Whatever stage your career is at, we have advice to help your CV shine.
Normally, your CV would feature a header with your name and contact information. However, at the House of Commons we anonymise every application to help eliminate bias. Our goal is to create a fair and equitable process for all candidates. So please do not include any personal information on your CV.
What you need to leave out:
A professional summary provides hiring managers with a brief synopsis of your relevant work experience, achievements and skills. It serves as an introduction to the rest of your CV, so it’s important that this section is clear and concise. Focus on your achievements rather than just describing your role. For example, ‘Experienced team leader in a customer services environment who reduced customer complaints by 25% and therefore increased customer retention’ is better than saying, ‘Experienced team leader in a customer services environment responsible for a team of 10 customer services staff and their development.’
Start with your most recent job and list your employment history in reverse chronological order. For clarity, keep the format of each entry consistent, detailing the job title, name of employer, and dates of employment. For emphasis, you may choose to highlight the job title in bold, to make it stand out from the surrounding text. Make sure you review the job description, paying close attention to the person specification. This lists all the experience, skills, and knowledge required to do the role successfully. Emphasise the work experience that’s most relevant to the role you are applying for, as this is how your application will be assessed.
You can use bullet points to describe the different aspects of each role. Only the main responsibilities and achievements should be listed. Use more bullet points for your most recent and relevant roles, and fewer for older entries. Try not to start every bullet point with 'responsible for', as this could make for dull reading. Instead, use a variety of different words, like 'planned', 'implemented', and 'supervised', to create a more engaging CV that has a greater impact on the reader.
Remember that the hiring manager doesn’t just want to know what you did, but also how well you did it. So make sure you detail any accomplishments in your role, for example, 'Increased sales by 50% by implementing a new customer strategy that targeted emerging markets'.
If you’ve worked for several years, you might have a varied employment history. In this case, focus on your most recent and relevant jobs, and provide more information about these roles. For older roles that date quite far back, it’s acceptable to have just one or two bullet points, as these will be less relevant today.
If you have any employment gaps, where you haven’t worked for months or years, please include these in your CV. Simply add the dates where relevant as part of your employment history, and include a reason for the gap.
If you are applying for your first job, you won’t necessarily have much work experience. At this early stage, your experiences at school, college, or university might be a stronger representation of your skills. If you feel this is the case, you can list your educational history and any employment history after. We recommend detailing your education from GCSE level onwards, working in reverse chronological order. If you’re awaiting results, you can add predicted grades and the expected date of completion. Please remember not to include the names of the educational institutions where you studied.
You could also include any volunteering you’ve participated in. Volunteering is a great way to develop your skills and shows potential employers that you are proactive in learning new skills, for example 'fundraising for community projects through schools'. If you haven’t had the opportunity to do any volunteering, then you can add any relevant activities you did at school, for example 'projects, buddying and mentoring new students'.
