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CV

Note that this CV has been anonymised (hence the white space in places). 

Our thoughts

Positives

  • Clear structure, with obvious headings separating the main sections. This, coupled with the fact that the firms/organisations/society names come first in the title, makes it easy to get the gist of the applicant's experience on a quick skim (which is key).
  • Formatting is consistent throughout - the dates, hyphens, headings, font size/style, alignment of bullets etc. This demonstrates strong attention to detail. 
  • Concise bullet points and not too many bullets for each entry, which makes it all easier to read. It also means the applicant is forced to focus on the key details.
  • Really solid range of legal experience.
  • Focuses on their role in the different contexts, which is important.
  • Good use of numbers and statistics, which helps to bring the examples to life. No need to have these in bold though, as it might distract the reader.

Potential points for improvement

  • I think the campus ambassador roles should go with the legal experience. Perhaps the "LEGAL EXPERIENCE" heading could be "RELEVANT EXPERIENCE" and the "NON-LEGAL EXPERIENCE" heading could be "OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE". This is more a matter of personal preference however.
  • The spacing above "Pro Bono Society" on page 2 doesn't match the spacing between the other sections.
  • Could perhaps have given more context for some of the roles. For example, they could have explained the general focus of the pro bono society, what Vantage does, what the negotiation society does during the year, and so on.
  • It should be clearer how the applicant secured the various roles. For example, were all the legal experiences selective (if not, this should be made clear), and how were they chosen for other roles (elected, hired etc.)?
  • It would have been nice to hear more about hockey and gliding, as the rest of the CV is very focused on academic / legal experiences. Discussing (for example) sport, music, dance, and other creative experiences can help to make an applicant seem more well-rounded.
  • Could consider having "POSITIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY" as the heading for the section covering all the society exec roles, then a separate "EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES" heading for more casual roles, for example hockey (if they're not on the exec), gliding, society memberships etc.