How to Write the Perfect CV/Resume!

Successful CV ideas

Firstly, you need to know what companies are thinking.

Filling a vacancy is going to take up valuable time that the company would rather spend doing their standard job.

The employer would love to find the ideal person instantly rather than plow through hundreds of CVs for food manufacturing jobs in the UK. It is often a boring and thankless process.

The employer has a job description which includes practical experience or skills that are necessary for the job and some characteristics that are appealing but not absolutely necessary. Food management jobs require many different skills.

They start out going through the pile of CVs on their desk and scans each one for about 30 seconds to make a judgment. Plus there can be many FMCG businesses are recruiting for at one moment in time.

simply put, they are short on time to read a CV that is more than two pages where all the related details is concealed in long paragraphs. The CV is filed in the bin.

Fancy formatting, coloured text or many fonts do not impress. Is this person trying to conceal their lack of practical experience for the job behind an artistic CV? – Filed it in the bin.

Spelling blunders and bad punctuation! This person is just sloppy! – Filed it in the bin.

This should tell you a few things about writing your CV.

Keep it concise and to the point. The employer needs to see your work expertise, skills and triumphs in the first 30 seconds of scanning your CV. 

Keep it easy. Plain formatting, simply laid out under headings. The company wants to see exactly when, where and what you have done.

showy formatting makes your CV difficult to read. It may make your CV stand out from the rest but for the mistaken reasons. For example food engineering jobs require technical expertise let that stand out with plain formatting.

Keep examining your English. Good spelling, punctuation and grammar are necessary. It is the first step in your personal demonstration to an employer. It says a lot about you. Also, poor English distracts the employer from studying the content of your CV.

How to Write a CV For all Food Recruitment Jobs

A good CV has two objectives – to illustrate your strengths and maximise your chances of getting through to interview and to put factual information, such as dates, places, names together in a presentable and readable form.

Focal Point

It is claimed that the human eyes are Normally drawn to a focal point one third down from the top of the page. Therefore, put your most beneficial information in this area.

It might be your Profile, Key Skills, specialist Qualifications or details of your most recent employment. You can choose whichever you think is most vital and pertinent to your application.

Always get a second viewpoint when you have put your CV together. It is tough to be objective about oneself.

Presentation

It is usually thought that a CV should be two sides of A4 in length. If you need to go on to a third page make sure that the CV is spread out over 3 whole pages, not one and a half pages as this looks untidy.

As a ‘rule of thumb’ there must be more white than black on a page to make it much easier to read.

constantly write a rough draft first. It can be as long as you like as you will edit it later. always start with your Career History as this will highlight your Key competencies and help you write your Profile.

Once you have compiled your draft copy you must edit it.

1) Take out anything that will not help you get where you want to be.

2) Never use the past tense e.g. use ‘supporting senior management’ rather than ‘supported senior management’.

3) Use short sharp sentences cutting out any waffle and jargon.

Headings

Name

Print your name in bold type at the centre top of your CV. If there is any doubt as to which is your surname, e.g. Robert John, indicate by using capitals or underlining.

Address

Top left of CV, full address including post code and telephone number.

Personal Details

Personal details should be restricted to those that are completely vital. Most recruiters expect to see your nationality and date of birth but you can choose to leave these out if you think they may go against you.

Other personal details such as number of dependents, driving license and marital status can be integrated if it is not going to make your CV too long by including them.

These can help companies to get a rounded picture of the individual they are going to interview. Do not include names and ages of children or name of spouse. The company is not interested at this stage.

Profile

This is an introductory statement about who you are and what you have to offer. You should complete this last although it is positioned prominently in the CV, possibly in the Focal Point.

It should be no more than two sentences and include the most vital facts about you. Including expertise, successes, responsibility or personal characteristics.

‘Highly driven Food Production Manager with successful motivational skills and experience in the chilled food industry.’

Employment History

Always start with your most recent employment. Break down your job capabilities as much as possible. List key achievements with lots of juicy facts and figures, they will impress and will be a talking point through an interview. You should have more to say about your most recent, and therefore most pertinent, employment.

Include successes and triumphs especially if it saved the business money.

Qualifications

Qualification should be defined in terms of selling yourself to the employer. Include all relevant courses, dates passed and name of school or college. But, leave out poor grades and failures. These will not help you get invited for interview.

If you have a university degree you can leave out all of your lower qualifications. Mature applicants may want to leave out ‘Education’ altogether, as your career history and skills are probably more important.

Skills

abilities can be referred to under three headings: Technical Skills, Professional Courses and Additional Skills. Technical skills are those related to a technical, mechanical or engineering job.

You need to checklist your abilities and how recently you have used them e.g. HACCP for food Production jobs when applying for food management jobs in the UK. Professional Courses are those that you have attended specifically for a particular job.

Additional skills are anything else that may be relevant e.g. languages, keyboard skills, lean manufacturing.

Interests

Only include interests that are unusual or which indicate transferable skills, achievements or responsibilities.

Use the following tips to write a CV for Food Manufacturing Jobs.

How to Write the Perfect CV/Resume!