With over 30 years’ experience recruiting, we feel qualified to hand out some useful CV advice.
A Achievements – Listing your achievements is a great way to showcase some of your talent on your CV. For example; winning a local football tournament in a team that you were captain of shows good leadership skills, it might even attract fellow football fans to take an extra look at your CV.
B Bullet Points – An employer/recruiter may be looking through several CVs at a time, so making lists and adding bullet points into your CV makes it much quicker to spot the key points you want to highlight.
C Contact Details – Make sure you add all the relevant details to easily get hold of you. Include your Name, Email Address, Mobile Number and don’t forget to add your Location – many recruiters, both agency and in-house, use location based searches to find the perfect candidate.
D Data – Quantify your CV! By quantifying your work you provide the real evidence of your achievements, not just empty words e.g. ‘Increased website traffic and online sales by 400% and 250% respectively’.
E Email address – Most modern day employers will try to contact you via email, so make sure that you have a professional one; johnsmith89@gmail.com is better than johnlovesicecream@gmail.com
F Format – The way your CV is laid out is really important. If your relevant experience, education, or skills are hard to find at a glance, your resume might as well be blank. Make sure that it is easy to read by sectioning your CV into different areas keeping it simple and professional.
G Grammar and Spelling – Check, check and check again! There is nothing worse than a CV with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Utilise the spell checker on your computer and get someone else to have a read of it to make sure that it makes sense and reads well.
H Headings – When dividing your CV into relevant areas make sure you have clean clear sub-headings. Your CV should be easy to read and employers should be able to clearly jump from section to section.
I Interests –Try adding different interests to your CV, e.g. ‘Huge Star Wars fan, passionate about gourmet cooking, feisty literature blogger and board games fanatic’. You may find your interviewer also shares an interest in ‘The Force’ so be prepared to discuss them in an interview.
J Job title – If you have an unusual job title try to align it to a more standard industry title. For example, if you’re by contract a Financial Manager you may want to reconsider putting ‘Accounting Ninja’ on your CV.
K Keywords – If you’ve uploaded your CV to a job site so recruiters can find you, keywords are very important. Job titles and job specific keywords will help a search engine pick out your CV from the pile so make sure you include them in your CV where appropriate.
L Letter – Writing a good cover letter to accompany your CV is a chance to show you have put extra time into your application and to show off your personality. Make it personal to the company; it’s really obvious if you have just inserted the name into a generic cover letter. However don’t assume it will always get read -make sure any important information in your cover letter is also included in your CV.
M Master Copy – Always keep a master copy of your CV somewhere safe that you can update over time. Don’t just add a new job on to the end of your career history, adapt the CV to the position you are applying for.
N No Photographs – Here’s a spot of CV advice you’ll really want to listen to. According to some recent research, candidates face an 88% job rejection rate if they have a photo of themselves on their CV. Rather than agonising over which photo to include in the CV, your time would be better spent concentrating on the actual content. You don’t want to wonder if you got the job for your looks or your talent. We asked our team if should you include your photo on your CV and we think their replies will persuade you to put down the camera.
O Objective – This is usually the first thing people read on a CV, the bit about YOU! Think of this as a summary – it shows off your skills, but it also explains exactly how you plan to transition them in a new role. Try to be as specific as possible about your goal and plainly state how you intend to bring your skills and strengths to the position you’re applying for.
P Portfolio – If your job requires you to have a portfolio make sure that it is clear and easy to view. If it is a separate file, put it on a hyperlink so employers can view it easily hand-in-hand with your CV. Here are our portfolio tips.
Q Qualifications – In this section add a brief description of your education, with the most recent at the top clearly stating the course, grade and place studied. You don’t have to list every single GCSE you got when you were 16 but do include relevant ones e.g Designers may mention their Art GCSE. If you have any other qualifications/certificates relevant to the role you are applying for put them in this section too.
R Relevance – Who is reading your CV? What job are you applying for? A piece of CV advice we always give candidates who get in touch, is think about your audience and make sure you have catered your CV to the prospect position.
S Social Media – Adding links to Social Media profiles shows you are active and like to network, just make sure you check those pictures you were tagged in from last Friday’s party before you start applying for jobs and remember to be professional.
T Transferable Skills – Transferable skills are skills that are useful for a range of positions, and can be transferred into different job areas. Depending on what job you’re going for, you should highlight different transferable skills in your CV. For example; ‘I can work confidently under pressure’ or ‘strong organisation skills’.
U Unwanted – Whilst it’s great to have a CV full of information, you need to filter out everything you actually need on there. Only include the information that will get you the job you are applying for.
V Volunteer – In today’s tough job market standing out from the crowd is the ultimate challenge – that’s where volunteering can really help. It shows future employers that you have given up your own time to take on a new skill.
W World – Taken time out to go travelling? Gaps in your work experience can be filled with information about your time abroad. What did you benefit from that? What new skills did you learn?
X X-perience – Okay, so we cheated a little bit with X – but Experience is possibly THE most important thing on your CV. List your most recent job first and work backwards, stating the dates you held each position. When describing your previous experience and responsibilities try using pro-active descriptions such as: Achieved, Formulated, Planned, Broadened, Generated, Managed, Represented.
Y You – Add some personality into your CV! A black and white CV in Times New Roman with no thought, flair or creativity won’t wash. Remember, a hiring manager might be looking at 100’s of CV’s for the job you’ve applied for, make sure that yours is the one that stands out from the pile. We’ve got a post about designed CVs.
Z Zero – Employers have zero time for excuses, be 100% honest on your CV or you will get caught out. If you have enough experience and the right personality, they will love you for exactly who you are.
If you’re considering your next career move, do get in touch.