6 Tips For Building Your CV
Writing a good CV can be extremely difficult especially when you need to stick out enough for employers to find you interesting but keep it simple and short enough so they don’t get bored of reading it. Most employers spend just a few minutes reading a CV before deciding whether or not they are interested in the person which is harsh but also just a reality of job hunting.
If you’re finding it overwhelming trying to create the perfect one or are just having difficulty editing what you already have, here are 6 tips for creating the perfect CV:
1) Arrangement + presentation
If a CV is too long or looks too ‘cluttered’, an employer who is probably in a hurry to find someone suitable isn’t going to spend much time reading through it. Arrange your CV in a way that not only looks neat but has everything set out clearly so an employer knows exactly where to find the ‘important’ bits like your details, your past experience and what skills you have. Using bullet points and short sentences rather than long paragraphs helps with this.
2) Personal Info
The top middle area of the first page is where an employer’s eye will naturally fall, so make sure you include your most important information there, i.e your full name, email address and number. As tedious as this sounds, make sure all your info is correct, nothing worse than having an amazing CV but then putting the wrong number or spelling your email address wrong so they can’t contact you.
3) Check for errors again and again (and again and again and again!)
Again sort of tedious but still important! Try to avoid making errors at all meaning spelling mistakes, dates which conflict with one another regarding previous job etc. Even if the mistakes are small, an employer could read it as you being too lazy to read over what you’ve sent in.
4) Strengths and skills
One of the best tips I learnt this year was to remember that the things you are passionate about in your spare time like your hobbies are important to put on cv as your key strengths or skills. For example, if you’re going for a marketing role and you’ve created a massive following for yourself on social media, you have proficient (fancy word I know) use of it or if you’ve been on a sports team, you’re an excellent team player. Always remember that your skills and hobbies are what are going to set you aside from other candidates.
5) Tailor your CV to the role
This doesn’t mean having to have 1000 different copies of a CV, just tweaking it a bit to fit better to whatever role you are applying for. For example, changing the order of your strengths so the ones best suited to the job are listed first and that any that aren’t as relevant are removed.
6) Keep it updated
Probably the most important tip and the one you’ve probably heard the most, make sure you keep your CV updated. This means making sure that you have your past jobs are correct and up to date, your contact details and skills. Whenever you learn anything new or something that could be beneficial to a role, put it on your CV!
These tips are not completely foolproof but they have helped me in making my CV more direct towards the roles I've wanted and in landing the job I have now so hopefully they'll work for you too!