CV Advice

Please, if at all possible, submit your CV by email to science@sri.ie. It should be sent as a 'Word' file attachment. If you have to send a hard copy of your CV to us, please be aware that we will have to scan it into our system prior to submission to clients. To minimise the occurrence of errors and corruptions during this process, it is essential that we receive a good, clean copy, in a clear font such as 'Times New Roman' of font size 12. Do not use tab-based columns in your layout as these can become corrupted during the scanning process. Do not staple the pages together. We do not accept CVs by fax.

Please ensure that your CV is clearly laid out in sections with clear headings. As we file all our CV on our network database and correspond with our clients almost entirely through Email, please do not include any material in headers or footers as these may be overlooked when viewed on a PC. Also, please avoid the use of any tables, borders, shading or text boxes in your CV, as these are incompatible with our database software. Research has shown that, on average, the initial assessment of a CV by Human Resources personnel takes 7 seconds. Ensure that the highlights of your experience are clearly visible and will be picked up during this initial screening process and will gain the interest of the reader.

Your CV should be about two A4 pages in length, unless you are a very senior and experienced candidate when you may require additional space to record all relevant employment experience.

Ensure that your name, full postal address, home, work & mobile telephone contacts and your email address are clearly included at the top of the CV.

Provide a brief summary of relevant educational courses and qualifications including the name of the college you attended with dates, the course(s) that you took, and the qualification(s) that you attained.

List in chronological order, with dates, starting with your current or most recent position. Include the name of the Company/Organisation/individual that employed you, state your exact job title, the dates of your employment and a concise description of the job as you performed it.

This is the most important section of your CV! Provide a concise list of all the practical skills that you have acquired from your various employment situations and/or from your education or training. If relevant, also indicate the extent of your experience, e.g. full theoretical & practical industrial knowledge over a number of years, brief practical exposure over a number of months, work experience situation, college based practical exposure, theoretical exposure only, etc. It is very important that any lab based, analytical, production, R&D, etc. techniques are clearly presented. It will be these skills that will get you the interview.

Provide a short list of those activities or pursuits that are of real interest to you. They not only reflect the type of person you are, but they will also provide openings at interview for you to demonstrate your personality and interpersonal skills.

Although it is not essential at this stage, it is usual to include the names and full contact details of at least two people who know you well in a professional or educational capacity. We may wish to contact one or more of these individuals prior to submitting your CV to a client company, and we will certainly have to contact them should your application be proceeded with. We will never approach a referee without first obtaining the permission of the candidate. If you do not wish to include details of referees at this stage please state that references will be provided on request.

Use your spell checker! There is no excuse for spelling mistakes and 'typos' in this computer age! We hope this brief guide will be of assistance to you and we look forward to receiving your revised CV in the near future.

If you would like to talk to one of our consultants directly to discuss options for your career progression, or to arrange interview assessment and training, please call us on 01 - 667 5008/9.

For more information please contact us at science@sri.ie