Initially, I would strongly suggest you add a first line in to explain what the company does, which will help in explaining what your role is. Then elaborate in bullet points what you do. I look forward to receiving the finished product.
Please take a look at the attached - they are for ideas only! DO NOT JUST COPY - some bits are good, some bad - read them, see what you feel is good and what is missing. (Do you understand this person? does it make you want to keep reading??)
It would be helpful to see what you are and your best technologies in the introduction part.
Always remember that the Manager who will be looking at your details will be busy and have dozens of CV's to look through - so yours needs to attract his attention at the beginning and keep him interested as he reads.............
Show what you are from the start! Sort of like you were looking for a house - London , 3 bed semi, £250k..... blah blah
Not - new bathroom, new under stairs toilet, 17 x 12 lounge, beautiful views - oh by the way, it's in Siberia ....!
As we read left to right and top down, typically, we place more importance on things at the beginning of a list - these are considered to be of more importance/strength than something at the end. (Just keep this in mind).
Your intro at the start - think of it a bit like if you were standing up to talk to an audience introducing yourself - don't ramble on , stuff like 'good team player' should be avoided as I have never seen anyone say 'Not a good team player'
i.e.
I am a client facing, senior software engineer with 7 years commercial experience. My core skill is OO software development using C++ on Unix.
NOT
I am a really nice person who works well in a team and on my own and can do most things as well as walking my dog and talking to strangers!!! (They think - So what? what are you, why do I want to keep reading your CV?)
Overall, keep it 'Punchy' and do not be afraid to say good things that you did.
Do not try to pad out or include irrelevant details such as 'Occasionally helped office junior fill fax machine' or 'Assisted support team during sickness and holidays' - unless you want to be a support person or fax machine filler......................
Write in 'first person' - I did this, that, the other. Not 'He did this' etc (makes you sound as though you are very old or had to get someone else to write your CV for you)
Keep it simple - 11pt font for main text and 12 pt headings, use of italics for a secondary heading sometimes looks good.
Personally I think the use of the CV templates waste a lot of time and paper.
Margins - you can go out as far as about 20 mm left and right, same top and about 15 mm at the bottom.
Layout needs to make it easy to read and follow - simple, consistent formatting helps achieve this.
Education - if good, consider putting it on the front page - this is a personal choice for you, but always include years and degree grades (If you don't, people assume the worst)
Skills list should include number of years commercial experience.
Absolute max 3 pages ideally only two. (No decent manager has time to read a book) Reverse chronological order.
No date gaps - if you had a break, tell people what you did Include date of birth, Nationality, Visa status if applicable and Marital status
Jobs need to Include:
Dates from and to MM/YY - overall dates, if you have had several jobs within the same company, make sure the initial line covers the whole period, then separate below if applicable.
Company Name
Your position - this may not be your official title, but a title that accurately describes your work.
Brief overview of what the company did/does and (if applicable) what your dept did. This needs to be straightforward to understand, try to avoid market specific jargon at this stage.
Follow this with a detailed description of what you did - including technologies and how these were used. As this is the guts of your work be technical. This bit needs only to be fully understood by your potential boss...... (If he can't understand what you have written - will you want him as your boss??) I, for example, would expect to be able to glean the importance / complexity of your work - but may not fully understand the detail.
(But you never know - I may surprise you...)
If any work was consultancy project based, overview of your main projects, length, value and size of team, description of exactly what you did on the project, including main technologies used. Make sure the projects are in order of relevance/difficulty/size - don't put a simple 3 month HTML project first!
At the end 'Excellent references available' - do not include their names. Peoples details are private - I would not want my personal details banded around. (Make up a separate sheet that you can take to interviews / send if requested)
Before you finalise it, check the document language is set to English (UK) and spell check it carefully, print it out and have a look at the general layout - does it look 'nice' ?? Take that bit of extra care - silly mistakes, misspellings? smack of laziness / carelessness which in this market, could easily get you rejected.
Also consider these pieces of paper (your CV) could be worth £30 / 40 / 50 THOUSAND pounds.......... and peace of mind, doing something really interesting - think about it!
