CV advice

The purpose of your CV is to convey your relevant work experience and education/ qualifications in the most visually effective way possible in order to maximise the chances of being shortlisted for interview.

It is often overlooked, when looking for alternative employment, that one of the hardest things to achieve is to actually be shortlisted for interview. Once you land an interview and are sitting in front of a potential employer, you become a much more compelling case to that employer compared with when you are just a piece of paper on a desk. It is not just about your work experience at that point. They consciously imagine how their clients would respond to you and how well you would fit in to the team you are potentially being recruited for. You’re chances of being offered a job markedly increase.

The 2, 3 or 4 sheets of paper which land on a partner’s and/or HR manager’s desk are your primary sales tool in selling you as a potential employee and effective fee earner. Setting out the CV in an effective and user friendly way is just as important as what is said in the CV. As experienced consultants, we have all dealt with candidates who, in reality, have lots to offer but prior to registering with us, struggled to land interviews because of a poorly structured CV. Clearly, in this situation, our priority is to bring the CV up to standard before we do anything else.

It is worth thinking about who might read the CV. They may not necessarily know much about the firm/department you work for, therefore it may be worth adding some brief contextual information so that the reader gets a feel for the size of firm, size of dept and type of clients you work for.

Finally, you need to remember that those reviewing your CV are busy people, particularly if it happens to be a partner or department head who is shortlisting. They may have a large pile of CVs on their desk and they are looking for an excuse NOT to shortlist you. If they cant access the information they are looking for quickly, you will not get shortlisted. Therefore do not be afraid to use short paragraphs and bullet points. Also, if you work in an area of law which can easily be sub-divided into specific areas, use sub-headings(eg if you are a Corporate lawyer you may undertake private equity work, JV’s MBO’s, MBI’s, acquisitions/disposals – talk about your experience in each area separately using sub-headings).

Personal details: 

1. Name
2. Address
3. Home number
4. Mobile number
5. Work number(only provide this if you’re comfortable with us calling you there – we would of course be discrete)

You may also include marital status, nationality, etc. if you wish

Education/Qualifications

1. Start with the date(provide month & year) you qualified as a solicitor or if you are an NQ provide month and year you will qualify as a solicitor
2. Provide details of Professional Skills course which you have undertaken
3. Provide Education details in reverse chronology
4. Start with eg. LPC and work backwards. In every case please provide:
Institution where studied, town where institution is based, give start date (month/year) and leaving date(month/year)
Give details of qualifications obtained

Employment History

1. Once again in reverse chronology

State name of company/practice, town/city where you were based, give start date (month/year) and leaving date(month/year)
State job title (or list job titles if you have been promoted whilst at the same practice)

2. Clearly state what department you work in and give a brief idea of what your general tasks are. If you manage a team, then outline your responsibilities and state how many people you manage. If your role can be split up into easily identifiable areas, then please do this and briefly explain your experience within each area(use sub-headings and/or bullet points where appropriate)

Any specific pieces of work, projects, cases, etc where you might have had a critical role or you assisted in a successful outcome or you were merely involved and would provide an interesting talking point in interview, then give a brief outline of the case and the type of client you represented. If you can provide 2 or 3 of these, then all the better.

If you are a mature qualifier:

1. Any non-legal work experience, we just need the following for each job:

Name of company, town where based, give start date (month/year) and leaving date(month/year)

Job title

2. If you are a mature qualifier and had a career in something which is relevant to the area of law which you have or are due to qualify into eg. you were a qualified engineer and you plan to become/ already are a Construction lawyer then list each job as usual:

Name of company, town where based, give start date (month/year) and leaving date(month/year)
Job title
 Plus about 4 – 6 lines for each job, providing a brief outline of what you did

3. If you are a mature qualifier because you happened to be a Legal Executive or Paralegal prior to qualification then list each job as usual, again providing 4 -6 lines under each job

If you are an NQ:

1. Please separate each seat undertaken with a sub-heading. That seat covering the area of law which you are planning to qualify into, please spend at least 10-12 lines explaining what you did during this seat. Other seats undertaken only need 8-10 lines of information

2. Any non-legal work experience, including holiday jobs, please just list
3. If you are a mature NQ because you happened to be a Legal Executive or Paralegal prior to your training contract, then list each job as usual, again providing 4 -6 lines under each job

Interests & Additional information

IT Skills
Language skills
Hobbies, interests, other skills/qualifications, etc

Referees

It is up to you whether you wish to provide these at this stage or not.