The perfect CV is a concise 2-page document that clearly demonstrates your abilities and strongest attributes to motivate employers to interview you. It shows your achievements and results, relevant experience for the job, and professional development. When compiling a CV, take time to draft it well and focus on differentiating yourself from other candidates through your accomplishments rather than just listing job descriptions. Get feedback from others to identify any selling points you may have overlooked.

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2. The Perfect CV The perfect CV is a concise and well written communication that clearly demonstrates your ability to produce results and describes your strongest attributes in a way that motivates employers to interview you. CV is not your biography. It is your prospectus for the future .

4. Target Selected Employers Your CV is a directed communication to a particular audience: - employers whom you have selected as meeting your qualifications. Yes, we see you in the driver’s seat in your career. You select job/company targets that match your career interests, skills and qualifications – and pursue them. The CV is designed to communicate specifically to that audience and to no other – as a ‘ live’ document it needs constant revision.

5. Building the Branding CV When compiling a CV there are a number of points that should be taken into account: An effective CV cannot be compiled in 30 minutes. It will take several drafts to get the CV right so don’t sell yourself short with a quickly drafted document. Avoid reproducing a series of job descriptions as your work history. This is of little value to the prospective employer and will not help your cause. A CV written by someone else may help you to get called to an interview but make sure you are very familiar with the content and comfortable talking about each point. A four or five page CV will not act as an effective marketing tool. Try to reduce the CV to two well-written pages. Be thorough and creative looking for ways to differentiate yourself.

7. Finally, checking the quality of your CV Get a friend or colleague who knows you well to look at your CV and ask them if it adequately describes you. You may find that they will help you identify selling points that you have overlooked.

8. Some Common CV Writing Mistakes Too Long (preferred length is two pages – i.e. resume form of CV). Disorganised – information is scattered around the page – hard to follow. Poorly typed and printed – hard to read – looks unprofessional. Overwritten – long paragraphs and sentences – takes too long to say too little. Too sparse – gives only bare essentials of dates and job title.

9. Ten Most Common CV Writing Mistakes Not oriented for results – doesn’t show what the candidate accomplished on the job Too many irrelevancies – height, weight, sex, health, are not needed. Misspellings, typographical errors, poor grammar – CV’s should be carefully proof read before they are printed and mailed. Tries too hard – fancy typesetting and binders, photographs and exotic paper stocks distract from the clarity of the presentation. Misdirected – too many resumes arrive on employers desks un requested and with little or no apparent connection to the organisation – cover letters would help avoid this.