Tips for writing a cv

I would recommend the following amendments to your CV:
1.       Change the CV completely from a chronological CV to a skills based CV.  For this type of CV, you need to build a skills profile based on your accountancy skills which should appear just before your employment history.  When you add your employment history, do not mention the skills you use in your current job, do not mention the skills you use for this job in your skills profile.
2.       When you write your employment history, just add the employers’ names, the dates you worked there, a short sentence about the company, i.e.: size, markets and what they do; it would also be a good idea to insert hyperlinks to employers’ websites so others can see what your employers’ do/have done.
3.       You should mention your Masters in Economics and your current studies for your AAT in your profile and your education should follow your employment history.
4.       You need to build a much more comprehensive list of accounting skills than your CV already contains, for instance, id you run a purchase ledger, how many invoices do you raise a month, how many cheque runs do you operate, are you responsible for reconciling the ledger, do you take it to trial balance and so on………….the more detail you add, the greater your chances of success.
If you follow the above recommendations, your CV will be a much more comprehensive and informative document.  I would also recommend the following layout guide:

1.       Profile
2.       Professional Skills
3.       Achievements
4.       Employment History
5.       Education and Professional Training/Associations
6.       Languages
7.       Additional skills, which should incorporate I T Skills, Interests, Drivers’ License, Availability and References.

If you need more help with your CV or would like to have your CV re-written by a professional, do contact me as I will be able to help you.  My website: www.justaccountancyjobs.com holds a great deal of infor,mation on how to write a good CV as well as pointers for writing a Cover Letter.

Good luck, and I wish you every success in achieving your career goals

“My management accountant cv is not being shortisted”, Ask Sam … calls in resident cv expert Paula Capelli from CVWizards to help

Dear Sam I am looking for an Assistant   Management Accountant job  but my cv is not getting me shortlisted, can you help ?  …….. Alan
 
Dear Alan, Thank you for forwarding your CV to us for a review.  Before you get into the body of my response, please take my comments objectively, I can be very candid, but it is not my intention to upset or cause offence. 
 
CV’s can always be improved and there is no right or wrong way to present or market your skills and experience, but provided you follow the “storyline” ethic, i.e.: an introduction, a body and a conclusion, then you’re on the right track, but what you say about your skills and how you manage responsibility in your CV is crucial to getting the right response.
 
Appearance
With the economy the way it is right now, there are thousands of people looking for work and only a few jobs available in comparison; consequently, you need to make your CV look different and stand out from the crowd.  Everybody uses either Arial or Times New Roman fonts, use something different.  There are lots of fonts that you could use, but some of the ones that I use are: Trebuchet, Microsoft Sans Serif, Franklin Gothic Book,Verdana, Book Antiqua and Calibri.  Any of these is infinitely more interesting and they have the potential to make your CV look less crowded and much more professional. The layout you’ve chosen is not bad, but the font and use of headings makes it less than easy to find what I want, compared to other CV’s.  Besides which, you have use headings indiscriminately which causes confusion and this makes the CV harder to read. 

You need to make your CV into a very plain and easy to read document, the arrows and too many headings make your CV look complicated. The margins that you’ve used are odd, making the first page of your CV look very crowded.  Documents which are even all the way around are viewed more effectively – a good analogy is the human face, the even the features the more attractive the face looks, it’s just the same with a document.  Your margins should be equal all the way around and I would suggest you use 1.5cm top and bottom and left and right.
 
There are lots of problems with the way that you’ve tried to segment information into the various sections of your CV.  The bullets are much too big and I am sure that you could find something that looks more professional.  Always use simple additions and symbols; use straightforward layouts, do not use templates, everybody else does, aim to be different.  Besides this, 75% of CV’s written by applicants are based on templates. Templates aren’t wrong, but they are very dated and out of touch.
 
Content
There isn’t a lot wrong with the content of your CV, however, you’ve shot  yourself in the foot by adding details about each of the temporary jobs that you’ve held. 

Whilst it’s important to show that you are keen to work and will do anything to ensure that you are able to meet your commitments, you only need to add the very basic details.  Since the jobs that you’ve held so far are intended only to support you, it would be better if you could amalgamate them and add a section to your CV that deals specificallywith part time work whilst studying, it’s then up to the reader if they want to read it or not.  Right now, your CV layout suggests that it’s important for the reader to read everything on your CV, whereinfact the reader could just flick over less important information.  This will also reduce the length of your CV quite significantly.

The order of information and the importance of each section needs to be addressed.  Once you’ve worked on the the importance of information, the layout should be easier for you to manage.
 
Additions
A CV is like a story, your CV needs a beginning, a middle and a conclusion………..your CV definitely has a middle and an end, but the introduction is being confused with what you want out of your initial career.
Add an Introduction/Profile.  Take the “objective” out of your Objective and talk about personality traits and skills, things that you can offer to an employer. 

Remove the Objective from your CV.  Objectives are now very passé on CV’s, especially on graduate CV’s.  Telling an employer what you want before they can decide what you’ve got to offer them is quite aggressive, besides, your current objective doesn’t really say anything revealing beyond the usual waffle that most people put on their CV’s.  If you haven’t got anything profound to say, don’t say it!
 
Add an Achievements section.  Tell a propective employer about what you are good at, things that stand out in your life, plus points, all the psoirive things that make you who you are.  Sell yourself.  Your CV is your chance to market you, use the opportunity to tell employers and recruiters why its in their favour to to employ you rather than anyone else.  If your CV is confusing, boring, unsure, waffles or any of the other things which I’ve mentioned previously, then you are not marketing yourslef and your skills effectively.
 
Add a Languages section.  You’ve mentioned two different language skills in two different places onyour CV – put them together under their own heading, but put it towards the end of the CV as they will not profoundly affect your application for work in the UK unless you intend to find a job that requires a specific bilingual capacity.
 
I am assuming you want to pursue a career in Accountancy because you are part-qualified ACCA, and require further exposure to management accounts to complement your academic study. You are obviously looking at accountancy recruitment sites, for Assistant Management Accounts jobs, but although you have some management accounts exposure you have not included this on your cv.  Although you don’t have this in depth, its worth showing this on the cv. You also need to highlight the fact that you are part-qualified, why have you put:  ACCA Accelate Student in the last but one section of your CV?  High-light the things that help to promote your job application and put them in obvious places not as an afterthought!
 
Overall, your CV is not bad, but it could be so much better and, with a  little thought, could be made to be so much better by following the points I’ve mentioned above.   If you need more help or if you have specific questions, please do call or email me, I’m usually in my office between 8am and 9pm Monday to Friday.
 
Best regards and kind wishes
 
 
Paula Capelli MBA, MCIPD

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Is it a good idea to have more than one CV so that it is tailored to individual jobs?

Is it a good idea to have more than one CV so that it is tailored to individual accounts jobs?  George A, London

Sam Walpole writes:

Hi George,

Having more than one CV is probably not the best idea unless you have 2 radically different career paths you are considering. However, reasonable tailoring of CV detail is not a bad thing, you have the ability to do this and set up two profiles, with altered cvs on our jobsboard. Clearly not every aspect of every role can be detailed on your CV, so adding in relevant information can be a good idea particularly if there is a mandatory aspect to the role that you have covered but not included on the CV. Equally, highlighting areas that are more pertinent to a role is acceptable, provided there is no exaggeration. Most of all, the golden rule is the CV has to tell the truth. Changing dates, missing off jobs etc are no-no’s. Truthful but tailored!

If you want some tips on CV writing, here is a useful link:  http://www.justaccountancyjobs.com/CV-Writing-Advice

Or for JustAccountancyJob members  get your current cv rated  click here

Good luck.