idealpeople blog

We spent some more time with the fantastic people over at the University of Northampton’s Career Service this week. It’s great to see a service which is both so visible within an academic insitution, and so effective in dealing with a very wide variety of enquiries. And we’re delighted to be able to help by providing advice and consultancy as part of their service.

This week, we ran one of the University’s CV clinics for soon-to-be graduates.

We’ve blogged extensively about CVs (you can find all the posts on the subject here, but we’ll be honest with you - graduate CVs are really, really tricky - primarily because generally graduates don’t have much professional experience to speak of.

However, this shouldn’t and doesn’t make the process impossible, provided you follow a few simple tips.

1 Remember what a CV is for
A CV is a sales document with the aim of getting you an interview for a particular job. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not a life history, it’s not as story and it’s not supposed to be purely “about you”. Any information that’s not going to help you win an interview is pointless.

2 Work out what your sales points are and talk about them
You’ve done a degree which is (hopefully) relevant to the job you’re applying for, so talk about it. Talk about your projects, what you’ve done and what you’ve achieved. Feel free to go into depth - this is normally your key sales point.

On this topic, don’t talk at length about the part-time job in McDonalds. Mention it, briefly. It’s not a sales point.

3Get the language right
Avoid using adjectives to describe yourself, unless you have proof to back it up. Almost everyone claims to be dynamic, and it means nothing unless you have hard facts to back it up. Try to use achievements to talk about yourself, rather than just subjective language.

Get the format right
Most CVs now are electronically stored and tables, boxes, headers and footers cause havoc. Avoid them. Keep the formatting simple and clean.

You don’t need to talk about your hobbies
At some point, the hiring company will want to get to know you - to find out whether or not you will “fit in”. This normally happens at interview stage, and no-one we know has ever used a CV to measure “cultural fit”. The only thing hobbies and interests on CVs do is potentially put people off, so don’t mention them - leave that information for the interview.

Good luck, and happy hunting!