The Curriculum Vitae

www.ten-percent.co.uk: guide to our CV Writing and Careers Services for Lawyers and Law Students & Graduates.

The Curriculum Vitae - your life on 2 sides of A4

The method of sifting through CV's in some firms can be any one of the following techniques:-

"one on the desk, one in the bin", "2.2 in the bin", "surnames beginning with A,C,E in the bin, B,D,F on the desk", "anyone who has put down which primary school they went to goes in the bin", "anyone who has written that they were prefects at school - in the bin".

For every application you make, there will probably be at least 100 others making the same application.

Covering letters are not so important, as employers with a number of CV's to read will not necessarily bother reading your covering letter, especially not when it is handwritten. Sometimes explanations can be provided for disasters during your academic life, and you can also take the opportunity to highlight any specific experience you have relevant to that firm. Some firms will "score" you on the quality of your handwriting (not content). Apart from this, the CV is the most important element of your job application and getting your foot firmly in the door.

This is why you need a CV which makes you stand out, both in terms of content and how relevant it is to a legal career. You must also consider the style and quality of the documents you are producing.

We offer CV advice and preparation as part of our range of services to the legal profession. Any advice or preparation is carried out by a qualified solicitor who recruits and has been recruited. We view many hundreds of legal CV's every year, and know what makes one stand out from the crowd.

In fact we get frustrated at times when somebody applies to us for a position, has good academic qualifications, useful experience, but an absolutely dreadful CV, either highlighting their call centre experience for a whole page or detailing their time in the civil service as a solicitor without making it relevant to a position in private practice.

To find out more about each service, please select one of the following options:

Review Service: to find out more about our advice service, please click here.

Preparation Service: to find out more about our preparation service, please click here.

Careers Coaching Service: to find out more, please click here

© Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited - March 2000 to 2006 all rights reserved. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment (www.ten-percent.co.uk) acts as an Employment Agency in the introduction of candidates to its clients for legal jobs. Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited recognises that it is essential to provide equal opportunities to all persons without discrimination. We encourage our employees at all levels to act fairly and prevent discrimination on the grounds of sex, age, race, sexual orientation, religion, marital status or disability.

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