You need to give the prospective employer enough to invite you to an interview, to give them the confidence that you have the skills to do the job, and that you will fit within the organisation and the team. Not an easy thing to do in 2 pages. This article will give you some handy hints from our resourcing team, who between them have read thousands of healthcare related CV’s across a multitude of roles: General Practitioner, Pharmacist Nurse, Paramedic, Non-Clinical advisor via UCC’s, 111 CAS services and much more.

What are the main things you look for in a CV?

1. Experience: Ensure you have relevant experience before applying for any role. Make sure you identify the specifics of the job from the job description and make a point of highlighting these in your CV. Be as specific as you can be in regards to your highlights and achievements.
2. Communication: Communication in healthcare roles is a key skill set for all the roles we hire for! We are looking for candidates that can demonstrate good communication skills. Both how they communicate, how they can manage different personalities, but also how they communicate under pressure and in a multitude of settings. We are often looking for how the candidate would/ could serve the patient, but also how a candidate would work in a team dynamic. So, make sure you identify this skill set using relevant examples!
3. No gaps: Continuity of employment is a key element to any CV, showing the dates you transitioned between roles of an existing employer, in addition to detailing when you moved organisations are important aspects of any CV. We also understand that at times you may have left employment for a number of reasons: poor health, personal reasons, maternity or paternity leave etc. You don’t need to be specific with why you exited employment at this time, but you can detail you had a career break. In summary make sure you detail all employers in chronological order starting with your latest employer first.
4. Commitment: Ideally we are looking for candidates who can show commitment and length of service against specific job roles. This demonstrates positive attributes around an individual’s work ethic and responsibilities!
5. Education: Starting with your education from GCSE onwards, including all qualifications but also detailing any courses or certificates that are suitable for the job role.
6. Geographic location: If you are applying for a job role outside of the catchment of your permanent address, due to relocation then please ensure this is detailed in a covering letter i.e. your keenness to relocate. As otherwise your address could give recruiters the impression that you are too far away from the place of employment.
7. Clear written and spoken English: If English isn’t your first language, then be sure to give confidence via your CV that you can communicate in English both written and verbal.

And finally Daniel our Sales Manager has created this handy list of CV – Do’s and Don’ts.