CV Advice

Your CV acts as your first opportunity to sell yourself to an employer. The format and requirements of a CV vary from sector to sector. It is therefore important that you tailor your CV to the industry you are interested in. The following advice is specific to the Audit and Risk sectors and reflects the preferred format of our clients.

We recommend that you present your CV in reverse chronological order, ideally limiting it to 2-3 pages of plain white A4 paper.

Within your CV you should include:

• Personal details: Full name, address, telephone numbers and e-mail address
• Nationality (including any relevant visa information)
• Languages spoken
• Education and professional qualifications:
  List the name of the institutions, with appropriate dates and details of grades achieved in each subject – for GCSE and O Levels it is usually enough to state the number achieved along with your grades in English and Mathematics
• Career history:
  Provide dates, company names (a brief description of the type of business is helpful if it is unclear from the name) and job title for each position held. Include details of your day-to-day responsibilities, plus any project work and special achievements
• Computer skills
• Interests/hobbies:
    You do not need to go into detail here; an indication of your interests will suffice.

You should ensure that there are no gaps in the dates given in your CV and should spell check the document. It is important to make sure the relevant information is easy to find. A prospective employer should not have to flick through pages of a CV to find out what they want to know.

References

Saxton Leigh requires you to provide your consultant with the names and contact details of your referees, covering your employment over the past five years. Copies of any written references should be provided.