Tuesday 27 September 2011

CV Workshop - 'Extracurricular Activities' heading

If this is the first time you are viewing this blog series, please refer back to the first summary post called ‘CV Workshop – Top 5 Headings for your CV’.

If you have done a lot of extracurricular activities at school or university, then this heading is definitely a good optional extra for you to have on your CV. For instance, I’ve worked on the University student newspaper, which is significant experience as it is part of my journalism experience. In particular, the student newspaper is well recognised in the publishing industry, so if that’s the direction you want to go in, then the student newspaper is a great starting point. Furthermore, it’s really important to detail all your activities, even if they don’t directly relate to the work you’re applying for. This is because these activities develop many skills e.g. team work, which all relate to the work place.

As I have emphasised before, make sure that all the extracurricular activities are detailed in chronological order starting from your most recent position at the top, and work your way down. Also, as an added thought, try to make sure that you’re consistent throughout your CV in terms of layout, font and sizes etc. If you’re following this blog series, an easy way to format the extracurricular section is to do so in the same way as the education section. So, you’ll be using a template that looks a little bit like this:

{Start date} – {End date/Present} NAME OF POSITION/ROLE, LOCATION, Brief DESCRIPTION

Please do remember that the above template is just a guideline of what you could do with your extracurricular activities section. I would strongly advise doing some of your own research and having a look at CV’s that are considered strong.

The next and final CV Workshop will be for the ‘Skills’ heading.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Steff, I'm interested in the publishing industry and have been applying constantly for the past month or so. I know you've written before that CVs should be about 1-2 pages long but I was wondering how long yours was while applying? I've read elsewhere that for media roles, one page is the absolute maximum as employers like having all the information right in front of them as they often just quickly scan CVs. I've got all my experience and jobs on 1 side but feel I'm slightly underselling myself and would like to expand upon some points but I'm worried that 2 pages is too much. Thoughts?

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  2. Hi Alex,

    When I was applying I had my CV at two pages. It wasn't possible to put down all my experience onto one page. My advice would be to send out a two page CV that really sells you. Don't limit yourself to just 1 page if you're not happy with it. Employers will differ with their preference but I doubt very much that your applications will be rejected just because your CV is 2 pages.
    Hope this helps.

    Best wishes.

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