CV Advice

There are many different ways in which you want to present your CV to various employers, each depending on the field of work that you are in. You have to remember that this is the first impression you are going to give to your potential employer so first rule; DON’T WAFFLE!

*TIP: DO YOUR BEST NOT TO GO OVER 2 PAGES*

In the hospitality industry and especially for Silver Swan Recruitment when looking for a chalet ski job, there are a handful of important things that can get you a lot further in your application process. A few simple things that you can tweak will allow an employer to take you more seriously the first time round.

So…where to begin?

1. PERSONAL DETAILS

The first thing that you want on your CV are of course, the personals. It is really important to get all of these down, especially a photograph and your date of birth. These will be things that your employer will have to eventually ask from you, so save their time and get it right the first time.

So this is more or less what we want to see…

YOUR NAME: JOE BLOGGS

YOUR PHOTO HERE

DATE OF BIRTH: 06/08/1985

EMAIL ADDRESS: [email protected]

PHONE NUMBER: 0787654321

ADDRESS: NO. 10 DOWNING STREET

NATIONALITY**: BRITISH

** It is really important to put your nationality. For 99% of our positions, you will be employed through a UK company, and therefore will need the statutory requirements to be able to secure yourself a position with a UK company. If you have all of the below, then along with your nationality, state your visa/ passport status and whether you have access to those points below.

- A UK residential address

- A valid National Insurance number

- A UK bank account

2. PROFILE

What follows your personal information is a lot more important to us that you might think. There is a big different between what we want and what we don’t want (this is what I mean by don’t waffle). Let me see if you can tell the difference….

‘I am an extremely hardworking individual who can work well in a team as well as really well working on my own. I am enthusiastic, bubbly and really friendly and would love the opportunity to work with you’

OR

‘I am currently in my 7th year as a Chef, 3 of which I ran my own chalet in France and am now looking for a Head Chef position in a private chalet to start this December’

Well…you guessed it…I hope. We want to see exactly what you have done, your current position and what you want from us. We know you work as well in a team as you do individually, so does everyone else.

If you do feel that there is a lot more about you that you want to show, then there is nothing wrong with a COVER LETTER. This can take care of all the information that you want to get across without it distracting from your CV and your experience.

3. RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

Most people tend to put their education first. For us, it is not as important as the experience that you have that is relevant to the industry. If you are applying for a managerial role, we want to see this experience rather than the time you did the paper round for a year. So whilst you would normally put your most recent experience first, if you have more relevent experience then put Relevenat Experience FIRST, followed by OTHER EXPERIENCE.

What we want to see

- Dates (should ideally be what you are doing now e.g. Dec 2012 - present)

- Company Name and Location

- Position Held

- Brief outline of responsibilities; either in bullet points or a paragraph

- Reason for leaving (optional)

This should help…

Relevant Experience

Sept’ 2013- Present Jo’s Bar and Restaurant, West London, Restaurant Manager

I started this position as the restaurant supervisor and was promoted to manager after a month. I am in charge of overseeing everything in the restaurant, from the kitchen (food and hygiene standards), staff rotas, stock control and client reservations. I also am very hands on and wait on the tables, serve behind the bar and thoroughly clean the restaurant on a daily basis. I intend to leave this position in November to do a ski season.

May 2013- Sept 2013 Blogg’s Riverside Golf Club, Bristol, Silver Service Waitress

I worked for over 40 hours a week in the Club House, ensuring the highest of standards were maintained throughout service. Over the weekends, I worked as the head waitress for all the events, from fine dining banqueting to celebrity weddings. I left because I was offered the restaurant supervisor role.

June 2012- May 2013 Time out to travel the world

December 2011- May 2012 Silver Swan Chalet, Courchevel 1850, Chalet Host

For 5 months I worked alongside a top Chef in a Private Chalet in Courchevel. My duties included welcoming the guests and attending their every need, daily housekeeping and maintaining the high standard of cleanliness in the chalet. My reasons for leaving were because the season ended.

*These are all fictional positions, but keep your eyes peeled for when Silver Swan have their own chalet!

4. OTHER EXPERIENCE

If we only had 20 seconds to read about you, we’ve got everything we need. BUT, we don’t have 20 seconds, we have longer and we do want to know the rest. Now is where you can fill in the blanks. Whether your 25 or 45, you’ve most likely done a job that has nothing to do with what you’re into now. It is necessary to let us know how what you’ve done with your years. It isn’t necessary, however to go into as much detail, unless it would be of interest to us. You can keep it simple…

Summer ‘09 – Bottomshop Retail

Feb ’08- April ’09- One Stop Coffee Shop, Barista

Nov ’07- Jan ’08- Ant Farm Specialist

5. EDUCATION

Go on then….tell us where you studied and what you got.

Little bit of advice though, it isn’t necessary to list every subject with your grade. You can simplify it a lot easier.

Newcastle University, Hospitality Studies, 2:1

London High School, 3 A Levels Grade A- B

7 GCSE’s at Grade A- C

6. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Although this is at the end, there are some things about you that shouldn’t miss off. Here is a small list of things that we WANT to know. We do turn the page, so this certainly won’t get missed out and if you don’t add some of this information then we will ask you (remember what I said before about being a step ahead and not wasting your employers time)

· Non- Smoker

· 3 years, full clean driving licence

· Fluent in French, conversational German

· No tattoos, minimal ear piercings

· STCW95 qualifiied

LASTLY, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST…..

7. REFERENCES

To complete your CV, you want to be adding your references. Two or three are fine and it is not a problem to add a personal reference (someone you know to give a character reference, but no one that is related to you).

The most important thing that we want from your reference is a COMPANY EMAIL address. It is by far the easiest means of contact and being electronic is it a far more viable source. We obviously want a name and who the employer was too…

Jo King Mel Green

Jo’s Bar and Restaurant Blogg’s Golf Club

0787654321 0765678987

[email protected] [email protected]

So there you have it, a simple guide to writing a CV. As I said at the beginning, there are many ways to layout your CV, this way is how Silver Swan Recruitment like to see it done.

You will see on a lot of our jobs advertised, a ‘TO APPLY’ where we ask for your CV, photo and references (if applying for a chef position, we will want a MENU PLAN too). So get it right the first time and have everything together before applying to vacancies.

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Best of luck with your job hunt and we hope to hear from you soon.