The next sub-title should be 'Employment'. Here you should list in reverse date order the various organizations you have worked for, the jobs you did and the dates of your employment. In this section too you could give details of particular responsibilities or achievements in each post.
Further down the page you could add a 'Training Record', listing the various courses and qualifications you have obtained since leaving fulltime education. Some people prefer to include this information at the bottom of the page in a section sub-titled 'Additional Information'.
Most people also include a section sub-titled 'Hobbies and Interests'. This is the section which allows you to present yourself as a well- rounded individual with a life beyond the office or factory walls.
When you complete the 'Additional Information' section, try to make a few short statements which will be of interest to this particular employer. If you are applying for a job which involves driving, for example, say that you have a clean driving license and state the categories of vehicle yotf are permitted to drive. Mention any qualities which you feel you have. 'I am punctual, reliable and able to work accurately under pressure.' The final section on many CVs is sub-titled 'References'; it gives the names, addresses and telephone numbers of two people who are prepared to give character references on you.
Young people often experience difficulty in compiling a CV. If you are about to leave school or college, you may feel that you have little to say. Well, it's true that you may not have had many full-time jobs, but you should be able to complete most other sections of the CV just like anyone else. In the employment section you can mention any Saturday or holiday jobs you have had, as well as any work-experience placements you have undertaken. When employers consider taking on a young person they don't expect them to have had a long experience of work. But a good reference from a work-experience placement and a record for reliability in a Saturday job can often count for a good deal, so don't sell yourself short. In the 'Additional Interests' section, mention any achievements at school or college. Did you take part in any fund-raising activities for charity or sporting events? Were you a member of any clubs or societies? Are you learning to drive?
Functional
People seeking high-level appointments sometimes prepare 'functional CVs'. Rather than simply listing previous jobs in chronological order, they are constructed to show how an individual's skills and responsibilities have developed to meet the requirements of the job they are seeking.
Begin a functional CV by giving your name, address and telephone number as with any other CV. Below, show how you meet the requirements of this job by giving details of yourself under headings such as 'Current Experience', 'Previous Experience', 'Achievements' and 'Qualifications'. On a second page, you can write out your employment and educational record like any other CV, but this will be much more condensed than you would expect to see in a more conventional CV because your relevant skills, experience and qualifications will already have been mentioned in the previous sections.
Functional CVs are sometimes referred to as 'achievement-oriented CVs'. They can be particularly useful if awkward gaps in your working life need to be accounted for or if you are trying to change the direction of your career. A functional CV allows you to highlight relevant experience which would not necessarily be obvious to anyone looking at your current or previous job titles. It also allows you to display it prominently on the front page of your CV.
In general, a CV is useful because it allows you to give an employer a great deal of basic information about yourself in an easy-to-read way. It may seem strange spending time compiling a CV when much of the information it contains could be put on an application form. Not every employer has an application form however, and, in any case, many interviewers find it easier to read about you from a well constructed CV than from a general application form which was probably designed years ago for many different types of job.
Without an application form, there is no alternative to preparing a good CV. You would have great difficulty putting all that information into a letter of application and managing to keep it simple and easy to read. With a CV enclosed in your application you can use your letter of application to enlarge on the basic information and explain why you want this particular job.
Putting together a good CV can be a laborious job. Preparing it requires patience and a good deal of effort, but once you have your standard CV designed, it is a relatively simple matter to keep it up to date and relevant. Few changes will be required to produce a CV tailor-made to suit any job application you care to make. Your CV can be prepared on a personal computer and stored on your own disk. Many libraries, adult education centers and colleges of further education have CV building software packages available for use. You construct your own CV by simply following the instructions and answering the questions as they come on to the screen.
Further information:
Preparing Your Own CV (second edition), Rebecca Corfield (Kogan Page, 1999)
Readymade CVs: A Sourcebook for Job Hunters, Lynn Williams (Kogan Page, 1996)
