Your CV is often the first impression a recruiter gets of you when applying for a job. In a competitive job market, you need to make sure your CV stands out from the crowd and highlights why you are the perfect candidate for the role. Use these tips to make your CV engaging, persuasive and ensure it lands you an interview for your dream job. Remember, experience letter templates are useful if you want to include additional information in your application.
Crafting an eye-catching CV
- Get noticed – Make your CV visually appealing and easy to read. Use a clear, professional font like Times New Roman or Arial in size 11 or 12. Include plenty of white space by widening margins and spacing out sections. Use bolding, italics and underlining to draw attention to key information.
- Target it – Tailor your CV specifically for each job you apply to. Thoroughly read the job description and ensure your CV highlights the relevant skills, experience and qualifications they are looking for. Adapt your CV summary to fit the role.
- Sell yourself – Your CV needs to sell you as the ideal candidate. Sprinkle powerful action verbs throughout like “led”, “spearheaded” and “pioneered” to emphasise your impact. Quantify achievements with numbers and data to demonstrate value.
- Perfection is key – Check for spelling and grammar mistakes which make CVs instantly discardable. Ask others to proofread it several times. Recruiters may scan CVs for as little as 7 seconds so it needs to be flawless.
Making key sections stand out
- Profile/Personal Statement – Replace the old-fashioned objective statement with a snappy, compelling profile positioned just under your name and contact details. Use concise, punchy sentences highlighting your most relevant attributes and skills for the role. This section should intrigue and entice recruiters to delve further.
- Achievements/Experience – Draw attention to measurable achievements rather than just listing responsibilities. For example, “Increased sales by 30% over a 6 month period” has far more impact than “Responsible for sales”. Use power words like “boosted”, “excelled” and “transformed” to convey success.
- Skills – Avoid endless lists of skills. Only include those relevant to the job, ideally matching the same key words and phrases from the job advert. Break them into meaningful categories like “Communication Skills” or “Management Skills”.
- Education – Put this after the experience section, focussing attention on where you gained relevant skills rather than just qualifications. Expand on how your education prepared you for the role.
Additional tips
- Photos – Photos on CVs are optional. Only include one if it projects you as positive and professional.
- Cover letters – Write a strong cover letter introducing yourself and why you are the ideal candidate. Reuse parts of this to strengthen your CV personal profile.
- References – Avoid putting “references available upon request” at the end. Have them ready to provide if they are asked for at the interview stage.
- Length – Restrict your CV to 2 pages maximum. Use ‘continued…’ at the bottom of the pages to indicate that it flows. Recruiters won’t read CVs longer than this.
Showcase transferable skills
Think broadly about all the skills and experience you have gained over the years and how they relate to the job role. Even if you have not worked in the exact same position before, you will have gained relevant transferable skills.
For example, communication skills developed in retail can be invaluable for an office-based job, and vice versa. Analyse the key skills required for the role and draw out examples from your varied background of where you demonstrated these. Articulate how your transferable competencies make you the ideal candidate.
Don’t just rely on overt matches between previous job titles and the advertised position.
Tailor your content
Carefully read through the job advert and underline all key skills, competencies and qualifications they require applicants to have. Reference these directly in your CV. Mirror some of their wording when describing your own abilities and experience. Matching your content style to their requirements makes your CV resonate. Avoid using elaborate language not reflected in the advert. Keep sentences punchy, direct and meaningful.
Customising your CV to align closely with each unique job description prevents recruiters overlooking you.
Make time to get your CV right and ensure it presents you as the perfect, tailored fit for your dream job. Highlight your achievements, skills and passion to make recruiters eager to meet you. A compelling, strategic CV is essential to opening doors to your ideal career opportunities.
