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Fun idea: Is your work Google-themed? Why not change the headers to match Google’s logo colours. If you’re using Microsoft Word, you’ll need to know the colours represented as RGB.
Click on the text colour button and choose ‘More Colours’, then click on the ‘Custom’ tab and fill in the RGB values below for the relevant colour.
They are:
Google Green:
Red – 60, Green – 186, Blue – 84
Google Yellow:
Red – 244, Green – 194, Blue – 13
Google Red:
Red – 219, Green – 50, Blue – 54
Google Blue:
Red – 72, Green – 133, Blue – 237
When to include education on your CV
There are many instances when having your early grades from school and college are vital for your CV. In some cases they may be mandatory if you want to stand any chance of getting your dream job. However, there are also many instances when your education is taking up valuable space.
Making this kind of decision is very difficult, and really does depend on the person’s circumstances. If you have a long career history, then the choice to state your education would be dramatically different to a recent school leaver.
To help you decide, here are a few examples of when you may or may not need to put down your grades from school…
You’ve been working for many years in the same industry
If you’ve been working in the same job or industry for many years, then you probably don’t need to worry too much about your grades from school or college.
When applying for another job to perform a similar role to your current position, you’ll often find that the hiring manager is more interested in your experience and how well you’ve been performing within that role. This means that your education is likely to take a backseat on your CV.
When looking at a CV from the eyes of the employer, you have to weigh up your options as to what’s more important. Is it that the candidate has good grades and some experience, or that they have years of experience in this role. As such, grades from 20 years ago don’t really matter.
You have a few years of work experience
If you are in-between the above examples and have just a few years of work experience, this may be a harder choice. In our experience we would recommend focusing upon how you can demonstrate you are right for the job.
Evaluate all the facts to make a more informed decision. If the job advert is requesting a minimum grade from University, then you obviously need to state your education. A university degree may be all that’s needed here, so your earlier grades may not be important.
Again, if you can clearly see that your current experience is far more valuable than your education, you should focus upon that. But if a qualification and an academic background is important, then utilise both experience and education.
If you are low on work experience for your CV, have you ever considered voluntary work? For more information on the benefits of work experience, please read – Voluntary for work experience.
Your grades are high or low
Outstanding achievements should often be highlighted on a CV. ‘A star’ grades across the board are a magnificent achievement, and one which should be recognised. As a school leaver these results will be essential to gaining full time employment, and demonstrate a high level of ability.
If however your grades are below average or even very poor, then this could mean one of two things. Firstly, you are dependant on those grades when leaving school and would typically be expected by an employer on your CV. With poor grades you are likely to struggle to gain employment, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other options.
With poor grades you may decide to enter into an apprenticeship scheme. This would benefit you greatly as you may then get a second chance to gain a higher grade in the important subjects – like maths and English.
An apprenticeship scheme also offers paid work, and the chance to learn a new skill or trade. This will bolster your CV greatly and help an employer to see your potential. There is a lot of information online to help you get started. Click here to find your ideal apprenticeship now.
