Top CV Tips from our partners CV Writers

"Presentation is everything":
Formatting your CV

You have less than 10 seconds for your CV to make an impression. So how are you going to make sure your CV will get noticed? Here are some ground rules.

White space is good. Don't cram your CV with lots of information, let it ‘breathe'. The eye finds it much easier to focus on something when there is clear space around it. If there are too many words jammed into a small space everything is vying for your attention at once yet nothing actually grabs it. So, make the headings nice and clear and leave line breaks between sections. Oh, and there is no need to title it ‘curriculum vitae', just start with your name and contact details.

Ideally a CV should be one or two full pages. It doesn't look great to have lines running on to another hardly used page. There are lots of techniques you can use to manage space effectively such as dropping sections like Hobbies and Interests which are nice to have, but not absolute requirements. The skill in creating a great CV is to put just enough information to whet the appetite of the reader into thinking "I've just got to find out more about this person". There is no need to reveal how you take your coffee just yet.

Use a typeface that is easy to read - arial or tahoma are perfect. Don't try to use anything too fancy- it's important to think about whether the recipient will have the same font. If they don't, the CV will default to a basic courier text on their screen. Try not to use a serif (curved) typeface like Times New Roman. These can come across as dated and do not always reproduce easily if photocopied. Keep the point size to 11 or 12 and certainly no smaller than 10. Nobody likes squinting. And certainly don't use any colour other than black.

Remember - you have less than 10 seconds to make an impression. Make what you say count and give space a chance.

This article is written by CV Writers who offer a professional writing service and can be contacted at www.cv-writers.org.uk