CV Writing Advice

Cruise Line recruiters receive thousands of CVs every month. If you want to be considered for a job with a cruise line, it is essential that you have a good CV.

The goal of a CV is to best represent your skills, experience, education and accomplishments, and ideally be relevant to the job that you are applying for. A strong CV will help you showcase your strengths and move you one step closer to your dream job. Follow our tips below to give yourself the best chance of being successful.

1) Basic information

Firstly, every CV requires the following basic elements:

• Contact information - your full name, the city where you live, your email address, phone number, and Skype ID if you have one.
• Relevant skills that relate to a specific job – try to use some of the key words that you have seen in the job ad and begin your list with the most important skills.
• Relevant work/volunteer experience - your employment history should be listed in reverse chronological order, beginning with your latest position. Include the most relevant information from your past jobs and it is fine to leave out some details if they don’t relate to the job you’re applying for now. Try and list achievements rather than tasks and try to demonstrate how you could contribute to the passengers' cruise experience.
• Relevant educational qualifications, certificates and training – starting with the highest education that you've achieved. List any languages you speak and indicate the level (fluent, intermediate, basic).

2) Other top tips

• Present relevant information in an easy-to-scan format so that the person reading your CV can immediately see how you match their requirements.
• A short description of the companies you have worked for is also helpful, since the recruiter may not be familiar with local companies in your country. For example, you could add how many covers the restaurant you've worked for has, how many beds are in the hotel, the hotel category, what kind of service was offered in the restaurant (plate or silver service), etc.
• Some recruiters request candidates' photos with applications. If you include a picture in your CV, it should be a professional photograph, not one of you at a party!
• Include two work references and be prepared for the references to be checked.
• Enclose a cover letter with your CV which gives a brief overview of your relevant experience and why you would be right for the job.
• If you're submitting your CV electronically, include the cover letter in the body of the email or in the specific field for covering letter if you're using an online form provided by the recruiter.
• Proofread and check your CV several times to catch typos and misspellings – a single error could be enough to have your CV disregarded.
• Make sure your CV is saved in one of the common file formats: ideally PDF (Adobe Acrobat), DOCX or DOC (Microsoft Word), RTF (most text editors).

3) Common CV errors

Here is a list of the most common CV errors that we see on a regular basis, and which must be avoided at all costs.

Common CV Errors	What you should do
CV is password-protected.	Do not put password protection on your CV as people will not be able to open it.
CV is not in English.	Make sure your CV is written in English.
CV file is corrupt and not readable.	Make sure your CV file is not corrupt - ideally save it as a PDF document.
CV file is blank.	Make sure the CV has saved correctly and is not blank.
CV uses ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.	DO NOT JUST USE CAPITAL LETTERS!
PDF file includes non-standard fonts which do not display correctly on a computer which doesn't have those fonts installed.	Stick to ‘standard’ fonts such as Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman.
Text in the CV is saved as an image (graphic, screenshot, photo, etc.)	Make sure the text is not saved as a graphic.
Large images are embedded in the file which makes the file size too big to open.	Make sure any images are not too big.
CV has typos e.g. ‘summery’ instead of ‘summary’; ‘gamil.com’ instead of ‘gmail.com’, etc.	Proofread and double check your CV for errors, and ideally ask someone else to check it for you as well.
Word CV file uses macros - this can be dangerous and triggers a warning message so recruiters would never open such file.	It is best to save the document as a PDF file so that it is not dangerous for recruiters to open.
CV mentions your weaknesses or bad points.	Only talk about your strengths and strong points.
CV obviously includes sample/default text from a CV template.	Always tailor the text within your CV so that it is not obviously from a template.
A link is sent rather than the actual CV file (e.g. in a cloud storage such as Google Drive, Dropbox, etc). This usually requires a password or privileges which recruiters don't have so they won’t be able download the file.	Only send the actual document, NOT a link.
Contact details are missing (see basic information).	Make sure you include your contact details.
People apply with a document such as a photo, certificate scans or passport scans, rather than their CV.	Only applications with CV will be accepted.

Improve your CV

If you are still struggling to write a good CV, for a small fee you can have it written by a professional CV Writer who specialises in writing CVs for cruise industry candidates.

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CV Writing Service