How to write a CV for a job in Ireland
Hey everyone, we are back with another blog post this week, today we’re going to give you some tips on writing your CV to get a job in Ireland. You might be wondering how different a CV for jobs in Ireland should look compared to your own country and we’re going to dive into that today and give you some practical tips on how to build your Irish CV to get noticed by hiring managers.
As you may know, the Curriculum Vitae is the first impression the human resources manager will have of you so it’s imperative that you show the most important and relevant things about you. As in every country, we all have our own habits and customs. The same applies to CV’s. In this article, we explain exactly how your Irish CV should look to get the best results with some tips and best practices.
Your CV should be simple, clear, and concise:
To make a good CV, try to be as organised and clear as possible. Remember the font and size of the letters should be easy to read. To highlight key words, use bold and italics instead of colourful backgrounds.
Another tip that will help you to achieve an attractive and simple design is to use the list format, which facilitates the hierarchy of the information and the order of the text.
It’s not typical to include a photo but if you do decide to include it, avoid selfies or landscapes photos
Your CV layout:
- First name and surname
- Telephone number, if you’ve got an Irish phone number it will be easier for a hiring manager to call and create less confusion for them so it’s a good idea to get an Irish phone number if you don’t have one
- Professional email address
- Professional social networks: LinkedIn is widely used in Ireland, so it would be a good idea to include the link in your CV. We highly recommend having a Linked in profile if you don’t have one already and to have it filled in completely with as much information as possible.
- Your address, you don’t have to give this but if you apply for a job in a specific area, mentioning that you live nearby implies that you are local and flexible which will help your application
CV structure:
- Personal contact information
- Links to socials, Linked In etc if professionally relevant
- Education and degree or certifications
- Work experience
- Skills
- Extras (Languages spoken etc)
- References
Points you should Highlight on your CV in order of importance:
Education:
Indicate the most relevant education you have. Look up the equivalent of the certificates you have: Degree, Bachelor’s degree, and what it equates to In Ireland and mention that. We also mention what level of degree we got on our CV’s
Work Experience:
List your work experience chronologically and be it is relevant to the position, changing the wording if needs be. If you have a lot of previous experience, list only that which is most relevant.
When mentioning your work experience, give the title of the position you have held as well as a short explanation of the tasks or responsibilities you performed in bullet point format, also mentioning any achievements in the job and what value you added to the team.
Skills:
We recommend you adapt your resume according to the job you are applying on. For example, if you are applying for a position where a driving licence is required, make sure you add that you have your driving licence.
Languages:
Do not forget to mention the languages you speak. This should be followed by a short sentence such as: fluent in spoken and written, highly proficient in spoken and written, bilingual, native etc. This will help if you are going for a job where multiple nationalities are spoken already, or if you’re applying for an office customer service job in your own language.
References
If it is a job in a particular area, they usually ask for references. Add the contact details of your former company in order that they can call or email to ask about you. If you think the new job might not want to call or email internationally, get a letter of reference if you can from your previous employers on headed paper and email it to your new prospective job as a reference.
Cover letter
It’s common practice to include a personalised cover letter in Ireland if you are looking for a job. It is a way to complement your CV and helps the recruiter get to know the candidate a little better. You can write a template for yourself and save it to use later, changing the job title if you need to.
Where to search for a job in Ireland:
Best job search websites:
It has become commonplace in Ireland and in Cork to only accept applications for jobs online, regardless of the type of job so here are our main job websites for you to check in order of how useful they are. The second two websites focus on cash in hand and part time jobs:
How to design your CV:
If you have taken all that information on board, but you are wondering how to design your CV or what it should look like visually, you can fill out a profile on indeed and set up an account and indeed will make you a CV in the correct format. You can even download that C.V in pdf format and use it to apply for jobs.
If you’re looking for something a bit more creative, you can also use Canva which has plenty of designs and templates to use.
Finally, in CEC we post job openings on our noticeboard every month and often have interview skills and CV writing workshops to help you make the best C.V. you could possibly make.
That’s all from us this week, if you found any of these tips helpful feel free to leave a comment or tag us on our socials at @corkenglishcollege or #corkenglishcollege