Writing your CV

In Dublin, we are lucky enough to have a specialist Business Library in the Central Library, Ilac Centre. They specialise in all aspects of business and have huge resources in terms of looking at business reports, market trends and researching starting up a business and so on. They can be contacted on [email protected]

The first area we are going to look at is supporting those who are looking for jobs or changing career, starting with a look at CV’s and cover letters. The following are some of the current recommendations:

Europass - Best for those from outside Ireland and whose first language is not English. Europass is the complete CV builder for those applying for jobs throughout the EU.  The CV builder is user friendly, with options to upload, build a CV in the Europass format and create your Europass profile. The main advantage of using Europass is for those who are from outside Ireland and looking for jobs here. The website and instructions are easy to understand and there are translations available in thirty-one languages. This would usually be the go-to website for any EU nationals who have arrived in Ireland looking for employment.

Target Jobs. Best or School Leavers and Graduates. The CV section of the website is aimed at School leavers and recent Graduates. It's a recruitment site so it is trying to give much help as possible, but with that in mind it is quite wordy and might not suit anyone whose first language is not English. 

Trinty Careers Service. Best for all round advice and templates. Trinity College Dublin’s CV page on their Careers portal gives easy to understand guidance for all those planning to write a CV. The advice is not exclusively for Trinity students and the site gives easy to understand and thorough advice on structure spelling and formatting of multiple types of CV. It details common mistakes, different CV styles and tips for overseas job applications. All the information is contained on one single page on the site and there is a menu and site map displayed at all times for easy navigation. 

Irishjobs.ie. Best for experience with job application and those who wish to enhance a previous CV. This website contains a huge array of information written in a welcoming style. Within the CV section, there are articles such as, Administrator CV Advice Template,  or CV for an Internship with Little or No Experience. These contain templates, which are excellent for those newer to CV writing, but also contain guiding information about what different items are included and reinforce the important points your CV should target. There are also lots of other articles addressing specific queries, for example: what font you should use; and dos and don’ts for your cover letter.

Oxford Dictionaries online has tips on writing CVs which you may find useful. Log in with your library card number – then select English/Grammar(drop down menu at top of screen)/Writing help. 

If you have joined online, you will need a Dublin City card number. If you contact [email protected], they will assign you one.

We also have several books specifically dedicated to CV’s, available through Borrowbox:

Perfect CV by Max Eggert 

This a relatively basic book which would be good for those starting out or maybe someone who hasn’t done a CV in a while, without overloading you with too much information.  

7 second CV by James Reed 

This contains more in depth information and includes references to social media etc. If someone already has a CV and is looking to update it; or recent graduates who are looking to sell the skills they have gained in college, this contains more detail to polish them up.  

High Impact CV’s by John Middleton 

This book contains a lot of jargon and buzz words, so would be more focused on those with strong literacy skills. It does however help if you are unsure on some of terminology and maybe would be useful before an interview to review your CV in conjunction with this! 

Don't forget some of our more general free eResources which may help – we will be looking at some of these in more depth in future. 

PressReader and Libby allow access to some newspapers and magazines online – some of which have a specialist business focus. We also offer some online courses through Great Courses Plus, Infobase Learning Cloud which may support you looking for a job or a change of career.