The Curriculum Vitae, (C.V.) has been used by candidates to introduce themselves and their skills, character and ambitions, to prospective employers for many years. Employers on the other hand, have used the very same document as a way of assessing a candidate’s potential suitability for employment in all parts of their business. In both cases, the people using the C.V. are aiming to get to the same point; a capable and suitable candidate being interviewed for whatever vacancy is currently available.
Many highly skilled and proficient candidates fail to get interviews, simply because their C.V.’s are poorly laid out, fail to highlight relevant skills and experience, are too long winded, or, in some cases, something as trivial as using an inappropriate typeface. The following seeks to investigate what needs to be considered in order to produce an effective C.V. based on the individual concerned and the type of role being applied for.
The first thing that needs to be considered is the style and layout of the document. There are three mainly accepted styles, the most commonly recognised being the Chronological C.V. , where each period of employment is listed in reverse chronological order. This is most useful in highlighting career progression over a period of time. It allows opportunity to highlight skills and achievements at the same time as showing the kind of organisation a candidate has worked in. This could be useful if the experience gained was with a respected company within the same or an allied field.
Whilst this style of C.V. is easily recognised and therefore less likely to confuse or alarm the reviewer, it can also be seen to be a negative if, for example, the writer has had a number of short periods of employment, or there are employment gaps. Should this be the case, it may be beneficial to consider an alternative C.V. format.
A second format is the Skills based C.V. This focusses more on the overall achievements and qualification during the candidates’ career to date. This format would be particularly useful for a graduate who had little work experience, but a relevant and recent qualification. However, whilst this format has increased in popularity, it is still a relatively unknown style and could be off putting to potential employers as they cannot see a career path or stable periods of employment.
Candidates with strong academic qualifications and experience may need to consider an Academic style of C.V. This is most appropriate if they are applying for roles with a heavy academic bias, such as lecturers or researchers. The document should still be concise, but will highlight the key and relevant areas of study, research carried out and prizes or awards received. As it is highly likely that the reader will be of a technical bias, then the use of academic technical language would be appropriate, however, it could be that the first assessment of candidates C.V.’s is done by someone other than the final employer, and therefore, technical language should be kept to a minimum.
Whichever style is deemed appropriate, the next area of consideration is the actual production of the document. With the advent of personal computers and word processing software, the overwhelming majority of C.V.’s produced today are typed. It would be highly unlikely that a handwritten C.V. would be deemed suitable in any circumstance other than where a large element of the job role would involve having presentable handwriting, thus meaning a handwriting sample would be beneficial to the reviewer, a museum curator, for example.
The visual impact, and by default, the first impressions of the C.V. can be dramatically affected by the typeface chosen. Studies carried out by The Wichita State University showed that of all the available fonts, Corbel was identified as the one that had the highest scores for legibility, professionalism and clarity. It was assumed that the typeface meant that the writer was of a higher intelligence than the same C.V. written in other typefaces. Other studies have shown that the typeface has less relevance, although indicate that fonts such as Comic Sans and Lucida Sans should be avoided.
Finally, once the style and the visual appearance is decided, what many consider to be the most important element of a C.V. can be looked at; the content.
Depending on the role being applied for, the content of a C.V. can change dramatically. For example, it might be beneficial to highlight a strong academic and research background if applying for roles in a research and development capacity. However, the same person could also be looking at a move into other areas, and therefore any achievements in a commercial or managerial capacity may be more relevant to draw the readers’ attention to.
Photographs are a recent addition to C.V.’s but again, their relevance or benefit is directly linked to the role sought. For instance, if one was applying for a role where physical appearance is of little or no importance in carrying out the tasks involved, then attaching a photograph could be deemed as inappropriate, however, if applying for a position where a person’s appearance is of great importance, (a model for example) then it would not only be acceptable, but very much a necessity to attach a recent photograph.
A personal statement is entirely at the writers discretion, but this is often a chance to humanise the document, allowing the reader to see interests, hobbies, ethics and ambitions both professionally and in life away from work.
Finally, each C.V. absolutely must be accompanied by a covering letter. This is the first contact a prospective employer will have to get an impression of the person seeking employment. The covering letter, according to various government back websites (direct.gov.uk and thenationalcareersservice.co.uk) should contain contact information, the opportunity being applied for, information regarding what is attractive about the company and what skills match the job criteria.

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/1373/Academic%20CVs.html – Academic CV
Managerial Challenges of the Contemporary Society; Jun2011, Issue 2, p210-213, 4p
http://surl.org/usabilitynews/101/pof.asp