Landing the job of your dreams is not always a walk in the park. There are many other equally qualified candidates vying for the same opportunities so you need to be sure that your CV stands out, shines, and dazzles. Sound tricky? It doesn’t have to be…
Follow our five expert tips below to get noticed for all the right reasons by hiring managers. If you’ve got your notepad at the ready, let’s dive right in!
- Be clear and concise both with format and language
Your CV should be easy to read and navigate, with clearly marked sections and bullet points to highlight your key skills, qualifications, and work achievements. Avoid complicated language, long sentences, and large blocks of text. Your CV should never exceed two pages in length, with all the most important information appearing on the first page.
- Tailor your CV to the job you’re applying for
Re-read the job description and note all the key role requirements and company values highlighted. You’ll need to customise your CV accordingly, peppering it with those same keywords and phrases. This will help the reader (both AI and human!) to quickly identify your CV as a good match.
Your summary section at the top of the page is your first opportunity to make a good impression. So make sure it, in particular, is tailored to the specific role you’re applying for.
Save all your customised CVs clearly by role name. That will save you time later – although you’ll still need to tweak the details – and help you avoid sending the wrong version to recruiters.
- Make it as easy as possible for the recruiter to contact you and get a feel for the person behind the CV
Put your contact information at the top of your CV so the hiring manager can instantly find your name (including tips on pronunciation, if necessary), location, phone number, and email address.
Many HR professionals like to get as full a picture as possible of candidates before they invite them to interview so adding your LinkedIn profile is also important. With different content and clues to who you are (think: your posts, groups you follow, and recommendations), your LinkedIn profile may nudge your CV from the ‘maybe’ pile to the ‘yes’ pile.
- Use action verbs and stats. to describe your accomplishments
Rather than simply listing your job duties, use action verbs to describe your accomplishments and responsibilities. For example, instead of saying ‘managed a team,’ you could say ‘led a team of 10 employees to meet project deadlines and exceed customer satisfaction goals.’ The more specific, the better. And, if you add in a few measures of your success – e.g., ‘grew revenue by 200%’ or ‘achieved savings of £200,000’ – that’s CV gold!
- Check, check, and check again!
Bad grammar and spelling errors are application suicide, so check and re-check your CV multiple times. Then check again on Grammarly and ask your friends and family to sanity-check your CV for readability. At the same time, check all your dates. If they don’t add up, your CV will promptly be discarded.
For further tips on how to create a CV that hiring managers will notice and love, please contact our team of expert recruitment consultants at +44 (0)20 7092 3911 or at info@ablrecruitment.com. ABL Recruitment is the UK’s number one multilingual recruitment agency and we will be happy to give you our expert guidance on this and every stage of the recruitment process. We hope to hear from you soon!
