How to Write the Perfect CV: Questions, Answers and Tips
Resource type and category
Resource type: eBook / candidate career guide
Category: Career Advice, CV Writing and Candidate Resources
Intended audience
Facilities Management, Property, Estates, Workplace and Engineering professionals who want to improve their CV, present their experience more effectively and increase their chances of progressing through the recruitment process.
Resource-card description
Discover what recruiters and employers look for in a strong CV. This practical guide covers CV mistakes, achievements, layout, length, transferable skills and the information candidates should prioritise when applying for jobs.
Full resource-page description
A CV is one of the most important documents in any job search. It provides employers and recruiters with their first detailed view of your experience, achievements and suitability for a position—and can determine whether you progress to interview.
The Perfect CV – Questions, Answers and Tips brings together practical CV advice with feedback from employers on what they value when reviewing candidates.
The guide begins by exploring what can quickly send a CV to the “No” pile. Employer feedback highlights spelling and grammar mistakes, poor layout, excessive length, irrelevant information, unexplained gaps, inconsistent information, unprofessional presentation and CVs that are too wordy or difficult to navigate.
A recurring theme is the importance of clarity and relevance. A CV should make it easy for the reader to understand who you are, what you have achieved and why your experience is relevant to the position.
The guide places particular emphasis on achievements. Employers want more than a list of previous job descriptions or responsibilities. They want tangible evidence of what the candidate has accomplished and the value they have delivered.
It also explores what a CV should contain. Employer feedback identifies relevant qualifications, contact information, career history, key skills, education, experience and achievements as important elements.
CV presentation receives significant attention too. Opinions on creative layouts vary, but the consistent message is that presentation should never undermine readability or content. Some employers prefer plain, traditional layouts, while others welcome more personality where appropriate to the role and organisation.
The guide therefore recommends considering your audience. A creative position may justify a more distinctive presentation, while a formal role may benefit from a more traditional approach. Either way, the CV should remain clear, concise and relevant.
Length is another common candidate concern. While the employer responses vary, most suggestions fall around two to three pages, with Maxwell Stephens’ summary recommending a concise two-page CV.
The guide distils the employer feedback into several core principles: proofread carefully, keep information relevant and easy to read, avoid contradictions and unnecessary statements, adapt presentation to the audience, include achievements and qualifications, and keep the document concise.
Further sections address questions candidates frequently ask during a job search.
For professionals moving between sectors, the guide recommends identifying transferable skills and removing unnecessary industry jargon. Instead, candidates should focus on broadly understood outcomes such as time, quality and cost.
It also addresses why experienced professionals can sometimes be overlooked for roles, explaining that senior positions may be highly competitive and that employers can occasionally question whether a candidate appears over-qualified for the opportunity.
The guide discusses recruiter feedback too, encouraging candidates to communicate constructively when they want to understand why an application was unsuccessful rather than simply accepting a generic response.
Interview preparation also features, including advice on handling later-stage interviews where candidates may be asked similar questions by different members of the hiring panel.
The guide concludes that recruiters and employers generally look for similar characteristics when reviewing CVs and that candidates can make the recruitment process easier by presenting information in a way that is clear, concise and relevant.
Designed as a practical candidate resource, this guide provides a useful framework for reviewing and improving your CV before applying for your next role.
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