CV writing is all about capitalizing on your strengths and painting a very pretty picture of yourself - you don't need to go into great detail about school qualifications; the main focus should be all your work and experience both past and current and your most prominent skills/"employable" character traits. Are you a fast learner? Are you good at problem solving? Are you good with money? Put it all in there. Also, try to tailor your CV to include strengths and skills you possess which are applicable to the area of work you are applying for. There are a handful of skills that should be on every CV: Good communication (written and spoken) Good teamwork Independence / initiative IT competence And remember to attach a cover letter to your CV. The cover letter isn't a summary of the CV but an appendix to it - something that tells the prospective employer why you are the right candidate for that specific job. Are you looking for any kind of work in particular?
I'm going to be applying for work placements for electronics and robotics placements (my degree is in robotics)
Do not write the likes of this: You must demonstrate where these skills are applicable by linking them back to your experience. For example [*]Good communication becomes... [*]Good communication skills developed in role as a Sales representative, utilising ability to work with customers, present to management and liaise with other company representatives. [*]Good teamwork becomes... [*]Good teamwork skills, as demonstrated by my role as a barman, working in a highly pressurised and fast paced team environment. Not only am I regularly on cross-sector interview panels for a variety of organisations in the public and third sectors, but I manage three teams that deal with charitable pre-employment support projects. So I'm in a fairly good position to talk CV's Common misconceptions: -Only include your DOB if you are particularly young and have a lack of experience, that's the only time it's useful to draw attention to your age - as an excuse. Otherwise DOB is inappropriate given that an employer can be accused of bias based on your age. -Don't include personal interests and hobbies, unless they are actually something worth mentioning - you're a school governor, volunteering, assisting local mp, etc. The other exception is if it's a person centred role, such as field sales or teaching...in which case your personal interests are relevant as they give you useful background knowledge in such fields. In your case, being an IT nut, or pc modder, etc...could be useful, especially if you can demonstrate it...ie have you done a mod that's on the web? have you written an article?? got a website?