A CV is like a messenger you send ahead to big you up

Get Into Theatre checks the pulse of your CV and writes a prescription to improve its health. The CV clinic is open for surgery. Send yours to info@getintotheatre.org

Below you can see our experts’ assessment of our latest CV. You can find other CVs in our previous clinics section in the right hand column of this page.

Basic CV tips

• Keep your CV to two pages
• Make it functional–a CV is not a place to experiment with fancy paper, trendy fonts and all the colours of the rainbow
• Always include a brief synopsis (about three sentences) at the top introducing yourself and outlining your career objectives
• Unless you’re applying for an acting job, don’t add a picture
• Don’t just list your work experience. Make sure you include some bulletpoints about what you learned/ achieved through it
• Check spelling and grammar really carefully.

Covering letter

The purpose of a covering letter is to introduce yourself and communicate something of your personality. It can also be used to highlight the most important parts of your CV. A covering letter demonstrates that you can write in sentences and spell and use grammar–so make sure you look through it carefully (in fact get someone else to double-check it) before you send it off.

It is not necessary to handwrite a covering letter these days, despite what your parents might tell you. But do take time to lay it out well–and make sure you include a contact phone number and email address.

Check out our sample covering letter

Some other useful CV and letter writing advice sites:

• Connexions
• Great CVs
• Guardian jobs
• The Stage How To… write a CV
• The Site

Latest CV

An admin who wants to make the jump into arts

This young woman feels she’s quite good at writing a formal CV, but get confused about writing specifically for the arts sector.

Focus

Consider focusing your CV more on the area that you’re interested in – arts admin and management. Remember that jobs are intensively competitive in this sector, and you need to sell yourself more into the arts – this isn’t for your local temp agency.

[Note–there’s nothing wrong with having two (or more) CVs for different types of jobs or sectors – for example, one for temping/ office work, one for the arts.]

A bit of reorganising will give you more space, which will in turn give you more chance to sell yourself.

Consider using a slightly smaller font (maybe 11 or 12 point), reducing the margins on your page, and reformatting your existing info onto less lines (eg dates, subtitle, details). For instance, make you postal address appear on just one line, lose any unnecessary lines/ gaps in the paragraphs, and hey preston, I reckon you’ve gained a half side of A4 in which to sell yourself even more!

Language

The other thing I think you should bear in mind is that it’s one thing to sell yourself and another to oversell. Just be careful that words like “extensive” and “phenomenal” don’t sound too OTT for a recent graduate, albeit it a passionate one with some good experience.

Maybe change your “Work Experience” title to say “Employment Experience” – I assume that the positions you’ve listed are paid roles, not voluntary, and the change of title makes this clearer and shows your experience for what it really is.

Personal profile

I liked your career profile section but I would maybe think about having a couple of sentences just about you (tenacious, well organised, good communication) and your skills and experience (recent arts graduate, good with computers/ software, office experience).

Consider using your extra space for a short personal statement about your personal skills and passions in the arts. Or perhaps to cover your other interests/ hobbies or voluntary experiences. Or say something about why you want to work in the arts, what you’re particularly interested in, areas that inspired you through your degree…

Summary: Overall this is a solid CV showing good experience in administration–but it’s maybe lacking a few extra flourishes.