Career Advice: CV Building

The CV is more important now than ever before: everyone needs a CV. Creating a good CV helps you to better understand your professional self, focus on your goals and learn how to sell the professional you. A good CV also opens doors, acts as a roadmap for interviewers and serves as your spokesperson long after you have left the interview.

Remember, this will be the first piece of information that a potential employer encounters regarding yourself so you need to ensure it's clear, concise and structured. One more thing... don't lie. This is a small world and you'll always be found out, usually at the worst possible time!

There are many different styles of CV out there but we've chosen the two main types to act as a template for you. Decide which one suits you best.

This is the most common and is best used when your work history is stable and your professional growth is constant. It is exactly what it sounds like: it follows your work history backwards from your current job, listing companies, dates and responsibilities.

This is best used if you've been unemployed for long periods of time, jumped jobs too frequently or your career has been stagnant and you want to jump start it. A functional CV is created without emphasising employment dates or company names and concentrates on skills and responsibilities. It is written with the most relevant experience to the job you're seeking placed first and de-emphasizes jobs, employment dates and titles by placing them inconspicuously at the end.