Your CV Checklist

You want to showcase your work experience, career history, and achievements as best you can.

When you’ve written your CV, go through this checklist to see that you have adhered to our guidelines on creating the best possible CV.

Review your CV against the following questions:

Appearance

• Is it no more than 2 pages? (Only go over 2 pages if you feel it is not detailed enough.)
• Is it in A4 paper format?
• Are the margins, headers and footers all close to standard size?
• Is it well typed?
• Have you used a standard style throughout the document?
• Is the font size large enough and is there sufficient white space?

Content

• Is the CV format used the best one, given your circumstances?
• Are the details provided focused enough on our achievements?
• Are verbs used in the ‘active’ tense (eg, not ‘was implemented by me’ but ‘I implemented’)?
• Are there enough strong adjectives (such as ‘excellent experience','sole responsibility’ etc)?
• Have you listed achievements outside work?
• Are there any gaps in your work history that might cause the interviewer concern?
• Have you avoided splitting up a block of content with a page break?

Clarity

• Are spelling, grammar and syntax correct?
• Is it jargon-free?
• Are words used in their simplest form?
• Is the profile clearly and succinctly stated?
• Are contact details easy to see?
• Is there a logical flow to the document?
• Are job details listed in reverse order (latest first)?
• Has your CV been carefully proofread by at least two people?