CV Advice

As Recruitment Director at Escape Studios, Paul Wilkes knows what’s what when it comes down to what it takes to get yourself noticed by employers. Here Paul goes over a few things you should consider when putting your CV together.

Your CV is an important document in which you outline your skills and experience. There are no hard and fast rules, but while your portfolio should speak for itself, a CV is a crucial supplement, with important information for any prospective employer.

Name and contact details

Obviously this is pretty basic stuff – snail mail and email addresses, mobile and home telephone numbers. As with everything in your CV, do yourself a favour and double check everything. Numbers missing a digit or an incorrectly typed email address will not be a good start.

Profile

This is your chance to say who you are and what you want to do. Summarise what you’ve done (qualifications, experience), what you’re doing now and what you want to do in the future. This doesn’t all have to go on your CV, but it should go somewhere – a covering letter is a good place to include something of your ambitions. Be passionate but keep it brief.

Skills

List your technical and creative skills. These could show experience with specific software tools or detail proficiency in various disciplines.

Education

Outline your relevant qualifications with grades, locations and dates. Highlight any relevant projects, skills or experience gained. If you are a recent graduate, it is probably more appropriate to list education ahead of employment on your CV.

Employment

List who you’ve worked for, in what capacity, and over what time period. Don’t leave gaps in your job history, and even if you were doing something unrelated, you should include basic details. In roles where you have gained relevant experience, you should either list the specific tasks you did or summarise your role and the skills you used.

Interests

You don’t have to include this section, although if you have relevant or interesting hobbies or interests outside of your professional life by all means put them in. Remember though you may get asked about them at interview!

Other information

Again, this section isn’t required but can be included for you to outline any other relevant information.

References

Normally included two previous employers or, if you are looking for your first job, someone appropriate who can vouch for you.

Download a CV Template here.

For more advice you can get in touch with Paul directly.

[Images - Top Right: Aardman, Bottom Right: Flyboys/Double Negative]