CV Writing

CV’s are a tricky thing to write. Why? Because even after all that effort of crafting the perfect opening statement and getting all your career history and experience into a concise manner, your CV will be looked at for a grand total of on average – wait for it – 6.25 seconds!

The answer for why CV’s are looked at so quickly is a simple one; hiring managers and recruiters will have on average 118 applications to a single job advert. So what can you do to make your CV stand out from the crowd?

Get the ‘important stuff’ in front of the CV reader’s face

According to our recruitment consultants, the top things that we are looking for when looking at your CV are:

Name
Current title/company
Previous title/company
Previous position, start and end dates
Current position, start and end dates
Education

These vary in significance dependent on the job, but the basic premise is to make sure that these key areas are clearly labelled and easy by a recruiter or hiring manager to increase your chances of your CV making a positive impression.

The simpler the layout, the better the CV

There are two reasons for this. First, because the more confusing it is to try and find the right information from your CV, the more chance that it won’t be read properly. Second to this, the less obvious reason to not bother using your time making a complicated layout is that the scanning software, common-place nowadays to search and select CVs online, may not correctly read the content online. This might mean your otherwise flawless CV risks never been seen by hiring manager or recruiter in the first place!

Fewer words. Less reading. More chance

There’s only so many words that can be read in six seconds. So try and get the key skills and experience written down in your CV with the fewest words you possibly can. The fewer lines to read on your CV with as much important information as possible will mean that hiring managers and recruiters will read the right information, even if only when quickly scanning your CV.

 

For more information click here How to write the perfect CV