How to write a winning CV

Shayna Main LSE Careers

Aims of a CV

• Gets you to the next stage of the process

• Be specific to the job

• Give enough relevant information – qualifications, skills, work experience

• Give the right impression – motivation and knowledge of role and organisation

• Set the agenda for the interview –what do you want to be asked?

Putting the reader first

Who is your reader?

What do you want them to know?

What do you want them to do?

Things worth remembering!

• No such thing as a ‘perfect CV’

• Needs to be tailored for each job

• Is a professional business document

• Aim for no more than 2 pages

• Must have enough relevant info to provoke an interview

• SELL YOURSELF!

CV and covering letter: key principles

• Length – 1 side or 2?

• Design – strange fonts, white space and consistency

• Language – speling and positive verbs

• Space denotes importance

• Must be relevant and targeted

The wrong kind of impact

• Too long

• Disorganised information

• Typing poor or printing unprofessional

• Overwriting/underwriting

• Inclusion of irrelevancies

• Spelling and grammatical errors

CV headings

Name and contact details

Education

Work experience

Academic awards (sometimes)

Extra-curricular achievements

Interests

Personal Details

• Main purpose is for contact information

– address / phone[s] / email… (1 only or dates)

• Don’t have to include everything e.g. Date of Birth, Nationality, Gender

• Be aware of appropriateness of email addresses e.g. snufflebunny@yahoo.com

• May wish to state if eligible to work in UK but not necessary

Personal Profile – Yes or No?

“I am a dynamic individual who thrives in a fast-moving team orientated environment. Looking for a career in an international organisation which will match my aspirations”

?

or maybe…

• LSE Finance and Economics postgraduate with work experience gained in an leading Italian investment bank. Detailed knowledge of complex financial risk analysis. Looking for position as an analyst with Goldman Sachs

Education

• Reverse chronological order

• How much detail?

• More relevant = more space

• Grades – ‘special circumstances’ in covering letter

How much detail… and what kind of detail?

Talking about your Degree

MSc Finance and Economics, London School of Economics

Course included modules in Portfolio Management, Corporate Financial Reporting, International Finance, Derivatives and Financial Risk Analysis.

Final dissertation on ………………………………

• Course provided a thorough exposure to econometric methods, including time series analysis, with applications to financial models and data. Amongst others I will be completing courses concerning portfolio management and corporate financial reporting.

Work Experience

• If useful, divide into Relevant Work (eg IT) Experience and Other Work Experience

• Role

• Where & When

• Skills involved – give concrete examples

• Don’t have to include EVERYTHING

• But DON’T underestimate value of diverse range of work experience

Selling your experience

• Position or role

• Company/Organisation name

• Location

• Dates

• Use bullet points, ideally

– Max 5 per experience

– Max two lines

– One point per bullet point

• Choose specific example

– Action verb related to a required skill at start of bullet point

– Description

– Result (if possible)

Levels of impact

• LEVEL 1 My duties included

• LEVEL 2 Involved with organising

• LEVEL 3 Worked in a team of 3 people to organise

• LEVEL 4 Raised £600 for the LSE entrepreneur society enabling them to provide more events for students

Additional Skills

• IT skills - give information about packages used such as MatLab/Stata/SPSS, languages, other technologies/social media - try to give some information on level of proficiency (competent, some knowledge of)

• Foreign Languages - again give level of proficiency (fluent, working knowledge, basic)

Interests

• Keep it relevant

• Keep it brief

• Avoid bland generalities like ‘reading’, or ‘socialising with friends’

• make sure at least one interest is not of a solitary nature

What do you want the reader to infer ?

Writing style

• Write simply: don’t use “CV speak” ; avoid “hone” “enhance”

• Be direct: use verbs; avoid a long string of nouns

• Avoid phrases such as “Since a young age…” “I’ve always wanted”

• Avoid generalities

e.g., phrases like “various skills” and “diverse activities”

• Avoid: “empty intensifiers for meaningless enhancement”

• Don’t repeat verbatim sections of the employer’s website

Action verbs • Accomplished

• Achieved

• Administered

• Analysed

• Built

• Coached

• Communicated

• Controlled

• Co-ordinated

• Created

• Designed

• Directed

• Effective

• Efficient

• Engineered

• Established

• Evaluated

• Expanded

• Facilitated

• Guided

• Identified

• Implemented

• Increased

• Introduced

• Led

• Managed

• Monitored

• Negotiated

• Organised

• Persuaded

• Planned

• Processed

• Produced

• Proficient

• Qualified

• Researched

• Sold

• Supervised

• Trained

Additional Skills - examples

• IT skills - give information about packages used, languages, other technologies - try to give some information on level of proficiency (competent, some knowledge of)

• Foreign Languages - again give level of proficiency (fluent, working knowledge, basic)

Interests

• Keep it relevant

• Keep it brief

• Avoid bland generalities like ‘reading’, or ‘socialising with friends’

• make sure at least one interest is not of a solitary nature

What do you want the reader to infer ?

References

• Not vital at CV stage

- References Available on Request’ is fine

• Get Permission

• Use Recent Contacts –

• Choose Relevant Contacts

– Eg one academic + one ‘work’

Marco’s CV

• What would be your top 3 pieces of advice for Marco?

• Are there any missing headings?

• How should he increase his impact?

Questions?