CV Support
The importance of providing a properly formatted and user-friendly CV should never be underestimated. Your CV is representing you to potential employers, so taking the time and effort to put together a comprehensive document is definitely worthwhile.
There are many ways in which to assemble a successful, informative CV. The following section is provided purely as guidance, offering useful information relating to presentation, content, structure and layout.
General Points:
Your CV needs to set out clear objectives that relate to your future aspirations and career development. Some general points to consider when putting together your CV include:
What are you doing now and what career objectives do you have for the future?
What skills and qualifications do you currently possess that will make you highly sought after by potential employers?
Where do your personal strengths and weaknesses lie and how do you want to develop in your next role?
What are your short and long term goals; what characteristics do you possess that will allow you to achieve these?
Please ensure that your CV is not simply a list of facts and responsibilities. The best CVs are those that point towards your strengths, captivate the reader, hold relevant content regarding your achievements, and entice the employer to invite you for interview.
Presentation:
A CV is the first chance you have to make a good impression with your potential employer. Ensuring that your CV is well presented and pleasing to the eye is of paramount importance in taking that first step towards your next job opportunity. Some basic points to remember:
Always thoroughly check for spelling mistakes and punctuation.
Ensure that you are using a type font that is easy to read and in proportion (font size 10/11 recommended).
Always laser print the document on good quality paper.
If you are making an electronic copy converting to a PDF is recommended.
Clearly divide the different sections of your CV with bold or underlined titles.
Avoid poor and colloquial grammar.
Content:
The content of your CV should be concise, relevant, interesting and vacancy specific. When constructing a CV for the iGaming sector it is particularly important to base the content on your knowledge, passion and interest of the industry. This will give your CV added interest to the reader and will be sure to grasp the attention of your potential employer. Points to remember include:
Be concise; most careers should fit on no more than two A4 pages.
Always ensure that the CV is relevant to the position you are applying for.
Split your CV into logical sections.
Your career history should appear in reverse chronological order, detailing starting/leaving date, responsibilities, accomplishments and reason for leaving.
Your education should also appear in reverse chronological order, detailing specific grades and achievements.
Whenever possible use bullet points to break up the text and add concise information.
Always account for gaps in your CV.
Ensure that all content is up-to-date and accurate.
Never under any circumstances give misleading or false information.
Be precise and quantifiable with all content (including work and education dates).
Structure and Layout:
The structure and basic formatting of your CV is of paramount importance when aiming to achieve a well balanced and user friendly document. Generally speaking, your CV should be one or two pages long, well formatted, subject specific, and include a personal profile listing your objectives.
When structuring your CV it is important to remember that you are selling yourself, and as such, you should always be thinking about what the employer wants to see. Please remember that your CV is representing you, so the more concise and informative the details, the greater the chance of being asked for interview. A good starting point for structuring your CV is having a pre-planned idea of how the document will be shaped and in which ways you will divide the document:
Personal Details (name, address, telephone number, e-mail).
Personal Profile (who you are and what you are looking for).
Work Experience.
Education.
Interests and Hobbies.
References.
The points listed above can be used as a starting point for structuring your CV and will form the basis of a strongly organised, cohesive document. Beneath you will find specific examples of good CV content that can be used as guidance when constructing your own CV:
Personal Profile:
Hyperion always recommends beginning your CV with a personal profile that gives the employer an insight into your background and career goals. Your personal profile should provide the employer with details of three main aspects:
Character and skill-set: “I am a hard working and highly numerate mathematics graduate with an acute eye for detail...”
General career goals: “I am now seeking to combine my passion for sports with a career in the betting industry; I would be most interested in pursuing positions based around either Product Development or Odds Compiling.”
Experiences and strengths relating to the specific vacancy: “Taking into account my academic background of working with statistics and a strong personal interest in odds compiling and trading, I believe myself to be ideally suited to this position.”
With a personal profile that reads fluently and contains strong, relevant content, your potential employer should be hungry to read more.
Work Experience:
Your work experience can be a gold mine of information for your potential employer. Rather than simply listing responsibilities and duties, it is important that you detail the skills you have obtained that hold relevance to your career goals. Instead of simply listing day to day duties, make sure that you tell the client how the position has improved you as an individual and what you have achieved by working in the role:
Working as an Online Marketing Executive, my main responsibilities included:
Managing large PPC campaigns through different search engines.
Running and developing international PPC campaigns.
Managing SEO both internally and through agencies.
Managing PPC budgets.
Analysing and reporting on integrated marketing campaigns.
Managing and supervising a team of Country Managers.
Having spent two years as an Online Marketing Executive I now feel that I am ready to step up to an entry level management position within online marketing. My previous role at CLIENT X has given me a deep knowledge of online marketing and I believe that my versatility of dealing with campaigns across a number of different verticals (PPC, SEO, Affiliates) would make me a strong candidate for any online marketing manager position in the online gaming sector. Through managing a team of country managers, my supervising skills have improved extensively and I would like to carry this element of my previous position into my next role.
Achievements:
Significant reduction of PPC budget (40%) whilst maintaining the same traffic.
Increasing company search placing on Google through various organic SEO techniques.
Implementation of new, and streamlining of existing reporting procedures.
You can see in the above example that the candidate has not only listed work responsibilities, they have also linked their achievements with a number of goals and ambitions that are relevant to their next career move. This kind of cohesive and informative CV writing will leave the recruiter/employer yearning to hear more!
Academic Achievements:
Academic achievements will often be viewed as more important to entry level candidates, rather than candidates possessing genuine work experience in their chosen sector. Basic points to consider when listing your academic achievements include:
How relevant are your qualifications (this will dictate the amount of detail to go into)?
What skills have you picked up during your education that can be taken into a work environment?
How does your choice of education relate to your career aspirations?
There are no set rules relating to how much detail is appropriate for the education section of your CV. Common sense should prevail when deciding what to include and how much detail to accommodate, so it is again important to keep the information concise and relevant to each particular job application.
Interests:
The interests section allows you to expand upon your passions and hobbies outside of work. For positions in the betting and online gaming industry, Hyperion strongly believes that this particular area of your CV is of tremendous importance. iGaming companies want to employ candidates who are passionate about the industry and have a desire to succeed in a role that is ideally suited to their background. It is for this reason that the interests section of your CV is so important; potential employers will look favourably upon applicants who show a deep rooted interest in the online gaming sector. Some good examples of candidates linking their personal interest in the betting industry with a career in the sector are listed beneath:
“I have been a keen poker player for five years now and I regularly compete in £10 sit and go tournaments with a variety of different online poker providers. Pursuing a career in online poker has allowed me to work in an industry that I am extremely passionate about...”
“I have always had a deep love of a number of sports including football, golf, tennis, rugby and cricket. Working in the sports betting industry would give me the chance to combine my hobby with an exciting career and I would relish the chance to...”
Including details relating to your personal interests is very much appropriate for entry level positions, although Hyperion also believes that more experienced candidates will benefit by showing potential employers that you are not all work and no play. Even if your hobbies are not specific to the betting industry, it is an area that can give your CV balance and gives the client an insight into your personality outside of the work place.
Conclusions:
If you require help with any aspect of your CV then please do not hesitate to contact one of our consultants for support and guidance. At Hyperion we are always more than willing to help and can offer expert CV guidance that will allow you to apply for any iGaming job opportunity in confidence.
