Your CV, is the first time recruiters will hear about you. Along with your cover letter, it stands in the way of you and your dream job – so it’s fair to say you should be putting a fair amount of effort in to perfecting it!
Writing a successful CV can seem like a daunting task, but done correctly, it can open a world of opportunity – all you need to do is take the time to craft it. If you've already got a written CV, we suggest getting it reviewed by CV analysers. You can do it with our partners at Top CV for free!
Below, we’ve covered everything from what recruiters are secretly looking for to how you should present your aviation CV. Ultimately, your goal is to tailor your CV to each job and company you apply for by showcasing relevant skills and experience.
What Are Recruiters Looking For?
Many recruitment decisions are based on cold, hard facts. So a recruiter will search your CV for evidence that you can do the job in question. The type of information a recruiter would be looking for might include:
- Your position in the hierarchy: It’s important for recruiters to understand where you would best fit in their team. Include information such as who you report to, if you work independently or if you manage anyone.
- Numbers: Recruiters will look for ways of quantifying your value to your previous company in numbers. This could include revenue generated, percentage of targets hit, flight time clocked, or time taken to achieve a project. Providing strong evidence in figures gives a prospective employer an idea of what return on investment they will receive by employing you.
- What your current employer does: If you’re currently working for a lesser-known company, make sure you add an explanation of what the company does so they can put your role into context. If your company is more well known, describe how your department and role contribute to the wider business.
- Technology expertise: Most jobs bring you into contact with some form of technology so recruiters will be keen to learn your level of ability.
- The objective of your previous role: The most important thing to include is “What were you hired to do?”. A recruiter can then put your hard work and results into context.
- Examples of past work: Whatever tangible work you have produced, ensure you state it clearly on your CV, indicating the volume and quality of work produced and how this benefited the business.
- How you interact with other people: The aviation industry will bring you into direct contact with many people, including international citizens where English may not be their first language. Recruiters will be looking for evidence that you are able to communicate clearly and effectively with people from all walks of life.
Where Do I Start?
Now you know what employers are looking for, there’s just one final thing you need to do before you begin writing your CV – research. By completing research on the company and looking into the role and what it entails, you can gain insights that will help you write your CV and make light of any key information in your cover letter too.
You should be able to find out online what sort of company culture they have and what kind of people they employ.
You need to demonstrate that you understand what the company does, what their position within the industry is, and how you can align your experience, interests, and values with the goals of the company. Having a basic understanding of the company and their aspirations will also help you when you get to the interview stage.
Remember to pay close attention to the job description. This will be full of clues about what the recruiters are looking for, especially in terms of skills and experience.
Writing Your CV
Firstly, your CV should include some basic but vital information about you so that recruiters know who you are and how they can get in touch with you. Make sure you include:
- Your full name
- Address
- Professional emails address
- Phone number
- Links to relevant blogs or social presence
Personal Statement
If you choose to include a personal statement, this should sit under your basic information. It should be a short paragraph that describes who you are and what you’re about, including your career goals and what you could bring to the company. They are similar in nature to a cover letter, just shorter – usually a few sentences.
It’s not mandatory to include this section, but with recruiters spending, on average, 8.8 seconds looking at your CV, this is your chance to give them a reason to read on. They are particularly useful in a competitive industry, like aviation, as they are the perfect way to grab the recruiter’s attention in a pile of hundreds of CVs.
Avoid writing a generic CV – we can’t stress this enough – to everyone – if you want to get noticed, you must tailor your personal statement to the company you’re applying for. Aim for something similar to this if you were applying for cabin crew roles, for example, and try to add in mentions of your skillset.
Flight Hours
It’s really important to include hours relevant to your position and split by type. For example, if you were applying for pilot jobs, you might look to include flight hours information:
- X hours as Pilot in Command
- X hours as Second in Command
- X hours on a Boeing 777
This could be its own section, because you know it’s an important piece of information for recruiters to see.
Qualifications and Education
In this section, list all your certificates and ratings, starting with your most recent or highest-held certificate. You need to indicate that you meet the requirements of the job vacancy, so include the license types, any medical certificates, and the country in which the licenses were issued.
When listing your education, only list the most recent college or university that you attended. Include the title of the qualification, the grade awarded, and the date achieved. If you are still in education, you are entitled to list it, but ensure that you make it clear that it hasn’t been completed yet.
Try to stick to bullet points in this section. If you do have months where you were out of work or education, keep your explanation brief. If an employer requires more information, they will ask you to elaborate during an interview.
Experience
This is usually the most prominent section on a CV, and it’s worth spending some time making sure you have identified the most relevant experience for the job. This section is normally laid out in reverse chronological order, with the most recent experience at the top.
Keep your experience short and accurate, listing the company name, duration of employment in years, your title and the type of aircraft that you flew on.
You may have one particular job or work experience that you really want to highlight. You could create a new section titled ‘Engineering Experience’, or ‘Flight Experience’ and put this first. Your remaining experiences can then be put under ‘Further Experience’.
If this is your first job in aviation, lead with your qualifications and then add detail on the transferable skills you have gained from your experience. If you’ve been in the game a while, start with you experience as it’s more recent and relevant to the job.
Skills
Employers will be looking out for the necessary skills they need when searching through job applications, like adaptability, tenacity and being a team player.
You should always try to provide your skill set in the form of a real-life example of how you have displayed it at work. It helps convince the recruiter you’re not just naming skills for the sake of it
If you’re new to the aviation industry, demonstrate how you have transferable skills from other industries you’ve worked in. For example, you’ve only ever worked in a restaurant, and you’re applying for a cabin crew position. Demonstrate how your time at the restaurant taught you:
- Valuable insights into the hospitality industry.
- How to communicate with customers effectively.
- Excellent customer service skills, including being patient and resilient.
- How to pay attention to detail in a fast-paced environment.
- How to deal with handling money.
- How to multitask.
“Past work experience that might not appear to be directly relevant to the job at hand might show another dimension, depth, ability, or skill that actually is relevant or applicable.”
Alyssa Gelbard, Career Expert
Interests & Hobbies
A section on your CV that includes a diverse range of interests can help you seem interesting and personable. Highlight interests that have helped you develop the skills that the employer is looking for.
References
Only include references on your CV if you’ve been asked to in the job description. Avoid the classic line ‘References available on request’. This is unnecessary and takes up valuable room on your CV.
An employer will contact you for details of references if they are considering offering you a position.
1. When contacting your reference, they could ask for:
- A character reference
- Details about responsibility
- Length of employment
- Punctuality and attendance
- Overall performance
- Reason for leaving
2. Who should I choose?
Choose your referees carefully, usually it would be your most recent employer. If you don’t have a recent employer, teachers, business acquaintances, customers and organisational leaders can all verify that you are who you say you are.
3. What are they saying about you?
Under the Data Protection Act, you have the right to view any references given by your previous employers. If you disagree with any comments, you may wish to address the matter with your previous employer or remove them as your reference in future applications.
How To Format Your CV
Making your CV look professional and easy to read is essential. Recruiters are ‘time poor,’ so you should aim for one or two pages of A4, but no more. The upper-middle area of the first page is known as the ‘CV hotspot.’ This is where the eye naturally falls so think about including your most important experience or ‘key attributes’ here.
Top tips
- Avoid huge chunks of text – bullet points will make the information easier to read and digest
- Sans-serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial make for an easy-read
- Make headings bold and straightforward but not oversized
- Avoid using confusing subheadings
- Stick to conventional colours – printing your CV in neon will make you stand out but for all the wrong reasons!
