Choosing the perfect CV

I recently contacted the National Careers Service, an organisation that helps you get the most of your jobseeking and find the right position for you. So for anyone who’s interested here I share some of the tips they gave me, keeping in mind always that we are talking about an English CV, different from the Spanish one.

CV formats

You can use different formats of CV to draw attention to your strengths, target a particular job and communicate your career aims (for example, change career, get a promotion).

Here are some CV formats you might like to think about using:

Targeted CV

You might use a targeted CV to:

• aim for a specific type of job
• change career
• highlight skills you have but don’t use in your current job
• emphasise your skills rather than your past jobs – if you have had a lot of jobs or if you’ve not worked for a while.

In a targeted CV, you list your skills and achievements in a separate section, not in the employment section. Targeted CVs stress the skills and experience that are directly relevant to a specific job. You can keep different versions of this type of CV if you’re applying for more than one type of job.

Performance CV

You might like to use a performance CV if:

• you want to highlight your career progression
• your last employer is well-known by the company you’re applying to
• you want to stay in the same line of work.

A performance CV is the most popular type of CV and focuses attention on job titles and company names, starting with your most recent job. Under each job title you list your duties and achievements. You may want to split employment record details if you gained promotion within the same company.

Functional CV

You might consider using a functional CV if:

• you’ve had a varied career
• you want to change career
• you’ve got gaps in your employment history
• you want to emphasise skills you have but don’t use in your current job.

In a functional CV you promote your skills and achievements in four to six ‘functional headings’. These headings should be geared towards the skills you need for the job you want.

I think this is quite a useful information because as they told me you need to get the employer’s attention in just 20 or 30 seconds so you better have an outstanding CV that explains clearly why they should choose you.  Here you have more information about it CV formats

I still haven’t made up mind yet about which one would suit me the best but I’ll let you know if it works!!