– How to approach general questions

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The number of pages should be limited to

2

. Your ability to be concise and only highlight your most relevant skills and qualifications is revealed through your CV. If your CV is more than two pages, the HR person may think ‘this person is unable to express themselves clearly and concisely; this is not the kind of person I want working in my company’.

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The most common order is outlined below.

1.name

2. personal details

3. objective / personal statement / executive summary

4. education

5. work experience

6. skills

7. personal interests

8. publications

9. references

You should keep in your mind what exactly a company is looking for. They clearly want to see the evidence on your CV that you are qualified in terms of both education and work experience for the position that they have open. But they also want evidence that you:

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have a strong work ethic and that you work to meet deadlines (even under stress)

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can work in a team and are easy to get along with

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are both proactive and flexible

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have the technical, emotional and analytical skills for problem solving

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can give effective presentations

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have good communication skills

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can write reports and other kinds of documents

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are enthusiastic and passionate about what you do

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are professional, reliable, well mannered and appropriately dressed

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would fit in well with the company – both in terms of the environment and the core values

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You need to inject each section of your CV with evidence that you have the above attributes.

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You shouldn’t send the same CV to different companies. You need to tailor your CV for the specific post you are applying for.

You could start by drafting a CV that contains everything that anyone could possibly find relevant and interesting. Don't be afraid of the number of pages it might require. You then adapt this draft CV to make it look as if it was specifically written for that particular company

Adaptation consists of:

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deleting anything that doesn't sound relevant. This does not mean removing whole parts from your Education and Work Experience sections, but simply removing elements that are not important for this particular job. This means that you should highlight the key qualifications that you could bring to the post you are applying for.

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modifying the text to make sure that it includes evidence of the skills that you will need for the post you have applied for

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changing the layout and/or font so that it reflects the same graphic style as the company where you want to work

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in order to get in a short list you should use a standard format / layout, i.e. a format that a recruiter will have seen hundreds of times before and will thus be very familiar with, rather than a format that is completely new for them and which will thus be more difficult to navigate

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make good use of headings

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use plenty of white space

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ensure that you have not tried to include further information simply by reducing the font size (10 pt should be the minimum)

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find out everything you can about your chosen company, and see how you can match the kind of jobs they have on offer (if you are writing cold, i.e. not in response to an ad) or the specific job (if you are responding to an ad)