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Purple House CV Guidance

There is a lot of hot air said about CVs, briefly put: Your CV is your marketing tool, in many cases this is the sole basis of the decision to interview by a prospective employer.

Your CV and covering letter must sell you effectively and at the same time provide key information that will enable you to obtain an interview - i.e. your package details, your notice period and why you are interested in the position and organisation. We have set out in a question and answer format our views and opinions regarding CVs and Covering Letters. Please contact us if you have any further questions or queries.

Answers

1. How to send your CV?
The world has moved on from the posted or faxed application and the majority of companies simply cannot handle your application on paper so it is likely to find its way straight to the recycling system.

Email is now the standard so send your CV in electronic format only, as a Word attachment as this is the standard that virtually everyone can work with. Don't get clever, zip files are tedious and unnecessary for a CV as are links to where your CV is on the internet. Don't send anything that requires downloading any software from the internet.

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2. Cover Letter Salutations?
Play safe, be professional, use of Dear and yours sincerely are entirely harmless. Standard business practice is to use first names, even if the receiver is a "surname" person they will be past taking offence at first names by now.

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3. Separate letter?
You can either attach your covering letter as a word document or set out your letter in the main body of the email. Do not put the CV and covering letter in one document.

The contents of the cover letter may include: current salary and salary sought; reason for seeking a position; why you are interested in this role and company. Availability for interview, if you don’t live locally to the role, make it clear that you are willing to relocate.

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4. What font /colours?
It needs to be easy on the eye, easy to read and not look "odd / wacky", it is a professional document. SO, use regular business fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial etc.

Break up the sections with the use of bold or different font sizes (not less than 10pt). Line separators are useful but try not to underline as can make the words harder to read.
As far as colour is concerned, don’t! Keep your CV to black or dark blue ink.

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5. How many pages? How much detail? What layout?
People get too concerned amount the number of pages and not enough about structure, consistency and achievements. The better the structure the easier it is for the reader to find the information they seek and skip what is irrelevant to them. Think about who is reading it; having a profile summary before well structured detail, caters for those who like to read paragraphed information. Don't assume people know who your employer is or what size it is, or what your job title means, so give a brief overview of both. Remember people employ you for what you have achieved not what your responsibilities are so make a list of achievements in your last two roles.

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6. Profile Summary?
Think about the person who will be reading you CV, what style will they like. Some people like having bullet point structure, others like to read block text. Having a profile summary before the well structured detail caters for those who like to read paragraphed information, those that don't simply bypass it.

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7. Date format?
Should you include month and year? Yes, just quoting years suggests that you are covering something up. To the experienced eye it is what is missing from a CV that can say more, thus missing months can lead to the assumption of career gaps.

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8. Current salary and salary sought?
These are best within a covering letter, they vary frequently with the passage of time and each position considered, so that putting them with a definitive CV document is not advised. Not enclosing these is simply not being pragmatic, the person reading the CV needs to know if they can afford you, you really don't want to waste their time if you're out of budget range.

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9. Order of employment?
Reverse order, place your current job first, the prospective employer is most interested in what you are doing now. This should be the most detailed section, unless it is a brief /interim position.

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10. Outline of business?
The number of CVs which leave one with the thought "just what does that company do, and what job does the person do for the company!" are legion. Don't assume people know what your employer does or what your job title means, give a brief overview of both.

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11. Reason for leaving?
It is a key question for your current role and can be stated in a covering letter. If you have had a close succession of positions then it becomes an issue, you want clear and understandable reasons. Some quick pointers:

• Moving for greater financial remuneration - be open about it, if you are underpaid and someone else is going to give you 10% plus more, then this is straight forward, understandable stuff.


• Relocation. Yes, as long as the employer is convinced that your motivation to relocate is sound and that you intend to stay in this location.


• Seeking a different role. Yes, as long as you can justify why and what you perceive to be the benefit. Products, job location, customers etc. can all come into this.


• Redundancy. Yes, but qualify it; why you and how many others. Ideally you were offered something else and declined.


• Personality conflict. Maybe, it can happen to us all – once. However it does raise the question of how the difference arose; could it happen with the new employer, and even worse, has it happened previously?


• Career move / advancement. A highly irritating pseudo reason, when it is obvious there is nothing progressive about the move. It is a fudge over the real reason, which is usually that you are seeking more cash.


• Career breaks. Children; the world does it, not a problem. Travelling; immediately after education is no problem. If you have broken your career to undertake travel then you can expect a hard time. Questions relating to: why did you decide to go traveling now, why if you were a good employee did they not hold your job open. An interviewer may well think that the "travel" covers an untimely exit from your previous employer.


• Personal reasons. Depends what they are, the commercial world can be a hard place, it usually expects you to hold it together and/or your current employer to be accommodating.

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12. Key Achievements?
Yes, yes, yes. You cannot give enough of them; this is why the employer will want to take you on. They should be listed under each job role, for if they are listed at the beginning of the CV, they are somewhat meaningless due to not being placed in context. NB. Please do not list training course completion as an achievement. Focus on appraisal reports, how you've added/improved the business.

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13. Job Content?
Break it down split it into chunks with headers

• Who are your customers?


• For what products are you responsible?


• Where are you based/ which geographical areas do you cover?


• What is the team environment in which you work?


• Who reports to you?


• What budgets you control?

Make it easier for someone to pick out the parts they want to focus on and understand what you do.

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14. Personal Details?
Date of Birth. Nationality. Family details. It's becoming less and less "Politically Correct" to incorporate these and we also have to consider the up and coming Age Legislation. Your evidence of your ability to undertake the role, rather than assumptions drawn from personal detail, is fast becoming recruitment best practice.
Some helpful notes:

• Age: It is currently illlegal to discriminate on grounds of age, therefore you should not include your date of birth on your CV.


• Sex: This is no longer credible on a CV. (but don’t put yes please!)


• Nationality: What is really required is your UK working status, UK or EEC nationality immediately indicates this. Other nationalities have to make clear their UK working status.


• Marital status: No longer necessary and as such an optional, you can use it to try to reinforce stability in location, necessity of income and hence job stability.


• Children: same as marital status, possibly useful if returning after career break, the importance is that child care arrangements are in place so that you can make the required commitment to the role you are taking on.


• Location: Where seeking employment, usually a dead give away by your address! And hence, does not require further clarification if you are not willing to move. However, if you are willing to relocate, you need to make it clear to which areas and your reasons.


• Photograph: People should not be employing you for how you look. However, it could be said to give the employer a pause for thought that this CV is a real person rather than another mountain of paperwork. If you do enclose a photograph make sure it is business professional, shows that you wear a suit well, are business conservative with regard to hair style etc. However, many recruiters don’t like photo’s.


• Sickness Record: Not relevant at this stage but if you’ve had a lengthy period off sick, you need to judge when to mention it.


• Interests / Hobbies: This is such a minefield, that if you are established in a career it is recommended that you avoid these as they are of little positive relevance. If you are commencing your career then your hobbies and interests may be a source for showing your competency to undertake the role.


• Education: Give detail in the later qualifications, not so detailed in the earlier. e.g.


• Degree, if no classification it will be assumed that you got an ordinary or a 3rd.


• What is the point of GCSE grades when you have a degree? Don’t list your grades or subjects


• A level / Higher grades, if you are moving into a first role post university, these grades are significant, employers are losing faith in degree classifications as the variance from different institutions is enormous. ‘A levels’ / ‘highers’ are the last levellers across the UK currently.


• Languages: If you are applying for a job where they may be required, otherwise why?


• IT Skills: The expectation is that everyone can use a keyboard, mouse, word processor and spreadsheet and will only need training on bespoke software. If a particular IT skill is asked for as essential then do list it.


• Training Courses: Relevant to the position applied for.


• Professional Bodies: Relevant to the position applied for.


• Driving Licence: If the job comes with a car or may require you to drive – YES! Full details are sought on convictions and any that are pending!

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15. References?
Will always be requested when a job offer is to be made, there is no requirement to place on a commercial CV – they just waste space. Just state ‘References are available on request’ – have them ready to give if asked and clear this with referees in advance.

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