Personal Details

Full Name... Address....
Tel No (s)...
Status....email...
Car owner/driver...languages...
Hobbies (optional)...

Qualifications

School... Qualifications....Dates...
College... Qualifications....Dates...
University... Qualifications....Dates...
Professional... Qualifications....Dates...

(If study, say where you are at and dates and papers of next exams to sit).

Other Courses

Name and dates

(could be in-house courses of any duration, include systems and PC courses too!)

N.B. If you have taken a first aid course, mention this as companies have to pay to put people through this training.

Systems Skills

Optional but useful to list software used - often an employer is looking for a specific package.

Resume

A sentence to explain your past.
A sentence to say where you are now.
A sentence to say where you are going and what skills you have to offer.

If space is available - and if possible, start your employment details here too.

Name of Company ...Type of Company and Size e.g. candle manufacturer t/o £10m or Customer Service Centre 5000 employees

Dates including months

Position

Salary (don't list all your benefits just put + benefits or + car + benefits if applicable.

Report to (title not name of person!)

Responsibilities

• Bullet point and quantify

For example:

• IT support x number of users supporting x systems
• Wages preparation - 50 weekly, 100 monthly, SSP, SMP, pensions + manual starters, leavers
• Word processing - letters, memos, accounts, confidential documents
• Support to customers - receiving approximately 100 calls a day, answering queries, relating to xxx, passing on more indepth calls to supervisor
• Legal administration - preparing all court documentation relating to claims requiring dispute resolution - binding and circulating. Accuracy of information is paramount.
• Advising clients re the status of their business - visiting clients, preparing SWOT analysis, interviewing staff, producing full balance sheet and cashflow forecast prior to producing full business plans with deadlines and measurable targets.
• Evaluating systems - troubleshooting ailing or old systems, preparing reports for implementation of new systems with narrative on costs and benefits
• Design of company brochures - exchanging ideas with clients, prototyping proposed designs, suggesting fonts, materials, size and impact on their clients
• Use of french language - liaising with customers in the key European companies advising on product lines, dispatch days, resolving queries and interpreting key commercial documents for the MD.
• Sales presentations - producing in various formats, slides in PowerPoint with images, documents up to 12 pages, graphics, pie charts, and examples of proposed advertising campaigns.

Achievements

• Successfully implementing new xlog system for whole company. Project time of six months. In addition trained all 30 users.
• Successfully reduced debtor days from 120 to 75 within two months of joining company
• Successfully catalogued partners 12 month case studies within three months of assuming this newly appointed role
• Successfully persuaded my boss to delegate tasks rather than endeavour to do all himself - e.g. emails, draft contracts, etc.
• Successfully turned a £20m t/o company from being forced to close following bank pressure by successfully negotiating new finance package over a three year period.

Next is systems used - if not put on front of form.

Systems

• Excel reporting usage
• Unix based bespoke systems and all Microsoft office based products including Access, Excel, Word and PowerPoint.

Do this for jobs of 2 years and duration.

If you have been with one company for a number of years but have held different roles within that company - split the roles and mention bullet points for each role or achievement for each role with current position being in full as explained previously.

For roles over 10 years just simply bullet point them - for example:

• Dec 1990 to Jan 1992 - JK Lynch - Building Company - Office Manager General office administration, ledgers and weekly payroll
• Oct 1986 - Nov 1990 - Lynch's Supplies - Clerical Assistant General admin for busy office supplies company.

And so on if applicable

End

Optional to put names of referees - not really necessary though - this is personal choice.

Finally the look of your CV

• Not too small a print
• Not squashed
• Not on any coloured paper except professional white (not cheap paper!)
• Not a photocopy
• Not bound or put in a folder - just a plain and simple CV
• Never use etc. anywhere!
• Use bold effectively and consistently but not too much

Tell the truth - remember if you secure a job on false information you will soon be found out and ousted!

Always keep a copy somewhere - then when you have to inevitably update it or apply for a public or voluntary office - you have something to add to. Unfortunately school days and school results soon fade in the memory!

GOOD LUCK - Would you like us to review your CV and make suggestions? Email us ju@johnsonunderwood.co.uk and we'll help you.