You Are Here:
>
> Graduate Job CVs: What is the Minimum Amount of Information to put in
Graduate Job CVs: What is the Minimum Amount of Information to put in?
Why on earth would you be worried about a "minimum amount"? Aren't you trying to put in as much of the good stuff as possible?
Well, perhaps you haven't read our advice on a CV length of 1 page and diluting your elixir of tier 1 selling points. If you have, you will be fighting tooth and nail to remove every non-essential piece of information from this your all-important employment document.
Below is a list of the MINIMUM amount of disclosure that you should provide in a graduate CV. Feel free to expand upon certain elements if that is to your advantage. For example, if you receive great grades for individual projects or end of year exams - include them. If you came in the top X% of GSCE results at your school - include it. If you completed some elements of your education in less than the normal time that it takes - include that too.
Personal Details
Full Name
Address
Contact Number
Email Address
Professional / Work Experience
Position title (e.g. "Administrative Assistant", "Treasurer" etc)
Date range for each position
Company/Organisation (e.g. "Tesco", "University Law Society" etc)
Education
University Name
Degree Subject
Degree title (BA, BSc, MA, MSc, PhD etc)
Degree grade (2:2, 2:1, 1st etc). Note, for some opportunities which focus less on academic record it is possible to avoid disclosing this, but the degree grade is normally an important filtering factor for most graduate jobs
Dates (start - completion/current)
A - Levels: all subjects, all grades and one date range (e.g. 2005-2007)
School name
GSCEs: number of grades, a range of grades and one date range (e.g. 2003-2005). You can put "10 Grades of A*-C" if you like, but if these are all "C"s it will look a little disingenuous to the recruiter later. Equally if you have a host of A*s, then writing each one out in full will do you no harm!
School name
Extra-Curricular Activities
One line, e.g. "Diving, Travelling, Badminton and Tennis". You should definitely include something here, since recruiters will often spend a couple of minutes breaking the ice and talking to you about other interests - but you should include no more than three lines on this.
Once again, all of the above items are the minimum amount of disclosure that you should include, not a complete list.
A Note on Dates
Dates are definite and lend a concrete credibility to each achievement.
However, don't worry about the exact day and month. A simple "Oct 2007 - Present" for your degree timing and "2005-2007" for A - Levels is fine.
Very rarely is it necessary to include the day (e.g. "25th") and often it is not necessary to include the month. For example, it is fine to write "Sales Assistant, Company X, 2005 - 2007". However, if it was only a position that lasted only 13 months, this will inevitably emerge during the interview. At best, this will create the impression that you play very flexibly with the truth.
"Is that it? Don't I have to put anything else?"
In short, unless the recruiter specifically asks for other details - no you don't.
In fact in many cases you shouldn't! You don't have to put your sex/gender, nationality, work permit status, age, date of birth, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, hair colour, eye colour, shoe size or favourite pop band.
Remember, the CV is your marketing document - not a government form where you are required to tick every box and write something in each field.
Add your comments on this page using the form below.
Name
Your e-mail address
Town/city and country
Your comment
Selected Profile
Sector
Schlumberger is the leading oilfield service
provider, trusted to deliver superior results
and improve E&P performance for oil and
gas companies around the world. Knowledge,
technical innovation and teamwork are at
the centre of who we are. Worldwide, our
engineers, scientists and other specialists
supply technology, project ...
Login to Top Employers 