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We have experience with knowing what prospective employers look for as they go through CVs, and what follows are six of the best tips to help your CV end up in the right stack under consideration.
Contrary to belief, the CV is not designed to get you employment. The real reason behind the existence of the CV is to encourage the employer to sit down and interview you. Let’s take a look at those six tips to show you how to create a stand out CV:
Right underneath your standard contact information you should place a personal statement that will show your potential employer at a glance what you bring to the table in way of your ambitions and goals in working with their company, and the particular skills that you have that are an ideal fit for the vacancy they are looking to fill.
In creating the section of your CV that displays your skills, always focus on using adjectives that are related to the job posting that you are responding to from the company. Whatever the job advertisement calls for in way of skills, such as administrative expertise, or efficiency in leadership, then list those very skills. The only caveat here is that it is unwise for you to use the exact phrasing from their advertisement. Sum it up in your own words or it will be glaringly obvious that you just copied and pasted from one to the other.
Keep in mind that your employers are looking for how you will fit into their company’s plans and goals, but looking at your own plans and goals. Make sure that your CV is not a list of what you can do, but a treatise on what you can do for them based upon your experience in the field.
In detailing the accomplishments in your life, remember that it is data that will persuade your prospective employer, so try to show your achievements using facts and numbers. Don’t just say you did this or you did that, but instead, starting with action verbs, tell them that you (exceeded, improved, created, implemented, any action verb) this and that here and there, resulting in specific facts and numbers in whatever related experience. An example, “Implemented a sales training course with the local sales team that resulted in the last quarter of the year improving sales in their territory by 29% over the same quarter of the previous year. Specific details are a must.
Even if you can’t quite remember all of the particular details of what you’ve accomplished over your working life, you’ll at least want to dwell on it as much as you can, because it is that important. Did you impact the productivity level, or efficiency, at any of the previous companies that you’ve worked with? Was there a particularly newsworthy method or approach to how you handled a customer complaint that you should document in your CV? List it.
Lastly, bear in mind that you are using the CV to sell yourself. Keep away from any generic phrases that do no more than give the impression that you watched from the sidelines as events unfolded around you. The use of strong verbs that depict action are the best way to give yourself due acknowledgement on all of your accomplishments, so don’t be afraid to use them when you need them.
