Top Tips for Perfecting your CV!

Writing your resume or Curriculum Vitae (CV) can be a grueling process. We spend hours analyzing details, scrutinizing the format and triple checking the word count. As someone who has written and edited many CV's, I'd like to share some tried, tested and true tips for sprucing up your existing CV or creating a new one for your next teaching job!

5 Key Things to Remember:

1. Name & contact details

Double check the spelling of your email address and phone number, you’d be surprised how often there can be an error (I’m looking at you, auto-correct!) when you haven’t had a second glance.

2. Profile paragraph

Keep it professional; avoid humour as it may not translate across all cultures and languages. Use first person; it comes across as more genuine. Highlight the main facts about yourself: what are you qualified to teach? How many years of experience do you have? What are your teaching achievements?

3. Education

List your teacher training and university education at the top, with everything else underneath. Include your teaching certification with the subject(s) and age ranges.

4. Work History

Put the most recent job first and work backwards in time. List both the month and the year you started and finished each job. List the main subjects/grades you taught, the school name(s) and the position(s) you held. List responsibilities, achievements and/or after school activities you ran. If you are a newly qualified teacher (NQT), list your teaching practices and previous non-teaching work experience.

5. Interests/Skills

At the end of your CV, list other less relevant education or work experience, interests, hobbies, papers or presentations you have given, etc.

I hope these tips have been helpful! If you have any others, please feel free to share or comment!