CV Writing & Job Applications

## Course overview Most CV advice is folklore. One-page rules, creative formatting, "passionate self-starter", tricks to beat the robots — repeated confidently, rarely tested, and often actively harmful. This course starts from what actually happens to an application. A recruiter with sixty CVs gives each one a first pass measured in seconds, looking for a small number of specific things. Software may parse it into a database first, and that software has real limitations that are worth knowing — though not the mythical ones people describe. Once you know what the process is, writing for it becomes straightforward. The core skill is not writing at all: it is turning what you have done into **evidence** a stranger can assess. Most people describe their duties, which tells a reader what their job was. Employers already know what the job was — they are hiring for it. They want to know what you achieved in it. ## Who this course is for Anyone applying for work: first jobs, career changers, people returning after a break, those made redundant, and experienced professionals whose CV has not been rewritten in a decade. It is written for the UK market — conventions on photographs, personal details, references and length differ internationally, and this course states which are UK-specific. ## How the course is taught Five modules, each with three lessons and a graded knowledge check mapped to that module's tasks. Every lesson ends with a **Check your understanding** prompt asking you to apply it to your own material, so you finish the course with a finished CV rather than notes about one. ## Assessment Five module knowledge checks and a final assessment at a 70% pass mark, unlimited attempts, with written feedback on every question. Open-response questions ask you to produce and critique real application material against a published rubric. ## Recognition and scope This is a practical skills course. It is not a regulated qualification and does not lead to one, and it does not guarantee employment — no course honestly can. You receive an EduQan certificate of completion, verifiable by any employer through our public credential check. Where this course states how recruiters or software behave, it describes common practice. Employers vary, and the course flags where practice genuinely differs rather than presenting one convention as a universal rule. ## Progression Pairs naturally with our interview-facing and freelancing courses. If your applications are successful but interviews are not, that is a different skill and worth addressing separately.