Tips for Writing the Perfect CV

On average, recruiters will spend 20-30 seconds glancing over your CV, so you need to make sure that they will see that you are their dream candidate fast! Use these tips below to generate their interest and keep it long enough to call you for that interview:  

§ Overall Content. When a potential employer is reading through your resume, they are really looking to have three main questions answered: What do you know? What have you done before? Can you do it for me? While writing your CV keep these three questions in mind, and always remember that are writing it for the recruiter, not for yourself. Keep your answers short and to the point.

§ Personal statement. One paragraph that needs to immediately capture the attention of your reader, and emphasizes why they should continue reading the rest of your CV. Its aim is to highlight your professional attributes and goals. Use keywords that are interchangeable here, so that you can easily tailor your CV to each application using the particular phrases in each job specification.

§ Work experience. Don’t merely list your duties for each previous role; describe what responsibilities you had and what you achieved in bullet points. Not every task you performed is able to be measured in numbers, but give percentage increases wherever possible.

§ Skills.  A short, targeted skills list of up to 10 of your strongest and most desirable skills will attract a recruiter’s attention. Good examples include any IT package or programme you have used as well as any training certificates you have received. State for each whether you’re at a basic, intermediate or advanced level.

§ Hobbies & Interests. Focus on any club or team sport that you are a member of and any awards that you might have won. If you took time out to travel, summarize it here, highlighting what organizational and budgeting skills you learnt from it.

§ A clear and simple layout. Never break the two page rule! It’s more than enough room to persuade your potential employer that you're worth contacting for an interview; anything over the two pages may discourage them from looking through it. Use lots of white space and clearly marked sections to make it easy to read.

If you use the tips summarized above, you will have done as much as you can to persuade the employer that you’re the ideal candidate to invest their time and money in. If you would like some more advice on how to write your CV, you can bring it into us at The Training Place where we will give you a free consultation on how to improve and perfect it. We also give advice on interview and jobsearch techniques, so if you would like to contact us on admin@thetrainingplace.org or 02072529331 we will be happy to set up an appointment for you. Good luck!