What Should A CV Include?

“A curriculum vitae (CV), provides an overview of a person's experience and other qualifications.... a CV is typically the first item that a potential employer encounters regarding the job seeker and is typically used to screen applicants, often followed by an interview, when seeking employment”. Extracted from Wikipedia

Is your CV up-to-date?

Make sure the information on your CV is up-to-date, clear and concise. It is good practice to update your CV even when you aren’t looking for a new role. You never know when a new opportunity might arise; CVs aren’t just used to find work, use it to update your social profile. Now is a better time than any, you don’t know what your circumstances might be like tomorrow.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Contents of CV to include:

• Contact Details
• Personal Statement
• Skills Summary
• Employment History
• Education
• Hobbies / Interests

CONTACT DETAILS

• Full Name and Surname
• Address inc. postcode
• Contact telephone numbers
• Email address
• [URLs to LinkedIn Profile, Twitter, Github / Stack Overflow, Portfolio]

PERSONAL STATEMENT

• High-Level Summary
• Opportunity to differentiate
• Provides a snapshot of you as a candidate
• Generally written in 1st or 3rd person
• Approximately 3 / 4 lines – 200 words
• Don't be too specific with your requirements

SKILLS SUMMARY

• Technical Overview
• Matrix vs. Free Text
• Primary & Secondary
• Be realistic and honest

Skills Matrix

SKILLS SUMMARY

• Databases - 15 Years – Design, administration, connectivity, tuning, replication.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (18 months), 2005. 2.5 years. SQL Server 2000 4 years. Transact SQL, SMO, SSIS, SSRS some SSAS. Clustered environment.
• Performance Tuning. 3.5 Years including database performance tuning.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

• Job Title
• Dates (month & year)
• Achievements
• Project Summary – Product, Technology, Complexity,  Level of Responsibility
• Yourindividual contribution – ‘I’ not ‘we’

ABC Software Ltd, Southampton – February 2012 - Present

Mar 2018 – Present                         Senior C# Developer
[input text regarding role and responsibilities]

June 2015 – Feb 2018                     Software Developer
[input text regarding role and responsibilities]

Feb 2012 – June 2015                     Graduate Software Developer
[input text regarding role and responsibilities]

EDUCATION
Include name of institutions, dates and grades where possible.

• Education
  –      Degree, A-Levels, GCSE’s
• Professional Qualifications
  –      MCDBA
• Professional Courses
  –      UML
• Publications
• Self-Study – books etc.

HOBBIES

• Short paragraph summary
• Reading, family time, travelling around the UK, sailing
• Include IT Related Hobbies
• Active Member of Developer South Coast and Southampton Data Platform & Cloud User Group

Once your CV is ready, don’t forget to put it to good use – send it to contactus@spectrumit.co.uk