CV Tips and Advice
Writing your CV can be a daunting experience! There are so many articles, tips and advice that often contradict each other. We’ve tried to keep it simple and provide the foundation on which to build your CV, ensuring all the basics are covered.
Know your audience It’s important to know who you are writing your CV for. If you are applying for a specific job, do your research. Understand what the employer is seeking in a successful candidate. This will help you tailor your CV to that specific job.
Start from scratch Don’t just add to the same old CV you had when you were 16. Your experience evolves as much as your ability to sell yourself. Your language, terminology, gramma, buzzwords and the way you tell your story will have evolved since your first CV and its important you reflect your current status throughout your whole CV.
Header Include your name, City/Town, phone number, email address, and associated professional website e.g Linkedin, portfolios, Github, blogs etc
Personal Statement This is your chance to sell yourself, not tell your life story! Keep it snappy and break it down into sections.
- What’s your background?
- What skills can you offer?
- What’s your goal in a new role?
Career History
- Work in chronological order with your most recent role first.
- Include the month and year you started/finished.
- Summarise your company and their services in one sentence to show industry alignment with future employers.
- Highlight key achievements within your role – promotions, projects you have worked on, targets you have exceeded….
- Evidence your skills with stats and figures or tangible deliverables. Instead of “Manage a small team to ensure company targets are delivered with great results that have been acknowledge by my hiring manager” use “Lead a team of 10 Business Development Managers, opening new verticals across that UK that has resulted in overachieving the team target by 125%
- Roles more than 10 years ago aren’t relevant simply remove them and add a statement such as “previous work history available upon request”
Become Bot Friendly Unfortunately, many recruitment processes include CV Screening bots. They don’t recognise graphics and jargon, so keep your layout to text only and use terminology that is understandable outside of your company. Layout is Key Most recruiters will spend between 30 – 60 seconds reviewing a CV, keep the layout easy to read, and your core skills easily identifiable. Every word and sentence used should add value. Triple check your spelling and grammar, just one mistake can stop a recruiter from contacting you. Utilise the white space and make sure everything isn’t squeezed together, check your line spacing and suitable font sizes tend to be 10 or 11. Think beyond your CV In today’s world your CV is only the first portal to who you are, many recruiters will instantly check out your profile on LinkedIn and socials, ensure these align with your CV. The dreaded hobbies section If you don’t have any don’t put any. Nobody wants to read a list of generic activities that everyone enjoys such as socialising with friends and reading. Make yourself stand out and be unique, if reading is a passion, what genre of books do you read? Is it a dream of yours to write your own? Do you attend a reading club? Only put things that you are passionate about or have key achievements in!
To discuss you CV further or to have a confidential chat about your job search please reach out to one of our team on 01604 76685