Template details:
How to customise the free ‘Header’ CV template
This is yet another fantastic new CV template from our in-house design team. We hope you’ll love our ‘Header’ CV template which carries your name and personal details over to each subsequent page.
Here are a few top tips for customising your CV template, along with a few CV writing tips:
Stick with two pages
For most jobs you should try and keep your CV to two pages at the most, if possible. The exception to this rule is when you are applying for a senior position. Also, certain professions would often expect a detailed list of accolades, work experience, achievements, published work, and so on.
If however you don’t feel that this would apply to you, then we would advise trying to stick with two pages. This is the industry standard and would make the best impact.
Change the font
Don’t like the font? No problem – in Microsoft Word, make sure you’re on the Home tab, click ‘Select’ > ‘Select All’ and simply change the font from the drop down at the top. However, you’ll notice that this doesn’t change the Header or Footer. To change the font in the header and footer, make sure you’re on the home tab, double click within the header/footer, then click ‘Select’ > ‘Select All’ and pick your choice of font from the drop down at the top.
Not every font is a good choice for your CV – see our article on choosing the ideal font for your CV here.
Tell the truth
Don’t fib – whilst everyone will try to present themselves in the best light on their CV, downright lies or significant exaggeration is a huge no-no. I’ve read loads of CVs where people are definitely over egging themselves when it comes to qualifications and experience.
First, those in charge of recruitment will have seen thousands of CVs and conducted hundreds of interviews before yours arrived on their desk. So they’ll be pretty good at spotting obvious lies. Second, even if your lie goes under the radar there’s a good chance you’ll be found out later. This could be during the interview (when you trip up), as a result of references, or while you’re doing your job.
Provide accurate contact info
Make sure your contact information is present on your CV – and up to date. If you’ve not sent out your CV for a while, ensure your mobile number and email address are the ones you actually still use. Ensure that any email address you give looks professional – i.e. jamessmith@gmail.com is fine, but jimlovesfootball@gmail.com is not.
Check the spelling and grammar – check it again – then get a couple of other people to check it. Our team have worked as recruiters before and we have all ditched CVs that have spelling errors in. If you can’t be bothered to check your CV for a few errors, why should we believe that you’ll pay attention to detail when it comes to doing your job? Take the time to get it 100% right.
We hope you love using our Header CV template and we would love to hear from you with your success stories!