The hardest CV to write is the first one, because it feels like there is nothing to put on it. There almost always is — it is just not filed under "work experience" yet.
What actually counts
A retail manager hiring for a Saturday shift is looking for three things: will you turn up, can you talk to people, and will you learn. Anything that shows those is worth putting down.
- School: subjects, a leadership role, a project you finished, good attendance.
- Sport and clubs: training commitment, coaching juniors, running a sausage sizzle.
- Home: looking after younger siblings, doing the grocery shop, managing a budget.
- Volunteering: marae, church, kapa haka, a community clean-up, a school ball committee.
- Anything you have sold, fixed, built or organised, even informally.
Keep it to one page
Name and contact details at the top. A short profile of two or three sentences. Key skills. Then experience, education and referees. That is the whole CV. If it runs to two pages, cut the oldest thing on it.
Be specific about availability
Retail rosters are the whole ballgame. "Available weekends and weekday evenings after 4pm" is more useful to a manager than any adjective you could write about yourself. Put it near the top.
Words to avoid
Passionate, dynamic, results-driven, hard-working team player. Everyone writes them, so they say nothing. Replace them with something you actually did: "trained two new starters on the till" beats "excellent communicator" every time.
Content supplied by Retail NZ