Our Tips on Writing a CV for Care Work

• Keep it brief! Your CV should be no more than two A4 pages. Employers spend on average, 6 seconds looking at a CV before making an initial decision. Keep it short and to the point.
• Tailor your CV to the role you are applying for. Read the job advert correctly to work out which of your skills you should highlight in your CV. If the job advert asks for previous care experience, then make sure your work history is up to date and clearly listed including dates of employment.
• Keep it real and tell the truth!! You will probably get caught out; whether it be at the interview stage or even worse, once you have the job.
• Make it look great! Remember the recruiter only spends just 6 seconds looking at a CV*, make yours pleasant on their eye. Use bullet points and keep sentences short – give your words space.
• Make it keyword friendly!You need to make it easy for recruiters to find you. If you’ve uploaded your CV to a job site make sure you include your previous job titles and key words related to your previous job titles. If you are unsure which key words are best, google your job title and see what other words are commonly mentioned.
• Be positive!! This might seem obvious but make sure you present the facts about yourself in a clear and positive way.
• Get a second opinion! Ask a friend or a relative to read through your CV to make sure that it reads well, it’s accurate and reflects your skills in a positive way. Get them to double check for any spelling mistakes or typos too!!

* This is based on The Ladders Eye Tracking Study. The Study monitored eye movements of 30 professional recruiters over a 10 week period, using a scientific technique called ‘eye tracking’ and revealed that the recruiters only spent 6 seconds reviewing an individual CV, despite the recruiters reporting that they spend longer