GUIDE TO WRITING A CV OR RESUME FOR GRADUATE JOBS & INTERNSHIPS | no work experience? fear not!
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the speaker shares personal advice on crafting a compelling CV, highlighting the importance of tailoring it to specific job applications and emphasizing transferable skills. They discuss the significance of honesty and the inclusion of education, qualifications, work experience, key skills, and hobbies. The speaker, drawing from their own successful CV that landed them an internship and a graduate job, provides practical tips for creating a document that stands out in a competitive job market.
Takeaways
- 😀 Tailor your CV for each job application, highlighting relevant experiences, skills, and values.
- 📝 Emphasize transferable skills, even if you lack direct work experience, by identifying activities that demonstrate these skills.
- 🚫 Be honest and avoid fabricating information or plagiarizing others' CVs.
- 📄 Aim for a CV length of one to two pages, being concise and avoiding unnecessary bulk.
- 🏫 Start with your most recent education and qualifications, listing institutions, qualifications, grades, and any relevant rewards.
- 📈 Include a work experience section if applicable, with dates, role overview, and relevant skills demonstrated.
- 🔧 Opt for a skill-based CV to showcase your abilities and provide examples of how you've demonstrated them.
- 🏞 Include hobbies or additional interests and achievements to show you're a well-rounded candidate.
- 🔗 Provide references under a 'Referees' section, indicating they are available upon request.
- ✅ Proofread for spelling and grammar errors, and ensure consistent, readable formatting to catch the employer's eye.
Q & A
What is the primary purpose of a CV according to the speaker?
-The primary purpose of a CV is to advertise oneself as the perfect fit for the job, showcasing why one is employable and suitable for the position being applied for.
Why is it important to tailor a CV for each job application?
-Tailoring a CV for each job application is crucial because it allows the candidate to highlight experiences, skills, and values that are most relevant to the specific job, increasing the chances of standing out among other applicants.
What does the speaker suggest about including work experience on a CV if one is a student with limited experience?
-The speaker suggests that if a student has limited work experience, they should still include any relevant work experience, emphasizing transferable skills gained from those roles, even if they are not directly related to the job being applied for.
What is the significance of transferable skills in a CV, as mentioned by the speaker?
-Transferable skills are significant in a CV because they represent abilities that can be applied across different roles and industries, allowing candidates with limited direct experience to demonstrate their potential value to an employer.
Why should one be honest when writing a CV, according to the speaker?
-The speaker emphasizes the importance of honesty in a CV to avoid moral wrongs and potential issues during background checks or employment. It's about presenting an authentic and accurate representation of one's qualifications and experiences.
What is the speaker's opinion on the length of a CV?
-The speaker believes that a CV should be one to two pages long, suggesting that one should commit to either one full page or two full pages for a neater appearance and to avoid unnecessary bulk.
How should one list their education and qualifications on a CV, as per the speaker's advice?
-One should list their education and qualifications starting with the most recent and working backwards in time, including the names of institutions, qualifications achieved, grades, and any other relevant rewards or achievements.
What approach does the speaker take for the 'Key Skills' section of their CV, and why?
-The speaker takes a skill-based approach for the 'Key Skills' section, listing skills and providing examples of experiences where they demonstrated those skills. This approach is chosen because it allows the speaker to emphasize the relevance of their skills to the job, even if their experiences are not directly related.
Why does the speaker recommend including 'Additional Interests or Achievements' on a CV?
-The speaker recommends including 'Additional Interests or Achievements' to show that the candidate is well-rounded and to highlight the development of desired traits through hobbies and interests, which can be appealing to employers.
What is the speaker's advice on the presentation and formatting of a CV?
-The speaker advises to ensure the CV is free of spelling and grammar mistakes, to have consistent and easy-to-read formatting, and to use bold or underline to separate sections or highlight key points to catch the employer's eye during a quick scan.
Outlines
📝 CV Writing Advice for Job Applications
The speaker begins by sharing personal advice on crafting a CV, emphasizing the importance of tailoring it to the specific job one is applying for. They discuss the significance of transferable skills, which are essential for job seekers with limited work experience. The speaker also stresses the importance of honesty and originality in CV creation. They proceed to share their own CV, highlighting how it helped them secure an internship and a graduate job at a global company. The CV is described as a concise, one to two-page document that effectively advertises the applicant's suitability for the job.
🎓 Education and Qualifications in a CV
In this section, the speaker details the structure of their CV, starting with the education and qualifications section. They advise listing educational history in reverse chronological order, starting from the most recent. The speaker includes their university and college experiences, specifying the subjects studied and the grades achieved. They also discuss the relevance of including work experience, even for students, and how to highlight transferable skills from various roles that can be applied to the job being applied for.
💼 Work Experience and Skills in CV Crafting
The speaker continues by discussing the inclusion of work experience in the CV, suggesting that even part-time jobs like working in a coffee shop can demonstrate valuable skills such as working to tight deadlines and handling responsibilities. They then focus on the 'Key Skills' section, opting for a skill-based CV over an experience-based one. This approach involves listing skills and providing examples of how these were demonstrated in past experiences. The speaker also touches on the importance of including IT skills and how they are often sought after by employers.
🌟 Hobbies and Achievements as CV Enhancers
The final paragraph discusses the inclusion of hobbies and additional interests in a CV, arguing that they showcase the applicant as a well-rounded individual. The speaker shares personal examples such as participation in the astronomical society and a boat club, which highlight teamwork and leadership skills. They also mention having a full driver's license as a sign of commitment and work ethic. The speaker concludes with advice on including references, suggesting that referees should be available upon request and should be individuals with whom the applicant has had a professional relationship.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡CV (Curriculum Vitae)
💡Tailored CV
💡Transferable Skills
💡Honesty
💡One to Two Pages
💡Education and Qualifications
💡Work Experience
💡Key Skills
💡Additional Interests or Achievements
💡References
💡Proofreading
Highlights
The speaker shares advice on writing a CV for job and internship applications, emphasizing the importance of tailoring the CV to the specific job.
The CV should be one to two pages long, with a preference for full pages over one and a half.
Education and qualifications should be listed in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent.
Work experience should be included with dates and a brief overview of the role, highlighting relevant skills.
Transferable skills are crucial for students with limited work experience and should be identified and emphasized.
Honesty is key; do not fabricate experiences or plagiarize others' CVs.
The CV should include a section on key skills, with examples of how these skills were demonstrated.
The speaker suggests a skill-based CV over an experience-based one for university students.
Hobbies and additional interests can show employability and well-roundedness, and should not be overlooked.
References should be included but can be listed as 'available upon request' if space is limited.
Proofreading for spelling and grammar mistakes is essential to maintain a professional image.
Consistent formatting and clear section separation are important for readability.
The speaker's CV includes a personal banner line to make a strong first impression.
The speaker's CV is tailored towards research and analytical skills, which are relevant to the job sought.
The speaker suggests making a note of recent activities or experiences regularly to ease the CV writing process.
The speaker encourages viewers to share their own tips and ask questions in the comments for community support.
Transcripts
hi
everybody so graduate job and internship
application season is upon us and
the other day i was giving my sister
some advice on writing her cv
and i suddenly thought to myself wait
let's just share this advice on youtube
i'm going to talk through how i put
together a cv which got me both an
eight-week internship
and a graduate job which i'm in now at a
global company
i'm not claiming to be an expert i'm not
a couriers advisor
i'm sure you will find much better cvs
than mine but my cv did work in securing
me a role
and the internship scheme that i did
last year had thousands of applications
with only a small percentage actually
being successful
so my cv held up against that
competition i know in some countries
including the us
a cv is referred to as a resume so just
to avoid confusion i'm talking about the
one to two page document
that you send off to employers when
you're applying for a job cv
stands for curriculum vitae which in
latin
i think means course of life and your cv
is an advertisement of you it's meant to
convey why you're the perfect fit for
the job
and make you sound really employable in
this video i am going to be talking from
a uk perspective
as i have applied for jobs in the uk but
i'm sure a lot of it can be applied
internationally
and please do comment down below how
things differ in the countries you live
in i'd be really interested to hear
okay so before we dive into the details
and i start sharing my own cv with you
guys i wanted to cover
the two key things that i think are most
important when writing a cv
the first thing is that a cv should be
tailored for the job you're applying for
you're going to have some experiences
skills and values that are relevant to
some jobs but not others and you need to
pick out which of those experiences
you need to mention on this particular
cv for this particular job
and the second key thing is transferable
skills
so many students say ah i have no work
experience i have nothing to put on my
cv
but yes you do it's just a case of
sitting down and pinpointing
the exact activities you have done to
gain those transferable skills oh
actually i lied there's a third key
thing
and that is to be honest don't make
stuff
up in your cv and don't plagiarize
anyone else's cv
including mine hopefully i don't need to
explain to you guys why that would be
morally wrong
okay so i'm now going to open up my most
recent iteration of
my own personal cv this was last updated
during my third year at university
so around this time last year i could
have shown you the exact cv
that i used in early 2019 to apply for
my internship which ended up getting me
my grad job
but i've decided that this version is
actually way better i've made so many
improvements since then
when i was updating this last version of
my cv i did have an astrophysics
research placement in mind
i never actually sent off the cv or used
it since i decided to go down the
actuarial route
but yeah that's why some of it is geared
towards
research and analytical skills and
astrophysics stuff
a cv should be one to two pages long so
you can see that i've gone for two full
pages here
in my personal opinion i don't think you
should opt for one and a half
pages you should either commit to one
whole page
or two whole pages it just looks neater
whether you go for one page or two pages
just depends on how much you have to say
don't bulk it out for the sake of it you
want to be concise
nobody wants to read through a load of
waffle and all it ends up doing
is hiding the actual important stuff in
your cv
so starting with the top of my cv i have
my full name
obviously i would include my surname in
an actual copy i'd be sending off
then in the second line i put a header
line about myself
this is the banner line i guess
the first thing i want the employer to
see when they see my application
i am a third year physical natural
sciences student
at cambridge or at least i was i'd
suggest doing something similar putting
your subject what year of your degree
you're in
underneath my header line i put my
contact details so my home address my
mobile my email
and of course these have been blanked
out for obvious reasons
the first main section of a cv should be
your
education and qualifications you should
list your most
recent education first and then work
backwards in time
until you've reached your secondary
education people don't want to know what
primary school you went to
so don't include that only include
schooling where you've achieved a
qualification
so obviously i attended jesus college
university of cambridge you're going to
want to put the dates that you attended
that particular institution i
also opted to put an individual bullet
point saying i was specializing in
astrophysics just because i was using
this cv for an astrophysical placement
if i had intended to use this cv for an
actuarial role
they really wouldn't have cared whether
i was specializing in astrophysics
i would have just left it at this first
line it's also important to include
your results so far so i included my
first year result and second year
results then we go backwards and time
again
to my sixth form college so i did two
years at this particular college 2015 to
2017
and i listed my a level results so there
you go for everyone wondering what i got
for a levels those were my results
so yeah this section is fairly
straightforward to fill out you just
want
to put the names of the institutions you
studied at the qualifications you've
achieved along with grades
and any other rewards you think might be
relevant moving down to the next section
i have included a work experience
section if you're a student you may not
have work
experience in which case skip over this
section don't worry about it but this
was relevant for me
as always it's important to include the
dates that your work experience took
place
and also give a brief overview of your
role
so i was an actuarial summer intern in
insurance consulting
and then these three bullet points were
very much
picking out what i thought was relevant
to the position i was applying for
i wanted to highlight that i'd use
statistical knowledge and logic to
evaluate
risk because i knew the position i was
applying for involved
statistics i also said i proficiently
handled and manipulated large
quantities of data that right there is a
transferable skill
doesn't matter if it's data on insurance
policies or data on astrophysical
surveys
i could turn my hand to either of those
with the data processing skills i had
developed
this job down here was literally working
in a coffee shop i gave it a fancy name
rather than just saying coffee shop
worker
and really the key thing i wanted to
highlight from that is that i worked to
tight deadlines in a professional
environment
it shows organization it shows
responsibility i do
just want to say again that it's only
worth including things on your cv
if you can tie them in to the job you're
applying for
and make them seem relevant if i was
applying for a job
in media say and i was applying to be a
production assistant maybe
i don't think they'd really care if i'd
proficiently handled and manipulated
large quantities of data
so i would not bother including that in
the cv the next section i
included is key skills this is where i
made a conscious decision
to go for a skill based cv rather than
an experience based cv i don't know if
you call it that
but essentially i've decided to list the
skills which you can see in bold here
and then underneath each skill give
examples of the experiences where i've
demonstrated those skills
i could have done it the other way
around i could have put in bold
the experiences i've had and then
listed below them the skills i think i
developed
while having those experiences when
you're a university student i feel like
you haven't had a lot of big experiences
that might be relevant to the role
you're applying for and a lot of the
time it's lots of small things that
build up to
one big skill so i think it's easier to
go for the skill based approach
a job description should hopefully give
a flavor of what the role involves
and what skills they are looking for
they might even list down the skills
explicitly
make a list based on the job description
of the skills you need to demonstrate
you have
to show you are a perfect fit for the
role and then
sit down and think of examples of when
you have developed
and shown those skills you should list
the skills in the cv
in the order you want them read so
really you want your most impressive
skills the best skills that are most
suited to the role up the top of the key
skills section
and the less important ones or more
generic skills down the bottom
i started by identifying research and
analytical skills as part of my skill
set
heavily research based degree discipline
practical classes have given me a keen
eye for detail
my first example of showing these skills
is literally
in my labs at university i could use
scientific terms like
wavelength and optics theory because i
knew the person reading my cv would be a
scientist for this particular role i was
applying for
my other example was achieving a gold
crest award for participating in the
engineering education scheme i'd say
the more recent your experience is the
more valuable
it is as an example employers are going
to be
looking for you to have demonstrated the
skills in recent timelines to show
that they are your current skills after
listing what i'd done with
the team i said explicitly at the end of
the sentence
what i gained from doing this cut
straight to the point leave nothing up
for guessing
the next skills i listed were
communication and presentation skills
obviously i need to evidence those
skills my first example is obviously my
most recent experience
i present a series of youtube videos on
my university experience
currently attracting over 700 000 views
a month
a lot of these things youtube videos
speech and drama festivals they're not
exactly the most academic thing you
might not think of them
as something to put on a cv but actually
transferable skills are developed in
those activities
and i'm sure if you have a little think
about the societies you've joined at
university
whether you write in the newsletter
rather you're part of a committee
have a little think about all of the
things you've got involved in in recent
years that you don't think about as work
and think how they might be able to
relate to skills you've developed and a
position you might want to work in
organization and time management i said
i take part in
extracurricular activities at university
and my social media channel has
lots of subscribers and i manage all
this alongside my degree
work i can juggle commitment and
prioritize
i think time management is so so
important
and it's something a lot of employers
are looking for you are not going to
have exactly the same example as me
it may be that you've organized a pub
crew at university
well that works too finally i listed it
skills i said i've done microsoft office
matlab latex
i specified where i'd use them at
university and on a summer internship
i'd say it skills is quite a staple on
job applications a lot of employers are
looking for it
it's well worth sitting down and having
a play with microsoft word microsoft
excel just so you can write on your cv
that you're proficient in microsoft
office
my little recommendation is on an
ongoing basis
even when you're not putting a cv
together make a note
of the recent activities or experiences
you've done in the past month
so when it comes to writing a cv it's
easier to remember what you've done and
really pick
each activity apart and think what are
the transferable skills i developed and
then
see if they match up with the job you're
applying for the next section to include
is hobbies or as i call it additional
interests and achievements because it
sounds
so much better you may be thinking this
section is a waste of space
like who cares about your hobbies well
think again
additional interests or hobbies show
that you're a well-rounded person
and often you will develop desired
traits through doing these hobbies
the first interest i listed as i was
applying for an astrophysical research
placement
was the astronomical society at
cambridge and then i mentioned
boat club now i did a team sport while i
was at university
and that is very good that is team
working skills
not only that i was a cox and coxing
actually
you need a lot of leadership for the
rowers are all listening to you
you're the one calling the shots so
really saying that i coxed and i was
part of a rowing team
looks quite good finally i said i have a
full driver's license
it's not the most important thing on the
cv but definitely worth mentioning that
shows that i have a work ethic
and that i can commit to challenges last
thing you should put on a cv
is references so i have a section called
referees
but then i put references are available
upon
request and that's what you should do
when you run out of space a referee
is someone who's going to write to the
employer and say i recommend this person
really you want to aim for two referees
often at university you don't have a lot
of choice you have to choose your
director of studies just make sure that
whoever you choose you've
worked with or engaged with them in a
professional context and also
always ask them first before putting
them down as a referee
once you're happy that you've included
everything you want to
check for spelling mistakes and grammar
mistakes please
don't leave a cv with mistakes in it's
just so unprofessional
get someone to read over your cv for you
and also make sure your formatting is
consistent and easy to read
you can use bold or underline to
separate out
sections or highlight key points
remember employers are often just going
to be scanning over cvs rather than
reading every single word
so you need to catch their eye my
formatting could be better i reckon i
think that's definitely something to
improve on on my cv
and yeah those are my thoughts on
writing a cv
i'm not going to sugarcoat it it's a
really tough job market out there
at the moment you need to bring your
a-game and it is well
worth spending some extra time on your
cv
and if anything it's just to do yourself
justice when you have the experience you
shouldn't
be hiding that away you need to make
sure the employers know that
if you have any tips of your own please
drop them in the comments below
equally if you have any questions drop
them in the comments too
i can try reply or i'm sure other
members of the community can try help
out too
and give the video a like if you want to
see more videos
relating to job applications follow my
instagram subscribe to this youtube
channel if you want to
keep up with my graduate life and thanks
for watching guys
see you later bye
[Music]
you
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