CVs and Covering Letters
Your CV and covering letter are your opportunity to market your skills and abilities. They supply potential employers with information about you that is relevant to your application. Your CV and letter alone won't get you the job, but a good CV is your passport to interviews. Employers aren't going to spend hours studying your CV, so you need to make sure that it says the right things about you in a clear and accessible way.
CVs
- When should I use a CV?
- Layout and style
- What to include
- Types of CV
- Targeting your CV
Covering Letters
- What is a covering letter?
- What to say
- Ten Top Tips
CVs
When should I use a CV?
You'll need a CV to:
- organise and analyse your skills and experiences in the early stages of planning your career
- respond to a job advertisement (be it for permanent work or work experience)
- make speculative approaches to organisations, when you are trying to find out about vacancies that might interest you
Layout and style
Your CV is a document that is unique to you. There is no 'right way' to present the information on your CV, but there are some common-sense guidelines you should follow.
CV layout guidelines
- Put your name clearly at the top. Use a large font, bold, and centre it at the top of the page.
- You don't need to write "Curriculum Vitae".
- Choose an attractive, professional font and stick to it. Don't fall victim to 'fontitis'!
- Use 11-point font or larger for the main part of your CV. Slightly larger is OK for headings. Slightly smaller is OK for contact details.
- Use bold text for emphasis (and headings) but avoid underlining or shaded boxes – they can look messy.
- Avoid large white areas.
- Don't waste space needlessly on addresses. They will not get you the interview; they just need to be clear. A smaller font, and addresses running across the page, will look neater and take up less space.
- Use bullet points.
- Use one or two full pages.
- Use a good quality printer and paper.
What to include
There are no hard and fast rules about what you should put in and leave out. However, the information you present should cover the following areas, although the order can be varied to maximise the impact.
- Personal Details
- Education and Qualifications
- Work Experience
- Interests/Activities
- Other Skills/Other Information
- Referees
Other possibilities include:
- Relevant Experience
- Awards
- Employment History
- Voluntary Experience
- Positions of Responsibility
- Other Achievements
Putting the information in order
- Make sure that the important, recent and relevant stuff stands out.
- If you have a fantastically useful piece of work experience, make sure that it is not relegated to the second page.
- Reverse chronological order generally results in the most relevant events in your life being near the top and therefore more noticeable.
Types of CV
CVs are commonly divided into two main types: the traditional CV – basically a chronological or reverse chronological account of your life - and the skills-based CV, which categorises your experiences by the skills you developed/demonstrated.
Traditional CV - recommended
Look at this example CV. Jennifer's achievements and experiences are presented in reverse chronological order. She describes her responsibilities and tasks in a factual way. She does not include her 'soft-skills' (communication, presentation, team-work, etc) here, but will use her covering letter to highlight areas of her experience where there is evidence for them.
Traditional CVs make it easy for potential employers to spot relevant information. They give a complete picture of a candidate in a clear and well-structured way.
Skills-based CV – use with caution
Here is another version of Jennifers CV - this time arranged to highlight the skills that she has developed. The work experience section is kept brief, and the details are presented in different skill categories.
A successful skills-based CV is much harder to achieve. There can be a lot of repetition, as many roles involve the use of a number of different skills and would therefore be included in several different sections. This often results in a confusing and repetitive document, from which potential employers find it difficult to extract the information they need. If you are going to use one, think carefully about what you want to achieve.
When might a skills-based CV be more appropriate than a traditional one?
Academic CV
CVs targeted at academic posts, such as postdoctoral researchers, lecturers and fellowships, usually follow the same basic pattern as those for other areas. They may also include sections on publications and presentations/conferences – usually detailed on additional sheets. The focus of the CV will be on those areas relevant to academia, such as research experience, teaching experience, any university/college administration or committee work and details of successful bids for grants and collaborations with other organisations.
Example academic CV
Targeting your CV
Targeting your CV at the organisation that you are interested in is enormously important. Don't fall into the trap of preparing one CV and sending it out to multiple employers. They do not appreciate it. This is where all the thorough research you did prior to applying must be put to good use.
- Find out what skills and experience the employer is looking for. Re-read the advertisement, read the organisation's website and publicity material. Make sure that you highlight areas of your experience that demonstrate that you have the qualities they seek.
- Get the tone right.
Covering Letters
- What is a covering letter?
- What to say in a covering letter
- Ten Top Tips
What is a covering letter?
Whenever you send off a CV, you should include a covering letter. The purpose of your covering letter is to highlight those areas of your skills and experience (on your CV) which make you particularly well-suited to the position for which you are applying.
If you were selling a Mini, you could advertise it as small and red with four wheels. A better way to attract a buyer would be to describe it as a nippy red car, that is cheap to run and easy to park. This illustrates the difference between a CV and a covering letter. Your CV should give the facts, while your covering letter markets your advantages.
Your covering letter is your opportunity to highlight the skills and attributes that make you suitable for the post.
What to say in your covering letter
The content and style of your covering letter is, of course, up to you. It is your document, and you may want to experiment with it. However, the structure itself must be sound. Here are some guidelines:
The opening
- Explain why you are writing
- If you are responding to an advert, say where you saw it
- Introduce yourself
Why this job?
- Explain why you are interested in the job and the organisation.
- This is where you should put all your research to good use – target the letter at the organisation. Make it clear that you have not simply sent out multiple copies of the same letter to different employers.
- If you can, say something original about the organisation.
- Explain what factors attract you to them – don't just repeat text from their publicity material.
Why you?
- Use the third paragraph to explain why you are well-suited to the position
- Refer to relevant skills, experience and knowledge that you have
- Try to avoid using exactly the same phrases which appear on your CV
- Match what you say to the requirements given in the job advertisement
The ending
- Reiterate your desire to join the organisation.
- Add a 'look forward to hearing from you'-type statement.
- Don't forget to sign it!
Ten Top Tips for a successful covering letter
- Do NOT exceed one page.
- Write to a named person – never Dear Sir/Madam.
- Check spelling – don't just rely on the spell-checker; get someone else to read it too.
- Don't use long words and complicated sentence structure just for the sake of it.
- Don't start every sentence with "I".
- Do give evidence for your claims.
- Be enthusiastic.
- End "Yours sincerely", and type your name and title under your signature.
- Use good quality A4 paper – no bright colours.
- Don't repeat your whole CV.
