Your Name: Key Skills
Your Name: Key Skills
Your Name: Key Skills
Your CV is a passport to a job interview so it needs to say enough about you to show the
recruiter that not only do you have the right skills and experience for their job, but also that
it is worth their time reading your CV and meeting you.
Use a clear font such as Arial, Calibri or Tahoma with a minimum of size 11 and keep your
CV to no more than 2 sides of A4.
Before you start, think about the type of job you might be applying for.
The profile needs to have enough of an impact on the person reading it for them to see that
it is worth their time reading the rest of your CV and it should not be a story of your career
history!
Then, say a little about yourself and the key qualities you have as a candidate
Solid technical knowledge balanced with an emphasis on positive customer service.
Able to establish strong relationships with young people and multi professional peers and
colleagues.
Write it in the third person e.g. An experienced and credible project manager able to scope,
plan and implement large scale projects within resource to high standards of quality.
Typically a profile would not be longer than 5-6 lines and people often find this the trickiest
so it can be helpful to write it last.
KEY SKILLS
Focus on skills that are required for the job you are applying for and are most important
Use the advert, job profile and any supporting information about the role, team and
company to help you.
Colleagues and managers can be an excellent source of information for key skills as they
often see our strengths better than we do.
Remember to include IT skills and highlight how you have used different packages.
CAREER
Start with your current role and work your way backwards
Keep the information relevant to the job you are applying for.
State the outcomes of your efforts to show how good you are and what impact you had.
Focus on what you have delivered in the jobs you have held.
Use achievement statements where possible that show either how you have successfully
done this before, or, show transferrable successes.
Don’t repeat things you have already captured in the key skills section.
Some examples:
Designed and delivered bespoke training courses receiving 4/5 average feedback
Reviewed the case management system to reduce time spent inputting case data
Managed a team of 8 business support staff to deliver individual and team objectives
Designed and implemented a complaints monitoring system, which reduced the average
resolution time from 8 to 3 working days.
It is not always necessary to include all of your early jobs, especially if you have had a
longer career and your early jobs are no longer relevant to the type of work you are looking
for.
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Name of qualification, where you did it Year obtained
Name of qualification, where you did it Year obtained
Put the most recent qualification or training first and include those relevant to the job.
Only include professional qualifications, training and education if they are different and
relevant to the job. Otherwise, you can combine them into one section.
TRAINING
Name of training, where you did it Year
obtained
Name of training, where you did it Year
obtained
EDUCATION
Name of qualification, grade/s, where you did it Year
obtained
Name of qualification, grade/s, where you did it Year
obtained
INTERESTS
This is an optional category and really up to personal preference. You may have interests
that are highly relevant to the role you are applying for in which case this could demonstrate
another set of relevant skills. For example, if you have previously been in general
management and are looking to start a career working with young people, time spent
running a youth group or leading a scout pack will be relevant.