Your CV

This is a very important document; with it rest your hopes and dreams for the future – that next step up the career ladder, a better position, more money, new challenges, etc. Your CV therefore has to represent the best you have to offer if you do not want to miss out on that job you saw which was ‘perfect’ for you. Remember – it is your sales pitch to securing you that all important interview!

Getting started

First, start with plain, business-like white paper. Your CV should be attractive because of its content, not the way it looks. Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman, Arial or Verdana. Keep the use of block capitals and italics to a minimum.

Type your name – first and last, no middle names – across the top. Shortened names like Nick and Abi are fine, but nicknames like Tiger and Bubbles will give the wrong impression!

After your basic personal details (name, address, contact details, date of birth, etc), write a short personal profile about who you are and what you are aiming for – something along the lines of:“Recently qualified accountant with two years post qualified experience from a large blue chip manufacturing company. Keen team player with excellent communication and leadership skills, and strong IT skills including SAP, Oracle and Sage Line 100 ”

Qualifications, Language and IT Skills

Start with the most recent qualification first and work backwards. Start with the dates between which you studied for the qualification (month and year is usually sufficient), followed by the name of educational establishment and then the qualification and class. Be sensible with the relevance of information you include. If you have a degree, or accountancy qualification, you don’t need to list all your GCSEs and the grades you achieved. However if you are just embarking on your career in accountancy having just qualified AAT, it would be appropriate to mention GCSE and A’ level success.

List all of your language skills. The North-west has a growing need for language speakers, particularly European, and this will make your CV stand out from the crowd. Include levels of fluency (basic, intermediate or advanced).
Also list your IT skills and systems that you have used. Try to remember particular versions of systems that you have used (for instance, ‘SAP R/3’ instead of just ‘SAP’, or ‘SAGE Line 100’ instead of just SAGE). When including software like MS Excel, make clear your level of proficiency, eg. Macros and Pivot Tables.

Experience

Begin with your current or most recent job and work backwards. Include your dates of employment (again, month and year will suffice), name of company and a small description (eg. £30 million turnover national logistics company).
Your experience and key achievements should be listed in bullet point format (around 15 – 20 bullet points per job). Your first bullet point should be ‘a nutshell’ description of your role, including your reporting line for example:

• Reporting directly to the Finance Director, managing a team of 5 part qualified accountants and ensuring the effective running of the Finance department.

OR

• Reporting directly to the Purchase Ledger Manager and working in a team of 3, responsible for maintaining and reconciling a purchase ledger of 200 suppliers.
This should be followed by a breakdown of your role. It is often easier to do this by breaking down your weekly and monthly cycle – start at the beginning of the month and think of everything that you do. Candidates with more senior level experience should concentrate on challenges and achievements, and projects that you have been involved in.

Wherever possible, quantify your achievements and daily duties by giving a number, a percentage or a value – such as “match, batch and code 200 invoices per week”, or “re-engineered accounting process’ to reduce month end cycle from 12 to 9 days”.

Optional extras

Interests and hobbies – this is a popular optional feature on CVs. If you include a list, make sure each item is interesting or indicates skills transferable to the workplace. Don’t exaggerate your favoured pastimes or include mundane ones – “watching TV” is not a valid interest.

References – if you have the space to include this, then do. Otherwise it is sufficient to include a statement to say that references are available on request.