Out of all the documents you are likely to post or e-mail throughout your career, the Curriculum Vitae (CV) is probably one of the most important. A CV is Ð almost always Ð sent in response to a specific advertised question but unfortunately most people send out CVs with the hope of " getting the job"

So your CV needs to provide details of where and when you studied or what elements of your education equip you to do a particular job. It is not necessary to put down every piece of detail of your work experience or educational upbringing in a CV, just merely enough to answer the initial specific questions in a job advert and provide enough data for further exploration at interview stage.

What this means, of course, is that for every single job, audition or position that you apply for, you will have to write a specific and targeted CV. Under no circumstances can you compile one CV, photocopy it twenty times and post it to twenty different organisations advertising employment opportunities! All you are doing is creating junk mail. In fact, organisations within the UK receive more unsolicited and untargeted CVs than they do e-mail Spam Mail!

Therefore, writing a CV is not a quick activity and each effort requires thought and planning. In addition, CVs need to be as simple to read as possible, which means that they must be laid out in a logical and consistent structure.

However, before we start looking at the information that should be presented in a CV, there are some general rules about its design and creation that you need:

A CV should never be longer than two-pages! Always word process your CV Ð never hand written Use bold type for headings, however, do not make it too complicated to read by using too many confusing text sizes or fonts Try to create as much "white space"' as possible i.e. spread your text out and provide space between sections Proofread, proofread and proofread again: remember this CV is representing you - if there is a mistake on your CV, an employer may take the view that if you don'

t take care over the quality of your CV, how much care are you going to take over your work or playing? In addition it is important to remember that, in order to whittle down the numbers, employers are looking for reasons to discard your CV, not keep it. Don't give them a reason to throw it away by missing an error or presenting an unprofessional document.

Bearing all this in mind the first step to complete when planning your CV is to conduct a personal education, experience and skills audit. This will provide you with a pool of data from which you can draw relevant information when required. Write down every element of your education and experience from special projects to specific concerts to the name of every orchestra you have every worked with to detailed repertoire lists to a comprehensive listing of all your skills and where they have been applied (these skills can be soft skills such as communication, writing or negotiation skills to hard skills such as computer literacy, accountancy or any other technical abilities).

Once you have your database of personal attributes then the second step is to research the job requirements as fully as possible. Read the job advert through at least three or four times and try to analyse exactly what questions the advert is posing. Then see if you can find any supplementary information about the employer from the internet, printed media or through personal contacts. You need to know as much as possible about the organisation to whom you are applying in order to provide them with as much relevant information as possible.

Now that you have completed your personal research, it is time to start answering the questions that the job advertisement has posed. It is vital that prospective employers know who you are and how to contact you, so the first section of the CV should provide all your personal details such as name, postal address, telephone/mobile number and e-mail address. Provide every mechanism for someone to contact you because the last thing you want is to miss an opportunity for an interview or audition because you were not contactable. You can also list your marital status, date of birth and nationality if you feel that this information will help your chances of being invited to an interview/audition. In addition, one element that many musicians forget to list on their CV is the instrument they play. Don't forget this important piece of data and place it in large type below or next to your name.

The next section should explain your relevant education background. At this point there are a couple more rule to highlight before you start putting pen to paper: CVs are never written in the first or third person (i.e. I or he/she). You don't need to write full sentences Ð just bullet points with facts and figures. In addition, throughout a CV you should list everything in reverse chronological order i.e. the most recent elements first.

In the education section, start with the most recent degree/course/qualification first. It is important, at this stage, to establish a consistent format in which the information is displayed so that it becomes very easy for the reader to access the data. Start with the dates during which the studying took place (just the years will suffice) then list where you studied (name of institution and city/country), what you studied (degree/course/qualification name) and what you received for it (the final mark). Below this information, you should provide approximately three to four extra pieces of information in the form of bullet points providing information about special studies and/or projects that are relevant to the position you are applying for in order to demonstrate that you have the necessary skills to fill the position advertised. Therefore, for a teaching position you would list any courses/classes/projects that have trained you to be an effective teacher. As a rule, list all university education in detail, however, school education can be a simple listing of the number or GCSEs and A levels passed with a total or marks received (e.g. GCSEs: 7 A* and 3 A). The layout would look similar to this:

• 1999 - 2003 Central School of Music, Ulan Bator, BMus (Performance), 2:1
• Tuba tuition with Hugh Blow
• Elective course in Music in the Community
• Devised and ran outreach programme "The Joy of Brass" as part of LCSM (Licentiate of the Central School of Music)

The next section should cover your relevant work experience. Again, it is important to list everything in reverse chronological order with the most recent work experience first. It is not necessary to list every job you have ever had but just the ones that demonstrate that you have the relevant work experience for the position advertised. To be consistent, you need to list the date you held the position from and to (just the years will suffice) with the name of the employer (organisation name), the position held and then some bullet points outlining the key tasks you conducted while working in that position and any other relevant responsibilities. If possible, try and get at least some of your most recent work experience onto the first page of your CV. Always assume that the reader will only read page one so place the most relevant information on that page.

Musical achievements need to be treated a little differently. In the case of masterclasses, list the date (just the year), name of the "master", the venue it was held in and the city/country where the classes took place. For concerts, list the date, the venue where the concert was held, what type of concert it was (recital, chamber music, lunchtime etc.), the orchestra and work (if it was a concerto performance) and the city/country where the concert took place. If applying to fixers for extra work, you need to list all the orchestras you have worked with including the date, name of orchestra and position (leader, co-leader, etc.). You may also include your orchestral repertoire (in alphabetical order in a separate section) so as to provide a fixer with some knowledge of what works you could play in an emergency.

The next section should cover your skills and should include details of any languages you speak, computer programmes you can use or any soft skills you are proficient at. You must provide some detail about how well you can use these skills: in the case of languages you should state your proficiency level such as basic, conversational, written or fluent. In the same way, you should grade your knowledge of computer programmes such as basic, proficient or full working knowledge.

If you have published any books or articles and feel that their mention is relevant to your application, place these in a separate section. List the publication date, journal/publisher and title of article/book. If you have published on the web, list the website address and the date that the information was uploaded. In addition, if you have presented any papers at conferences or seminars, start with the date, conference name, location and title of paper presented. You can then include a bullet point to provide further details about the topic.

Finally, you should provide details of two referees. One should be from a recent place of work with the other being a character reference from a trusted source. Make sure you ask their permission to be a referee before you send your CV and find out how they prefer to be contacted (by mail, e-mail, fax, telephone) and list all the relevant contact information under their name.

Your CV should be accompanied by a covering letter. This letter should be very simple and short. First of all make sure that you have all the contact details of the employer correct including the spelling of their name and work place in addition to placing all your contact details in a letterhead. The first paragraph should state why you are sending this CV: "I am sending this CV in response to your advert placed in Classical Music (April 2004) for a violin teacher." The second paragraph is used to highlight one aspect of your CV that you feel makes you most eligible for the position. What this does is draws the reader's attention to your most attractive attribute, which makes you perfect for the job. The final paragraph simply states your desire for the job and offers the opportunity for the reader to get any further information from you if they require it.

CVs are powerful tools when marketing yourself but, as the saying goes, "If they didn't hear it, you probably didn't say it" Therefore, the information on your CV needs to be relevant, clear and easy to access.

Liam Abramson 2003

this article is copyright protected. Morgensterns is licensed to reproduce it. No further copying is permitted without Morgensterns or the author's permission