Starting with crafting the graduate CV might seem confusing since after years of assessments based solely on grades, a person needs to create a document to sell himself or herself to the unknown employers. Indeed, for graduates who just finished or are going to finish a course in Ireland, this important part of career preparation is often inadequately covered in formal education.
Fortunately, there is good news for graduates: the CV for Ireland has clear conventions. Once they are understood, the CV turns from an intimidating document to a tool. Here are the recommendations on how to create a CV that will definitely be considered by an Irish recruiter.
Pay attention to format
The Irish employers hold quite high (but implicit) standards for CVs' appearance, and deviations from them may mean a poor market knowledge. Keep the document one or two pages long. For a graduate with little work experience, one page is perfectly fine; a small page is much better than a too long one. Do not include things that are traditionally not included in Irish CVs: a photo, the date of birth, age, marital status, Personal Public Service (PPS) number, and the full address. Note that the photo will cause troubles to the applicant tracking systems used by most companies before the human review.
Use a neat single-column format and do not use tables, text boxes, sidebars, icons or any other means that might affect the processing capabilities of the mentioned software. Use a plain font like Calibri or Arial about 11-point size. Save the CV as a PDF for direct applications, naming it in a traditional way like Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf, not cv_final_v3.pdf.
Start with education
This is one of the key differences between graduates and more experienced candidates. While the latter might start with their work experience, graduates with little exposure should put education first. Since Graduate cv writing help have limited professional experience, their education is the major asset, and therefore it should be placed prominently at the top right after a short personal profile.
Describe your degree with the institution, dates, and most importantly, the relevant modules, projects and your thesis/final year work. "Final-year project: created a customer-churn model in Python and presented it to a panel" gives much more information than "BSc Computer Science, 2:1". This way, you showcase your competencies.
Use reverse chronological order (the most recent comes first) and use the month-and-year dates consistently. If you have good grades, say so; if you have average grades, let your projects speak for you.
Turn "no experience" into the proof
It is common for graduates to be worried about the lack of experience. However, Irish employers looking for graduates understand that these people have just started their career; the goal is to find out if candidates can demonstrate their skills, not to hire someone with corporate experience.
Therefore, list all relevant experiences. The part-time job in retail is experience of dealing with customers and handling money in the stressful environment. Being the captain of the college team is the experience of leadership and organization. Membership in the society's committee is the experience of budgeting and organizing events. Volunteering, internships, hackathons and studying in another country all of this helps, as long as it is written from the angle of a skill and result.
What needs to be done is to show your accomplishments rather than responsibilities. Instead of "was responsible for the college food stall", write "managed a weekly food stall that raised €1,200 for charity during a semester". Start every point with a verb like led, built, organized, increased and always try to quantify the results.
List your hard and soft skills (soft skills are teamwork, problem-solving and so on), but do not simply list them; give an example of using each skill in a particular case.
Tailor it for every application
One of the most common mistakes made by graduates is sending the same CV to twenty positions. The Irish recruiters easily recognize a generic CV, and the applicant tracking systems will discard it even before human review.
Examine the job description and use its terminology. If it asks "stakeholder communication", use this phrase in your CV wherever it is possible. Remove all information that is not required for this position. A CV targeted to a certain job description works much better than a perfect generic CV.
Moreover, include a cover letter unless explicitly asked not to by the employer—this is just a concise paragraph that shows why you want to occupy this position in this particular company.
Additional notes for internationally educated graduates
The graduate pool of Ireland is international indeed, and recruiters see many kinds of qualifications. If your education was obtained outside Ireland, it is useful to provide a small note to explain the situation to the reader. For instance, the person who started preparing for his/her academic career with CBSE Class 10 Sample Papers in India before coming to Ireland to pursue the degree should add a line explaining the educational system and its equivalence to the Irish/EU system—otherwise the recruiter will need to guess.
One small piece of information may save even the best credentials.
The only item that should be excluded
Do not include references and do not paste the referee contact details. In Ireland, references are usually provided further in the recruitment process upon request. It is up to you if you want to put the phrase "references available on request"; increasingly, it is simply omitted to make room for achievements/projects.
When external help can be appropriate
Many graduates manage to create a good CV independently, using guidance like this and receiving an honest review from a peer or the college careers service. In some cases, though, especially in very competitive sectors, when changing the industry or when struggling to create the document at all, professional help in creating the CV is perfectly acceptable. An experienced CV writer will not invent anything—he or she will only organize your existing credentials in a proper way.
If you choose to entrust your CV creation to a specialist, then using a CV writing service in Ireland might be the right choice for the beginning of your career (provided that you treat it as a cooperation, not a guarantee of success). There is no service that can promise you a job; all such claims are exaggerations.
The CV created now is not the final version. Keep improving it with every new role, project and achievement. Now, it has one goal—to attract a recruiter's attention and make him or her think: "I want to meet this person."
FAQ
How long should a graduate CV be in Ireland?
One to two pages. For a recent graduate with little experience, one page is ideal and completely acceptable.
Should a photo be included in the CV?
No. Irish employers do not expect a photo in a CV, and it may interfere with the applicant tracking software. Also, exclude age, date of birth, marital status, and PPS number from the document.
What should come first on a graduate CV?
After a short personal profile, priority should be given to education—including relevant modules and projects—as it is the strongest asset of a graduate with little professional experience.
How to demonstrate skills without work experience?
Use part-time employment, college projects, membership in the club or society, volunteering and internships to demonstrate your skills. Describe every point as an accomplishment with a result.
Regarding the references in the CV, employers typically do not require references to be provided in the CV; references are provided on request. The phrase "references available on request" is optional and is increasingly omitted to make room for other achievements.
As far as including a cover letter with a graduate CV is concerned, it is always advisable to include one unless it is requested otherwise by the employer.
