Preparing Your CV

The prime purpose of presenting a CV to a prospective employer is to generate an interest in you which leads to an interview which in turn can lead to a job offer. Your CV, first and foremost has to convey the following :

• That you have a range of skills and abilities appropriate to your area of expertise
• That you have the interest, motivation, energy and enthusiasm to perform any job or activity that you undertake
• That you are flexible and adaptable
• That you will work well with your colleagues, managers, subordinates and customers
• That you have future potential in terms of the impact you can make on any organisation

You can choose to present your information using two different types or styles of CV:

• The Chronological CV which lists all the positions you held by date beginning with the most recent and working back to include all the positions you held. The emphasis is generally placed on your more recent experience i.e. the last 5 - 7. The advantage of this style is that it is conventional and is what employers are used to seeing. The disadvantage is that employment gaps are obvious and it may be difficult to extract what you key skills and characteristics are
• The Functional CV is presented in terms of specific job function rather than in chronological order. The advantage for you is that you can group skills and experience gained from several positions under one job function so it is easier for an employer to assess if you are right for their job function. The disadvantage is that the style may be confusing in that it doesn't plot the career progression of the writer in a conventional way.