TipTopJob Blog

Which CV layout is suitable for you?

Author: CV Knowhow, CV writing experts in CV Writing 

It’s a big enough decision to start thinking about putting together a CV. It could be the first time you’ve ever had to create such a document, or it might be years since you’ve had to apply for a job, so where do you start? A quick look online can bring up a huge variety of examples: different layouts; different sections; some with colour, and some without; and you never knew there were so many font styles to choose from! 

But which one is right for you? 

The point of a CV is to provide a prospective employer with just the right amount of information about your skills and qualities, in an easily accessible way, to make them want to find out more about you. From the first few seconds of reading your CV they will be able to either see you working with them or not. So, it is crucial to choose the right CV design which best reflects what you have to offer. 

There are 5 main styles of CV:

Resume

This is a single page CV, mostly used in the USA and Canada, and you would adopt this style if you are looking to apply for roles in either of those 2 countries. Its focus is on your skills and achievements within jobs and education, and, because of the space restrictions, being concise is absolutely the key to success here – every word counts. There is no room to include anything that is not totally relevant to the job role you are applying for, and so you must have a solid understanding of the skills and experience required to fully tailor your CV. This style of CV is also used for some jobs within the Financial sector – check with the employer if they require this style, if it’s not made explicit in the job advert or application guidelines. 

Skills Based CV

The clue is in the name! This CV prioritises your skills before listing your work experience or academic achievements. You provide a list of skills as headings, once again remembering the golden rule of targeting them to the requirements of the role you are applying for, and then give evidence, written in bullet points, of when you have used that skill, For example: 

Team Work: 
•Worked in a small team whilst employed at Fred’s Diner, supporting colleagues through flexible working and sharing best practice. 
•Achieved first place in a debating competition, working with fellow team members to develop a successful group strategy. 
•Supported fellow students whilst creating an IT presentation, sharing ideas and enabling others to express themselves coherently and concisely, resulting in achieving a group mark of 92%. 

The variety of examples here, taken from work and education, give an added depth to the CV. This style of CV is useful if you have undertaken a number of short term jobs and have generated a lot of work history within a small space of time, helping to package your information in a much clearer way. This is also the ideal CV style for career changers or those with a limited amount of work history, but other, equally valuable, experience from elsewhere, such as voluntary work – the evidence you provide to support the skill can come from anywhere! 

Chronological CV

This is a nice, ordered layout – taking an employer through your employment / academic history from the present day all the way back, reversing the chronological order. Usually, you would only provide information on the last 10 years of your work history – however, this rule isn’t set in stone, and it would depend on how much work experience you had accumulated and the value of what you have done in relation to what you now want to go on to do –remember to target the CV to the role requirements! This CV works wonderfully if you have a clear employment history within the same sector, and you are quite happy to stay in that same area, providing an obvious pattern of progression and achievement. 

Hybrid CV

This is a little more complicated, but is, actually, one of the main styles of CVs used. It has a foot in both camps, taking elements from the skills based and the chronological formats, spinning them together to create something new and very effective. This style of CV would have a Key Skills or Key Competencies section and / or a Key Achievements section, highlighting the targeted skills required by the employer or sector. Following these sections would be the chronological elements of work history and education. This is a particularly good style for highlighting, very concisely, those key targeted skills - use the job description and person specification to help you focus on the right vocabulary, reflecting the employer’s expressions within your CV. A small word of warning, though: take care not to add too many of these sections in: you don’t want it too complicated or run the risk of repeating yourself in the chronological sections. 

Academic / Medical CV

This is the only style of CV where size does not matter! There is no prescribed length for an academic CV – unlike the Skills based, Chronological and Hybrid, which usually can be no longer than3 pages. However, all the information still has to be relevant and concisely expressed – it is not a cart blanche to tell them every detail about your life! As it suggests, this style of CV is used by medics / post-doctoral students or academics looking to work within research or teaching at academic institutions. It allows you to include sections on research work; teaching experience; and publications. 

A final thought ………

So, knowing more about the different types of CV you can use should make it easier to pick the style most suited to your needs! Just remember, though, that you are not alone – help is always available at CVknowhow, where our consultants can advise on style as well as content. If you are wondering if your CV is right for you, submit for a free CV review here.

Latest research discovers that 44% of jobseekers have only ever put their CV together, just the once. Does this tell us that many jobseekers only compile their CV, apply for the one job and then are lucky enough to be offered it? Wouldn't that make job hunting easy!

Further to this, 34% have created somewhere between 2 and 5 CV's when applying for a job. This relates to the CV being varied according to the similar but different roles being applied for at the same time. 

13% have created more than 10 CV's - WOW! And 9% have put together between 5 and 10 CV's.

So, how many have you done? Have you found that you are re-creating many CV's so you only ever send one CV to one company? This is how we advise jobseekers to go about their job applications to ensure they are really targeting their applications according to the job and role. So if this is YOU, well done and keep it up! 

If you require some advice on putting together a new CV, head over to our Career Centre on the website. It has plenty of great articles to help with many topics surrounding CV writing. 

Results are as follows:
- Only once = 44.4%
- twice = 14.5%
- 3-5 times = 19.5%
- 5-7 times = 6.4%
- 7-10 times = 2.4%
- >10 times = 12.9%

Do you think it is important to know the background of your company? Do you even care? Or are you one of the 67% of people who DO know the history!

When applying for a new job and you are invited to an interview, it is hugely important to research the company, its owners, history, growth, changes, staff, its industry and anything else you can find out. An interviewer could well ask you questions surrounding the topic so it is good to have the knowledge for this reason but also because if you are applying for a new job there, you probably should have the desire to know what kind of company you could potentially be employed by.

Researching this kind of information helps to give you an insight into the culture, values, ethos, mindset, vision etc so can be useful in deciding whether it is the kind of company that would suit you!

33% of employees DO NOT KNOW their company background but what exactly does this mean? Does it mean they are bad at their job? Not necessarily. Maybe the culture, staff, values etc do not matter to them and they can perform their job without having to know anything more about the organisation itself.

Knowing the history of the company is definitely more important to certain industry sectors and employment levels, such as, Managing Directors, Project Managers, Account Directors and such like. 

We would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. What job do you do and do you know your company's history? Comment below.....

If you are currently putting together your CV but struggling to know where to start, we have a great article to read over in our Career Centre, titled "How to write a good CV".

A well-presented CV is vital in your search for a new job. It will not get you the job, but a good CV makes the difference between getting an interview and your application being thrown in the bin. With your CV being one of many, recruiters will only read it for a short space of time, so it is extremely important that it is structured clearly, with your best selling points presented in a logical manner and the most relevant information readily identifiable. 

Everybody writes and presents their CV as they like, there is no right or wrong way. However, with these words of advice we will help you produce a clear and concise CV that will increase your chances of being invited for an interview. 

The first part of the article addresses the Content of the CV. To begin, prepare a list of your key competencies and skills that your employer will be looking for. Be analytical about yourself and identify your main selling points that differentiate yourself from competitors. Head over to the article here, to see the list of content areas.

Then it goes onto the Structure & Presentation of the CV.

We hope it is a useful article for you and at least helps you get started on putting it together.

Do let us know if you would like to see any specific career-related articles from us.

Our partner, JobTestPrep, offer practice tests online to help you prepare for upcoming psychometric tests you may have and they also now allow you to check which tests may be most relevant to you categorizing them by profession. By clicking here, you can learn more about the different assessment tests for each.

This month, their featured product is a "personality test". Employers use these to help them choose the most suitable candidate for a position. You can find out more about these here.

JobTestPrep have put together a collection of material so you can practice according to specific needs. The PrepPacks follow the styles and characteristics of different job levels, test types, and leading test providers. Have a look here for some Aptitude Tests Preparation tips.

Some of their current best sellers include:
Matrigma Tests
Deductive Reasoning Tests
Aptitude Tests: Graduate/MGMT
Verbal Reasoning: Graduate/MGMT
Graduate/MGMT Numerical Reasoning
Numerical & Verbal Tests: Graduate/MGMT
Inductive Reasoning Tests
Aptitude Tests: Senior Management

You can find out more about these popular tests here.

If you are in the process of finding a new job and have a personality, psychometric or aptitude test approaching, it is worth taking some time to properly prepare and practice. We wish you the best of luck! 

Have you tried to connect to people on Linkedin but still find they will NOT accept your request? Maybe there is a genuine reason like they did not receive the email from Linkedn to let them know about your request or the person just has not logged into Linkedin yet. Either way you cannot do anything to overcome these factors but there are OTHER things you should definitely make sure you are doing so as to make sure you are doing everything you can in your power to achieve as many connections as you possibly can. So what can you control?

Your Profile
Is it complete? You need to ensure you have a current job title and history or people will likely not want to connect. A good quality photo helps, history of employment and endorsements will give you a level of value in others eyes. Try to complete as MUCH of it as you possibly can.

Your Message
Do not send a one size fits all message to the person you want to connect to. This will just look like you are trying to build the number of connections rather than show that you want to connect to that specific person. Do not use the default Linkedin message when connecting. Make sure you enter in the person’s name and address them properly. If there is any common ground between you, explain that along with why you want to connect. Make the message meaningful and show how your connection could be mutually beneficial.

Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar
This is always a huge factor in any professional documentation.

Company Loyalty
Having friends at work can increase a person’s loyalty to the company as it is a big factor in deciding whether to leave and move onto a new job or not. People are not loyal to a company but to the people they work with.

Get The Name Correct
Some people will ignore a request if you are unfortunate enough to make the mistake of getting their name incorrect. Double check who you are connecting with before sending your message.

Do Not Sell
If your connecting message, just introduce yourself and connect. Avoid discussing any products or services that you want to sell in this first message as it could well and truly put some people off accepting. It can also be a little off-putting for people to receive a sales pitch straight after a connection so just be careful how quickly you approach them in your follow up.

It may seem like you have to invest a little time into each connection but if you want to build a genuine relationship, this is vital. Do bear in mind though that some people will never connect to others unless they work with them or have worked with them and know them properly so do not be offended if you fail to achieve some connections. Just keep building by connecting and your network will certainly grow!

You can also find this article on our website.

We are pleased to announce that a number of new articles are now live on the National Hug Your Boss Day website. In our attempt to highlight relationship issues at work and resolve problems, we have written some advisory articles for you.

You will find articles for the managers/bosses and more for the employees.

Head over to the National Hug Your Boss Day website and click through to the "Motivational Articles" page. You will find articles on a multitude of topics, for example, "5 ways to manage your boss effectively", "How to deal with your employees office affair", "Clear signs that your boss is taking advantage of you", "10 things that really annoy your boss and solutions", "What behaviour is acceptable at work", "Sure signs you have a great boss" and more.

If you want to see something specific that we have not covered, please feel free to email us directly. We would love to hear from you. 

We hope we can help many of you out there to deal with relationship issues at work and make them better to allow your working life to be more enjoyable :) Let us know if we have helped you deal with or overcome anything.

Following on from our latest article on the 10 top tips for women on how to dress to get the job, it seemed fair to offer the same advice to men. There are common benchmarks for all, but here the main 10 top tips for men attending an interview…

1. Suit
Always try to wear a matching two-piece suit that is a subtle colour of grey, blue or back. Lairy pinstripes and bold colours can often give the wrong impression so try to avoid.

2. Alternative
If you do not have a suit or if the employer has specified no suits, then dark coloured trousers (grey, blue, black) with a light coloured long sleeved shirt and tie looks professional and smart.

3. Ties
Ties are an important accessory and allows a little colour to brighten up the outfit but avoid any bright colours or over the top patterns.

4. Shirts
Again when selecting your shirt, avoid any bold colours that can be distracting and give off the wrong impression. Shirts should have a collar and ideally long-sleeved and match the suit or trousers.

5. Belt
You do not want to be pulling your trousers up or showing your underwear so a smart, leather belt is suitable.

6. Socks
Again avoid anything bold by keeping to the dark colours.

7. Shoes
Likewise stick with dark or maybe a brown colour and ensure you have cleaned and polished them.

8. Hair
Make sure you have had a haircut and it is styled in a smart way. Do not over wax or groom though.

9. Facial hair
Avoid over grown beards or moustache hair by trimming the hair down so you are as smart as possible.

10. Finger nails
It is normal for women to make sure their nails are manicured and painted nicely but often this is over-looked by men. Make sure your nails do not have dirt underneath them and try to manicure them down so they are not sharp or over-grown.

By following these straight forward tips, you should not go wrong. You can check out the 10 top tips for women as well on this page and some general pointers for all here.

Read the article in our Career Centre here.

Have you read the article in our Interview Advice section of the Career Centre around the most common interview mistakes? If you have an impeding interview, it is advisable to read this advice to ensure you do not make them....as they are quite easy to make.

Here are the Top 5 mistakes but you can click through to the article to read the rest .....

1..
Talking negatively about anything in the interview - this can be about yourself, your current job and giving negative answers.

2..
Arriving late!

3..
Mobile phone going off.

4..
Being unprepared - in terms of the answers to common questions, e.g. what are your strengths, where do you see yourself in 10 years etc and in terms of the questions to ask at the end of the interview.

5..
Forgetting to do any research and attending without any knowledge of the company, what job you are actually going for etc.

Find the article by clicking on this link here: Most Common Interview Mistakes.

Are you after a pay rise or promotion? 

Whilst employed in any job, there are several things you can do to impress your boss to increase the chances of receiving a pay rise, further responsibilities or even a promotion into a new job.

Learn about your boss

By knowing what makes your boss tick, what their goals are and how they work, it will help you relate to them and understand how to work to make them happy. In general, individuals will work better with others if they know and understand them.

Trust

Show your boss that you can deliver what you say you can. Make sure you meet your deadlines and that you consistently complete tasks on time to a high standard. If you can do this, your boss will begin to trust you and rely on your ability to do the tasks you are set. Ultimately, your boss will assign you further responsibilities and you may be offered a promotion.

Rapport

By building a good relationship with your employer, you are more likely to work more productively and make your boss like you. Being friends with him/her and talking about your interests and hobbies will help to build up a good relationship. Always remember though, that they are still your boss!

Make your boss's job easy

As well as doing your current role, try to take the pressure off your boss by helping with additional tasks. If necessary, you may need to work longer hours in order to highlight your skills and abilities and really impress your boss. Try to resolve any problems they face or suggest new methods to issues that arise.

Work out what you are good at & enjoy your work

By organising your day and identifying what you are good at, you can work cleverly to impress your boss. If you can do things very well, then try to get involved in these tasks more to show you are extremely capable of doing them. If you are performing tasks that you are good at, you will enjoy your work more and as a result naturally be more productive.

Appearance and Presentation

Always turn up to work well presented and dress appropriately. You do not want to upset your boss by dressing down, wearing too much make-up or not being clean in the morning. If you can dress up smartly, you look professional and therefore approach your work in a more professional manner.

Acquire new skills and further knowledge

By going on courses and showing you are keen to learn and develop your skills, you will really impress your employer. Not only will this initially create an impact, but also it will give your employer confidence in your future skills and abilities, recognizing your enthusiasm to learn and develop. One of the best ways to secure a promotion is to expand your knowledge and skill sets. Ask your boss about courses, training or such like that will help advance your learning.

Keep up to date with current industry news

It is also known that those who want to succeed should keep up to date with industry news and events as well as interesting trends outside their own speciality. This can prove to be very useful to the company and by showing you are keen to research and keep to date with trends in the industry, you will no doubt make an impression on your boss.

Ask for more responsibility

By asking for more work, more responsibility or volunteering to help out in the department shows interest and desire to be there and to help the company succeed. This in itself will impress the boss.

Be a team player

Teamwork is invaluable to companies and a very important skill to possess. By showing you are a good, effective team player, you will build your reputation and increase your value.

We hope this was useful to you! Why not head over to our Working Life articles in the Career Centre where you can find more related articles?