CV & interview tips

Your CV is your opportunity to show a prospective employer the best of what you've got. An interview is your chance to sell yourself by highlighting your experience, skills, personal strengths and achievements in a way that is directly relevant to the role for which you are applying.

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The importance of a good CV

Your CV is your opportunity to show a prospective employer the best of what you've got. It sells your skills, experience, education, qualifications and shows them you're the right person for the job. Making a good impression is important in today's competitive job market.

What to include on your CV

  • Personal Profile – Introduce yourself, your personal profile provides a summary of your career to date. Summarise your key skills, experience, and achievements.

  • Career History – This showcases the organisations, industries, and sectors you’ve worked in. Include the position you held, dates of employment and a description of your role and responsibilities.

  • Achievements – Make sure you include all your achievements, perhaps you were involved in making positive chances, to policies or processes or you were nominated for awards and recognised for your contributions.

  • Education – Include your education, qualifications, and training.

Ensure your CV includes Personal details, Personal Profile, Career History, Achievements, Responsibilities, Education, qualifications, and training. For further advice and templates, please visit: Make your CV shine | My World of Work

CV tips

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Make sure your CV is easy to read and use one standard font throughout

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List your career history in chronological order and include your achievements

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Showcase your skills, experience, training, education and qualifications

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Provide a good overview of your suitability for the role / business

How to ace your interview

An interview is your chance to sell yourself by highlighting your experience, skills, personal strengths and achievements in a way that is directly relevant to the role for which you are applying. Preparation is key!

Interviews at NHBC are usually competency based, comprising of questions aimed to find out more about your skills, knowledge, attributes, training, and experience. They also assess how you would approach tasks, problems, and challenges.

Interview tips

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Research the organisation & make sure you understand the role you are applying for

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Make sure you understand the interview format and what is expected of you

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Prepare some questions for the interviewers

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Try to relax and be comfortable talking about yourself with notes to prompt you

Competency based interviews assess the following:

The STARR Method

Use the STARR method when constructing your examples. Your answers need to be as detailed as possible.

Situation Task Action Result Reflection
Describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to accomplish. What were you working towards or trying to achieve? Describe the actions you took to address the situation with an appropriate amount of detail and keep the focus on YOU! Describe the outcome of your actions. What did you learn? What would you do differently next time?

You’ll be asked open questions; typically, you’ll be asked to describe, tell, or provide an example: 

  • Describe a situation where you felt you were working under a high degree of pressure.

  • Tell me about a time when you tried to stay positive following a setback at work.

  • Give me an example of a time when you had to deliver an important piece of work to a tight deadline.

Preparing for your interview and considering what examples you could use prior to the interview should help you impress your interviewers!

For further advice and templates, please visit: Interview with confidence | My World of Work