{"id":1651,"date":"2020-01-07T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:16:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:16:47","slug":"cv-tips-top-10-things-you-thought-you-couldnt-do-but-you-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2020\/01\/07\/cv-tips-top-10-things-you-thought-you-couldnt-do-but-you-can\/","title":{"rendered":"CV Tips: Top 10 things you thought you couldn\u2019t do but you can"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to application writing, you might be surprised about what you're able to do. Let\u2019s get your applications ready for 2020.<\/p>\n<p>1.<strong> Omit your home address<\/strong> if you don\u2019t think it\u2019ll benefit your application.<\/p>\n<p>2. <strong>Leave out your personal profile if it seems generic<\/strong>. There are options here. If you are just beginning your career you can frame it as a \u2018career objective\u2019. See Helen Moore-Elly\u2019s article on <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2018\/12\/04\/cv-tips-to-profile-or-not-to-profile\/\">CV Tips: To profile, or not to profile?<\/a> for inspiration on whether to do a personal profile, a career objective, or neither. If you do write something, Saiyada Fazal offers a useful list of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2016\/02\/16\/recruiters-most-hated-cv-phrases-revealed\/\"> phrases to avoid<\/a>. Keep in mind, if you are writing an academic CV it may be worth including an objective outlining your research interests.<\/p>\n<p>3. <strong>Include your not-yet-finished degree course<\/strong>. Even if you haven\u2019t finished your degree course, you can still add it to your CV as your most recent qualification. Remember to add the date you started and the date you will finish. If you like, you can even put down an expected grade or the grade that you are aiming for. If you are not thrilled about your grades, check out Molly Norton\u2019s article called <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2019\/04\/02\/cv-tips-how-do-i-display-my-grades\/\">CV Tips: How do I display my grades?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>4. <strong>Delve into your education<\/strong>. You can list your modules, projects, and software skills in your education section if you like. If they\u2019re relevant to what you\u2019re applying for, don\u2019t leave them until the second page. Boost them up. Debbie Pye\u2019s blog post on <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2019\/11\/12\/cv-advice-rinse-and-repeat-part-one\/\">Not-so-secret tips for your super CV<\/a> puts this into context. If you\u2019re constructing an academic CV, give this section special attention.<\/p>\n<p>5. <strong>Showcase your technical skills<\/strong>. If you have some useful software that will be relevant to your future job, you can take it out of your \u2018hard\/technical\/software skills section\u2019 and put it on the first page either in your education section or in a separate section all on its own. You can even describe how you have applied your technical skills. Did you use them on your degree course? On placement? On a personal project?<\/p>\n<p>6.<strong> Be selective about your modules<\/strong>, i.e. you can have a mix of first year, second year, and third year modules all in one line. You don\u2019t have to categorise it into the year you completed it.<\/p>\n<p>7. <strong>Summarise your GCSEs<\/strong>; don\u2019t list them all. This can use up a lot of space that would be better reserved for your more recent qualifications. If you want to include some detail you can put (including Maths and English).<\/p>\n<p>8. <strong>Section up your work experience<\/strong>. If your most relevant experience is being overshadowed by more recent but less relevant experience, you can take it and put it in a separate section above entitled \u2018relevant experience\u2019 or \u2018Engineering\/Marketing\/Clinical\/Research Experience\u2019. This can be whatever you feel is an accurate description. If you are looking for more experience or want to make the most of the experience you <em>do<\/em> have, check out Aste Dahl\u2019s blog post on <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2018\/03\/23\/crack-on-with-planning-your-job-hunt-2\/\">job-hunting<\/a> or Anne Cameron\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2015\/11\/09\/selling-your-part-time-work-experience-to-employers\/\">selling your part-time work experience to employers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>9. <strong>Create a skills-based CV<\/strong> if you don't have any relevant work experience. This would enable you to draw on skills from all areas your life including your education, extracurricular activities, hobbies etc. See our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bath.ac.uk\/publications\/application-cv-and-cover-letter-guide\/\">CV guide<\/a> for examples.<\/p>\n<p>10.<strong> Don\u2019t worry<\/strong>. As long as you include your contact details, education, and skills, it\u2019s up to you how you order your CV!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2019\/12\/Youve-got-this-updated.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1652 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2019\/12\/Youve-got-this-updated-884x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"677\" height=\"784\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2019\/12\/Youve-got-this-updated-884x1024.jpg 884w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2019\/12\/Youve-got-this-updated-259x300.jpg 259w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2019\/12\/Youve-got-this-updated-768x889.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2019\/12\/Youve-got-this-updated-186x215.jpg 186w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 677px) 100vw, 677px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to application writing, you might be surprised about what you're able to do. Let\u2019s get your applications ready for 2020. 1. Omit your home address if you don\u2019t think it\u2019ll benefit your application. 2. Leave out your...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[536,347,441,15,155,276,404,483],"class_list":["post-1651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-academic-cv","tag-education","tag-grades","tag-job-hunting","tag-personal-profile","tag-resources","tag-software","tag-work-experience-graduate-job"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}