When you’re pursuing your next big career move, a strong CV will give you a huge advantage and ensure that you land the job interviews you want. We all know that a good CV should make you stand out from the crowd and highlight your most valuable talents – but how exactly do you do that?
This latest infographic from StandOut CV shows a simple 7 step process for writing an interview-winning CV.
Here are the key takeaway points to ensure that your CV will be effective in the job market:
Do your research: Employers only want to hire candidates who meet their expectations, so it’s important to find out what skills they are looking for and include as many of them as you can in your CV. Search for your target jobs online and find out what your potential employers are expecting to see in applicant CVs, before you start writing yours.
Introduce yourself properly: Use your personal profile to entice the reader and set a professional tone for the rest of your CV. Sell your most relevant skills, knowledge and experience, whilst avoiding clichés like hard-working and team-player.
Layout is crucial: In order to show recruiters that you are the best candidate for their job, your CV needs to quickly communicate the value in hiring you. By using a clear font, defined sections and short sharp points – you will make your CV easy to read and your important abilities will be highlighted to recruiters and hiring managers.
When describing your current and past roles, be sure to build context by including a brief summary of your position and demonstrate how you contribute to the overall running of the organisation. Use bullet points to quickly reel of your responsibilities and round off by highlighting some impressive achievements.
Show that you’re qualified: List your education and qualifications towards the end of your CV and include only as much detail that is needed for your application. Generally, school leavers and graduates will need to include a lot of detail in their education section, but more experienced candidates can make do with a brief list.
Keep interests interesting: Only include hobbies and interests that will affect your job application positively, such as work related interests or big extra-curricular achievements. You don’t have to include an interests section if you feel that your interests are irrelevant.
Check to perfection: Grammar mistakes and sloppy formatting errors can get your CV rejected very quickly, so make sure that you triple-check your CV and even ask a friend to take a look before hitting the job market.
TOP TIP: Try Grammarly’s Free Grammar Checker. With this fantastic tool you can instantly correct all grammar and spelling errors. The great thing about Grammarly is that it can detect the context of your writing and therefore spot errors that your usual spell checker can’t!
What’s next?
Once you’ve perfected your CV, be sure to upload it to CV-Library so that employers can get in touch with you about relevant jobs!
