CV Guide

When applying for any of our marine employment opportunities, a well structured and formatted CV will help you to stand out and increase your chances of being offered the position. Please follow our CV guidelines below for some helpful tips and tricks to help you through the process.

Good presentation can:

  • Attract the recruiter to read the CV the moment your application is received & before other applicants
  • Convey that you possess more skills than just what is described in the text of your CV
  • Smoothly guide the recruiter to the relevant areas of your history
  • Instantly give the recruiter a positive feel about you
  • Ultimately, get you an interview for your perfect job.

Therefore, a CV is a very important tool when looking to secure a new job. It is what sells you to potential employers and what helps them to decide whether they want to meet you or not.

Your CV should be well presented and neatly laid out. It should also hold as much relevant information about your self as possible. Make sure you choose a presentable font which is easily read and looks tidy. Aim to keep your CV to two A4 pages.

Below is a basic template of how a CV should be laid out and also examples of what information should be included and in which order.

 

Curriculum Vitae

Name:
Address:
Contact Numbers: (home and mobile)
Email:
DOB: (optional)
 

Personal statement

Your personal statement should be 2 or 3 sentences which describes you, your current situation, your career goals and a quick summary of why you are qualified to achieve them. This is a very important section of the CV as it will catch their eye and should make them want to read on with much interest. This may also be something that you can easily tailor to each individual job application.

Education

List here any relevant school, college or university qualifications for example; GCSE’s, O Levels, A Levels, NVQ’s, HND’s, GNVQ’s or Degrees. Also list what schools, colleges or universities you obtained your qualifications from as well as the start and finish dates you attended.

Employment

This is the section where you would list any previous employment. List the employer/­company you worked for, your job title, the name and type of  vessel.

It is important to start with your most recent job and work backwards as this keeps the most relevant information at the top of your CV.

Qualifications and Experience

Here you should list any other qualifications and experience you have, including any professional development or involvement with clubs, association or professional institutions. Examples of this could be RYA qualifications or any logged sea miles. You could also list other skills such as computer programs you've used or any languages you've had experience with.

Hobbies and Interests

List here any hobbies or interests you may have. You can include things like sporting activities, weekend interests or even any life aims or goals you may have. Try to keep this fairly brief but use it to paint a picture of what you are like as a person.

References

This is the last section of your CV. You should ideally list 2 referees. A referee is someone who your potential employer can contact to find out a bit more about you, your personality and/or what you are like to work with. You can list an employment referee; this can be an old manager or senior work colleague. You can also list a personal referee; this could be a friend of the family. If you are going to use one personal referee we suggest you include 2 further employment referees. Alternatively you can just list 2 employment referees.

Thank you for taking the time to read our CV guide - we hope it helps! We wish you the best of luck with being offered one of our advertised positions.