job description or person specification so let's just close this down.
Let's go straight up to here.
Now, you see here on the right-hand side, I've got here "retail customer service
assistant".
This is a sample job description and person specification.
Now what I have done is I have highlighted certain keywords on
this document.
Now I've put here, "We are looking for someone who is passionate about
retail, focusing on the customer and striving to understand them
better than anyone, driven to achieve results through determination
and commitment, committed to treating people in a fair and consistent
way, willing to roll their sleeves up to get things done, determined,
motivated to work in partnership with others, adaptable and flexible,
the list goes on."
Now you'll see through that I have highlighted certain key areas.
Now when you get hold of the job description and the person
specification, the first thing you should do is highlight keywords in
that important document.
So you see here that I've highlighted passionate, focusing on the customer, achieve
results, treating people in a fair way, getting things done, determined,
working partnership, flexible, seeking feedback, excellent store
standards, achieve, target levels, deal with customers, compliance, deal
with disputes, prevent shoplifters, duties of a checkout system,
issue exchange and refunds.
Now these are the key areas of the job, guys.
So once you highlight these, the next step within your CV is to
include these keywords.
So include these keywords in your CV So let's just scroll down now.
Okay.
Now what I have done, at the beginning of a CV, I always create what is called a "personal
statement" and it matches the requirements of the job.
This, if you follow this, guys, will massively increase your chances of getting
to interview and getting a response from the employer.
I've used this time and time again and it works, trust me.
So copy the keywords and phrases from the job description or person specification
and use them in your initial opening personal statement.
So read this: "I am a highly passionate, determined person who can be
totally relied upon to carry out a competent and professional job.
I have extensive experience of working in a
customer-focused environment and always put the customer first.
I understand that the customer is crucial to an organisation's success and can
be relied upon to deal with customer complaints effectively whilst
listening to their concerns and feedback.
I am an excellent team player who genuinely believes in the importance of treating others
fairly and diligently.
I maintain excellent standards and always look
for ways to improve my personal and professional development by seeking
feedback from managers.
Finally, I am a dedicated and flexible person who I believe
would be a valuable asset to your team and organisation."
Now, if you copy keywords and phrases from the job description into
that opening statement, it will jump out subconsciously to the person
who's assessing it because they have written, generally, the job
description and person spec, and they will have that next to them when
they're assessing the CV Okay?
So that is very important, guys and I strongly recommend that you do that.
It literally takes a couple of minutes to go through a job description and
then to actually copy the keywords and phrases.
It's very, very important, and I would recommend that you do that.
Okay.
Let's take a look at a sample CV Now this is only, Okay, a
couple of pages long.
You can see it there.
Let me just increase the size a little bit more.
There we go.
So this is two pages.
It's a fictitious CV, but I just want to quickly
point out the important tips, Okay, of how to construct one.
I'll then go back and give you those final tips, those really important ones
that you should consider.
So we've got the name there at the top, CV of Susan Gray.
The address goes at the top.
The telephone number goes there, Okay, underneath.
So it's the first point of contact.
Now, I've said before, there is no exact science behind writing a CV but this
is a simple looking CV and you'll see here effective use of white space.
It makes the CV far easier to read; and you'll see that this CV
is very organised and it is simple.
Put the date of birth there.
Marital status, it's not essential but this person has stated that they're married,
and their nationality.
Now the personal statement.
"I'm a hardworking, conscientious and dedicated person who has developed a track
record for delivering targets that are set by my superiors and can
be relied upon to excel in any role given.
I've a diploma in management studies and a certificate in bookkeeping accounts."
Okay, so this person then goes on and provides their education
qualifications.
Put them in there, your educational qualifications.
Don't just think about those kind of qualifications, think about other
key areas as well.
Things like experience of working in charitable organisations, any voluntary work, any health
and safety qualifications also add a lot of weight to
the CV Then explain your employment history in chronological order.
So work through, explain what you did in each role.
So you can see here, "Provided first line of support in day-to-day administration for
the operations manager.
Put the key areas and try and match these to the job that you're
applying for.
So think about the person specification and, again, try
and include any keywords that you can.
So this person has then gone through and put the role that that person
carried out, the company that they worked for and then the key
achievements.
Again, they've gone through and provided the details
further down.
Then finally, on the last page, they have put further
academic achievements and interests, and then also references.
Now a lot of people say to me, "Should I just put
'references upon request'?"
My own personal opinion of that is that I would give actual
names and contact details of people who are going to give you a
reference.
You only need two people, but make sure you contact them
first to get their permission, but put down reference details.
Because I see a lot of CV's that say, "references
available upon request".
Now that's Okay.
There's nothing wrong with that, but it's far stronger if
you actually put down somebody's name and contact details; because
that just gives me more confidence this person is really, really good
and they are what they say they are.
You'll see on this CV that we've made effective use of boldness to
make it stand out.
The text and the font is simple and also uses bullet points to accentuate different phrases.
Okay.
Now let me just quickly go back to this area.
CV tips, the first thing, social media, Facebook, Twitter accounts, MySpace example.
My advice with this is that if you have a Facebook account, think
carefully about what you put on there, on the different posts.
Now the reason why I say this, lots of people don't lock their Facebook accounts.
It's basically public and that means that anybody can go
on it.
Now I'm not saying that an employer will do this, but there is
nothing to stop a person entering your e-mail address into Facebook
and if you have registered Facebook with that e-mail address, it will
show up your Facebook account.
Now if it isn't locked, they will be able to see the different posts
that you apply and I can guarantee that some employers, not all, but
some employers may go on your Facebook account just to see what type
of person you are, the type of posts that you put on there.
So if you've put on any offensive posts or any posts
that you don't want people to see, just be very careful about
social media nowadays.
My advice is to lock your social media Facebook
account so that people can't see it apart from your direct friends.
I would always add a cover letter or e-mail when you send off your CV
I've had people apply for jobs with me before and they just, "Please
find attached CV" You know, I'm going to have a look at the CV but it
doesn't really inspire me.
What I'd rather see or read is an e-mail from somebody and it says, "Dear Sir or Madam,
I wish to apply for the above post.
Please find attached my CV for your perusal.
I want to state that if I'm given the opportunity to
be invited to interview, then I can assure you that I believe I have
the skills, attributes to carry out the role effectively.
I look forward to hearing from you."
It just shows that that person has put a little bit of extra effort
into applying for the job.
Lots of people send out blanket CV's to loads of different jobs and then wonder why
they don't get a response and it is primarily because their CV has very
little relevance to the job they're applying for.
As I say to you, spend time, get the person specification and job description and use
keywords and phrases from it and include it in your CV and you will start
to see success.
Now the use of fonts and borders, I see lots of CV's with loads of
fancy borders, lots of different colours.
My personal advice is just use simple fonts and no borders, just black
and white and the font could be like Aerial, size 18, different size
for the headers, make them bold or even Times New Roman.
You don't need to use fancy fonts.
They won't make any difference.
Finally, e-mail addresses, have a look at your e-mail address.
Is it a standard, normal e-mail address?
When you apply for a job, what's it say about you as a person?
My standard e-mail address is just richardmcmunn@howtobecome.com.
That's my e-mail address.
I can remember somebody applying for an office manager's
job with my company once and the e-mail started off "raunchysarah@"
and it just puts you off when you see that.
Now I'm not being judgmental but if I'm looking for somebody to manage my office, then I don't
think it's very professional sending an e-mail address with
that name on it.
I see lots of e-mail addresses come through when
people submit their CV's and I think a little bit bizarre, a bit strange.
Make sure your e-mail address is professional.
So that's just a brief overview of how to create a CV Please take the
time, go to my website how2become.com.
I've got loads of different CV products, loads of free information on how
to get a job and how to pass interviews and I also offer a CV writing
skills service.
I will write your CV for you if you want, based around
a job description and person spec that you're applying for.
Thank you very, very much for watching and listening and I wish you all
the very best in your pursuit to getting the job of your dreams.