Selling yourself well

Sarah Ivens, author of A Modern Girl's Guide to Networking, published by Piatkus explains explains how to write the perfect CV

How to write the perfect CV
Don't feel like you have to include everything you've ever done, plus the kitchen sink in your CV. The design and content of your CV should be clean and simple. Do not get too personal (you shouldn't list your marital status, height, weight, dependants and impending lawsuits or holidays). Don't include photographs. No matter how pretty you are. Don't go into religion, race or what you like to do in bed in this document. Shhhhh ...

Basically, tailor your selling sheet to the specific job and company - add and subtract as relevant. Find out as much as you can about the position before sending off your CV.

The simplest, standard flow is this:

• Contact information: address, phone numbers and email details
• Objective statement: you don't need one, but if you feel it is important it should go here. They are useful if you are changing career paths and need to explain why, or you're quite new and don't have much of a career path to list. Be honest, impressive and make sure it links in to what you feel the company is looking for
• Professional summary: list your skills and extra career-related qualifications
• Employment history: clearly list dates, positions held and main responsibilities and achievements during the time with each company
• Education: keep it brief and to the point, just list qualifications, grades, name of schools and university, and dates attended. Don't worry about anything prior to the age of 15
• Other interesting facts ... go here, at the bottom. Only list hobbies if they are relevant (who cares if you like cross stitch and dirty dancing). List associations, affiliations and volunteer work that are relevant to your position, or the position you want

NB The covering letter is just as important as the CV.
This should simply state who you are, what service you provide and how you can be contacted. Both your CV and letter should have immaculate spelling and grammar, and all addresses and titles should be 100 per cent correct. Type your CV and covering letters no shoddy handwriting is acceptable. Use the letter to draw attention to your positives and explain briefly why you would be perfect for the vacancy. Conclude, with an impressive and memorable line. And proofread once, and then twice for good measure.

References
Don't put 'references on request'. You must assume the people who you are writing to for a job are very busy and sifting through thousands of CVs. Help them, and you will help yourself. Provide all the info so that it is there at their fingertips. Gather references throughout your career. College tutors who you impressed, former employers who were sad to see you go, and so on. If they will oblige, ask them to write and sign references in advance, and post them with your CV or take them with you on your first interview. Make sure your references are up to date and correctly identified, and warn someone that you are using them as a reference. They should be someone who is still in your life, even if just on a casual email catch-up basis.

Web CVs
We're all so modern and technical these days and we're getting better and better at selling ourselves on the Internet. If we're not trying to find love on Match.com or showing off about our lives on Myspace.com, we're throwing our CVs on the web and waiting for the dream job to come and bite us on the ass. Some friends of mine have got back into the workplace after having babies using this easy, wide-reaching route. If you decide to do this, make sure you know how to use key words, which a prospective employer will find easy to search for. It is more acceptable to include a photo, or even a relevant video as a jpeg on a web CV. To make yours stand out, ask a technical or artistic friend to design the page for you. Once you're happy with it, you can email it to companies, or link it to an employment website. Once in an interview, you can present it on your laptop. You'll certainly stand out, and prove that you're creative and computer literate.