Crafting a compelling CV is essential for landing your dream job.
Even with a wealth of experience, a poorly written CV can hinder your chances of securing an interview.
By following these five simple rules, you’ll create a CV that increases your chances of standing out from the crowd
1. Avoid a long Personal Statement
Sorry to break the bad news to you. Everybody writes a ‘Personal Statement’ but nobody reads them. It seems that all undergraduates are advised at Uni to include a long introductory statement at the top of their CV and some continue to do so for the rest of their working life! But the recruiting manager reading your CV wants to the key facts straight away: who is this person? What is he/she doing now? Try to help their eye fall on the key information ASAP. There’s no harm writing a sentence or two, but keep it brief and to the point. Give yourself a limit of five lines, tops.
2. Ditch the cliches and jargon. Concentrate on your Achievements
Try to avoid self-descriptions like “enthusiastic” or “team player” as they offer little insight into your unique qualities. Instead highlight your successes and accomplishments. You definitely have them! Just sit down and brainstorm them and, where possible, quantify your achievements (articles published, sales, cost savings, social media engagement, lead generation stats etc).
3. Keep it Concise and well-formatted
A CV that is too long or difficult to read/digest is likely to be consigned to the bin. The person reviewing a pile of, say, 20 CVs will only allocate a couple of seconds to each one for a quick initial glance before deciding which pile it goes on – ‘For further consideration’ or ‘Reject’. Give yourself a limit of two or (maximum) three pages. Use clear headings and bullet points (rather than long passages of text) to render your CV easy to skim and understand.
4. Use Power words
Employ action-oriented ‘power words’ in your CV whenever you can, so as to get across your key responsibilities and achievements. If applying for a managerial or pro-active role you will want to avoid too many terms like “supported”, “administered” and “participated” but instead, where appropriate, say “delivered”, “implemented”, “initiated”, “led”, “won”, “project-managed” etc. You’ll find further handy guidance about power words- and some useful suggestions – online.
5. Tailor your CV to each application
Granted it isn’t easy to do constantly – but if possible take the time to customise your CV for each job application. Highlight your skills and experiences which are most relevant to the vacancy. Maybe research the company to try to gain further context to what the employer is looking for. At the very least they’ll be impressed when they see you’ve made the effort.
6. Don’t lie about jobs that went wrong
Everybody makes at least one mistake in their career – a move they shouldn’t have made or a role they didn’t check out thoroughly before accepting. If you have a gap on your CV or a period between jobs it is best to just explain it in a short sentence. You are almost certainly more conscious or worried about it that you need to be. The hiring manager is unlikely to concerned so long as your CV highlights the positives and achievements which relate to their vacancy. So don’t massage employment dates that can subsequently be verified. Honesty is always the best policy.
7. Your CV is an information document – not a work of art!
Avoid elaborate design effects, fancy ikons and especially complex formatting (multiple tabs, text boxes, layout pins etc). They can be very annoying to a recruiter or Talent Manager who may need to edit the document or forward it to a third party. If your CV contains too much formatting and/or design it could be rejected. So stick to a simple Word doc or a PDF, preferably one column only with conventional margins. You can maybe feature your mugshot and/or the brand logos of your past employers. By all means keep the CV layout neat, clear and professional – but avoid intricate design features.
8. Interests and Hobbies
Paint a picture of the person behind the CV. Don’t forget to finish with a couple of lines to list your main hobbies, interests and activities outside work. But avoid unnecessary minutiae about the music you like or the football team you support. Use common sense – for example if you are a DJ in your spare time leave that information off because a prospective employer will worry you’ll be coming into work like a zombie, having not slept the previous night!
9. Edit and proofread
Reduce the amount of unnecessary babble on your CV – starting with simple things like saying “BA” instead of Bachelor of Arts, “Oct” instead of October and “references available upon request” rather than listing them in full etc. Similarly, you don’t need to provide the full address of each employer – just the company name and city/town will do. Don’t shroud the important details of your career in the ‘word fog’ of too much waffle but instead make the key facts stand out and jump off the page.
Most importantly, nothing turns off a hiring manager as fast as a CV riddled with errors. Take the time to proofread it carefully to correct any obvious spelling, grammar or punctuation mistakes. Be careful of just relying on AI or a spell-checker. A CV with tell-tale spelling Americanizations (sic) can be a red flag – especially from applicants for marketing, comms or PR roles.
10. Handle with care
Finally, be careful where you send your CV. It’s an important point which people sometimes forget. There are lots of job boards and hundreds of recruitment agencies. Avoid sending your CV everywhere. Pick a select few partners/agents – i.e. as many as you can feasibly liaise with and manage. If you over-distribute your CV you will lose control of it and might find it remains online for years to come. You might still be getting annoying speculative phone calls from recruiters long after you’ve secured the job you had been looking for. Job boards share and sometimes on-sell your CV (there will be small print in the TOB to which you agreed which enables them to do so,), meaning that you don’t know where it has gone. So think twice before spraying your CV too far and wide. Take care with your personal data.
By following these guidelines, you’ll create an effective CV that showcases your qualifications and achievements, increasing your chances of landing that dream job.
