Tailor your CV to the job
When you decide to apply for your dream job, it's really important that you tailor your CV to fit the requirements highlighted in the job description. To tailor your CV, we recommend writing down all of your previous jobs then asking yourself the following questions for each job:
- Is the job relevant to the role I'm applying for?
- How long ago did I work at this job?
- Can I draw on any experiences from this job in my interview?
- Did I leave this job amicably?
Going through these questions will help you decide which jobs to leave on your CV and which ones to leave off. Remember, you want to show your potential employer that you're the best person for the job, so if you're applying to a highly technical research and analysis job, you probably don't need to include your part-time summer job at the local cafe. Keep the jobs and the experience on your CV as relevant as possible.
Should I leave short term jobs off my CV?
If you've taken a while to settle in a job that you truly enjoy, it might not give a very good impression. If the potential employer thinks that you'll only stay in the job for 3 or 4 months, it might put them off hiring you. That being said, you don't want your CV to have big gaps where it looks like you weren't working at all. As a good rule of thumb, if you worked at a job for longer than 3 months, you should try and include it on your CV.
The context of the job is a good indicator of whether you should leave it on or off your CV. If you worked at the job for less than 3 months, but feel it contributed to your skillset, you should leave it on your CV and let the potential employer know you only stayed there while you were looking for a more suitable long term role. Eg. the one you're applying for. If you only worked at a short term job to help you pay the bills, then it's probably not worth adding it to your CV.
