How to Write a Great Pharmacy CV

CV writing can be a daunting experience. However, creating a great CV isn’t as difficult as you might imagine! We decided to put together a very quick guide with tips and advice to help you write a CV that gets you the role you want!

Formatting:

• Standard length for a CV is 2 A4 pages - try to keep it short and to the point!
• Use easy to read fonts such as Times New Roman or Arial with 10-12 points font size.
• Use bold headings for each section to make sure your CV is easy to follow.

Ideal Layout:

Personal details:

Include your full name, phone number and email address.

Personal Statement:

Start by talking a bit about who you are in terms of your professional field and your career, this can include your current position and any qualities/experience you gained from it or from your previous jobs. Then highlight any achievements that are relevant to the position you’re applying for. Finally, include your career goals to reaffirm why you’re applying for the job.

• Example: Highly motivated pharmacist with over 5 years of experience in Irish community pharmacies. Extensive experience training and managing diverse teams. Currently seeking a Supervising Pharmacist position to fully utilise my skills, take on more responsibility and expand my career.
• Tip! Make sure to adapt this depending on the type of role you’re applying for - retail/hospital pharmacy, industry role, etc.

Employment History:

You should list your most recent positions in a reverse chronological order - starting with your most recent role. Include the name and location of the previous employer along with your job title and start & finishing dates for each company you have worked for.

• Tip! Use bullet points to highlight your responsibilities and achievements; give more details for your recent roles and less details for old roles as you go down the CV.
• Newly Qualified? If you are a newly qualified Pharmacist and don’t have a lot of experience after graduating, make sure to include your pre-registration placement and any other community or hospital pharmacy experience (as an OTC Assistant or Technician).

Education/Training:

Just like in your employment history section, list your most recent qualifications in a reverse chronological order (starting with the most recent one). Include the name and location of the institution, along with the dates you were studying there and qualifications you got.

• Tip! Try to focus on what’s most relevant for the role you’re applying for.

Skills, achievements and foreign languages:

Focus on achievements that are job-related and skills that are transferable and adaptive. List up to five examples and explain in a bit more detail what you did, how you did it and what was achieved.

References:

It’s not necessary to provide references on your CV, but you could state that the details of your references are available on request.

Mistakes to avoid!

• Do not include your marital status, nationality, date of birth or a photo.
• Check and double-check your CV for any spelling, grammatical & formatting mistakes! Misspelling words might not be the end of the world, but it simply shows that you do not pay enough attention to detail.
• Provide enough information on duties and responsibilities in your current/previous roles - you want to highlight any relevant experience and skills gained.
• Avoid unexplained gaps - periods of unemployment is perfectly natural, but leaving unexplained gaps on your CV will arouse suspicion.

How can Clarity help?

We offer full support on CV writing, editing and getting it ready for submission! Whether you need to fully create a CV from scratch, edit some parts of it, add new sections or change the layout, feel free to book a consultation with one of our recruitment consultants today!

Book a Career Consultation