Tips for a good CV

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1. Your CV should be laser-printed in black ink using a plain typeface, on good quality A4 white/cream paper. Decorative borders are not necessary, nor are photographs of yourself.
2. Your CV should ideally cover no more than two pages and never more than three. Aim to ensure the content is clear, structured, concise and relevant. Using bullet points rather than full sentences can help minimise word usage
3. A basic CV may need tailoring to each job application.
4. The completed CV needs to be checked carefully for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes and to ensure that it makes sense. Ask an 'independent' party to review the whole document before it is sent out.
5. Remember when writing and structuring your CV that it is essentially marketing you and that a potential employer will use the details provided to form interview questions. It should be clear and easy to read. Gaps in career history should be explained and falsehoods and inaccuracies avoided at all costs.
6. There is no reason to include your reasons for leaving each job on your CV but be prepared to answer these questions in your interview.
7. Current salary details should not be included.
8. A good covering letter should always accompany your CV.

You cannot chase two rabbits at the same time.

Can you imagine chasing two rabbits at the same time? It’s sort of impossible. The best thing to do would be to catch the rabbits one at a time. You can apply the same principle to many aspects in life like whenever you attempt to juggle too many things at once you may end up being unsuccessful, or you may not get the job done as well as you could have. The idea is to take on about as much as you can manage and then from there you can increase the amounts slowly. Too often we are in such a rush to get things done that we do not focus on the efficiency of it. I will definitely not make that mistake!

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“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you only have one idea” (Alain).

When I have an idea I usually weigh it out, consider the options and hope for the best. But what I tend to sometimes forget is that if you neglect to have more than one idea, you basically plan to fail.

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This reminds me of what happened to my aunt a few months ago. She had a proper dinner party with about 12 guests and she had cooked up a storm in the kitchen and really went all out to ensure her guests are catered for. What she failed to consider is that some of those guests may be vegetarian or may have certain preferences, and with Murphy’s Law there happened to be a vegetarian at the dinner party and my aunt had prepared dishes that weren't exactly vegetarian-friendly. There was no alternative to the meals that she cooked so her vegetarian guest could only eat the side salad and the dessert, and my aunt was left very embarrassed.

It’s always best to have more than one idea, or to have a backup plan, because as life enjoys teaching us, anything can happen.

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Have you figured out the second head fake?

In this life we come across all sorts of people, but the ultimate for me is a fake person. With fake people you never know what you’re getting, but one thing that’s for sure is that they are always found out in the end because there’s only so much acting one can do.

As a girl I am surrounded by falseness pretty much every day, but over the years I've learnt to site these individuals. The only thing you can do is try not to encourage the falseness and just take yourself out of the situation. 

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I am…?

When getting to know someone or at job interviews, you’re always asked that awkward, “So, tell me about yourself.” I never know what to say. I always wonder if I should speak about my hobbies, my characteristics, my work, or what? What is it that people want to know when they ask you that question?

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When I ask people to tell me about themselves, I do it so that I am able to form my opinion of them. Sounds evil but we’re all guilty of sizing people up, it’s a normal part everyday life. The things that affect people’s impression of you are your speech, your appearance, your beliefs and instinct. So try your best to be yourself, but at the same time try and tweak your rough edges a little just so that you don’t scare people away. 

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Andy Warhol said, “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” I can’t choose my 15 minutes but why would I be world famous?

Everybody gets a chance to be in the limelight somewhere along the line, whether it’s via fame, popularity or attention. My personal limelight has occurred on inconsequential occasions like my birthdays or if I've achieved something awesome, which in retrospect doesn't happen quite often. Once a year would be more like it!

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Some people are destined to be world famous, but then again if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen despite the odds. Life isn't usually fair to those who just sit around expecting good things to happen without even lifting a finger.

But seriously, with the amount of platforms available I'm surprised most people aren't world famous already. Just like the ‘one hit wonder’ musicians, there are ‘15 minutes of fame’ individuals. If I were to be world famous for 15 minutes, I’d probably be famous for collecting cats…

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A skill set called leadership.

As with most things in life, with leadership comes responsibility and a strong ‘presence’. I would call myself responsible; I know my limits, I know what’s right from wrong, I am dependable, a good listener and doer. However, I wasn't born with a so-called ‘presence’ and I'm more than happy to just swim around in the background, but it is not ideal or the type of life that I want to lead.

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Like most people, I want to have lots of money and live a well-off life. To get there I obviously need to have a good job and with the term “good job”, leadership fits somewhere in there because the two go hand in hand. So next year when I go out in to the working world, I need to inevitably find my place and passion, put my stamp on it and make the most out of it. 

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