Get Results with Your C.V.:
UK Recruiters and Companies Share Top Tips for Creating a Great Resume

By Richard Chiumento, United Kingdom Career Advisor

During summer 2001, Chiumento and Effective Resources, a London-based human resources consulting firm, conducted a survey of 580 recruitment consultancies and 302 top companies in the U.K. The question at the heart of the survey is one that plagues every job seeker: What's the secret to a great CV?

Although opinions among recruiters and companies were somewhat varied, a strong consensus emerged about what can make—or break—a great CV. If you're thinking about working in the U.K., check out the survey results below, and see how your resume measures up.

Length
The majority of recruiters (60 percent) and companies (70 percent) prefer a two-page CV over a one- or three-page resume. Thirty-six percent of recruiters and 28 percent of companies favor a three-page CV.

The popularity of the two-page CV has increased in the last decade, according to the results of a similar Chiumento survey conducted in 1992. One-page CVs are less popular now than they were ten years ago; in the 2001 survey, a mere 2.6 percent of recruiters and 1.67 percent of companies prefer them over two-to-three page CVs, compared to 9 percent in 1992.

Format
Over 90 percent of all respondents favor a reverse chronological format (most recent employment to least recent). Few favor a "skills only" CV, which some respondents fear candidates use to disguise a patchy employment history.

Content and Layout
This year, participants were given the opportunity to respond at length on the most important components of a CV. Respondents were asked to rate 29 items on a scale of high, medium or low importance. According to companies, the top ten most important components of a CV are (from highest rank to lowest): work experience; qualifications; achievements; the candidate's contact information; personal background information; accountabilities; number of staff; budget responsibility; reasons for leaving; and most recent salary information.

Respondents stressed that candidates choosing to list a "hobbies and interests" section on their CV should keep it brief and relevant. One respondent gave an example of the kind of irrelevancies that can crop up: wife's employment, children's first names, and pony club ribbons.

Cover Letters—Handwritten or Typed?
Thirty-three percent of companies and 41 percent of recruiters prefer cover letters to be typed. Both groups have high scores for "no preference"— about 45 percent, although recruiters and companies stress that handwritten letters must be neat and legible.

Electronic CVs
Electronic CV scanning or input enables candidates' data to be stored in a retrievable format. Few companies (9 percent) are considering installing automatic CV screening software, and only 2 percent already have such systems in place. By contrast, 73 recruiters (12.5 percent) use CV screening software, and 75 anticipate installing it within the next six months.

Lay-Offs
An overwhelming majority (87 percent) of respondents feels that it makes no difference if a candidate is currently unemployed due to lay offs, or declared redundancy. A small percentage (3.8 percent) indicates that being laid off could even improve a candidate's application, due to their immediate availability. However, respondents stressed that candidates should be honest about their lay-off history, rather than trying to disguise or omit it from their CVs.

Paper Color
Twenty percent of recruiters and 33 percent of companies express no preference in paper color, but both groups strongly prefer (73 percent and 57 percent respectively) white to cream, light blue, or other colors.

Submitting your CV
Seventy percent of the respondents suggest that CVs should be sent to the personnel or HR department; 18 percent prefer that it be sent to the function head. Twenty-five responses (8.3 percent) suggest that candidates send CVs to both the personnel department and either the function head or the function director.

For more information on conducting an international job search, go to www.goinglobal.com. Direct link to article: http://www.goinglobal.com/hot_topics/chiumento_results.asp