Getting a good job is no easy task today, especially amidst the fierce competition from all sides. The first thing the job seeker strives to achieve is a recruiter’s good impression of the CV as they only have that small peek into your work life.
Effective Start
The first thing recruiter does is scan through your CV to get a good gist of the type of person you are and if your personality is a good fit for the company. Try to search beforehand for the supposed company’s values and work ethics including the job description and tailor your CV according to it. The seamless interweaving of those keywords with your work experience and personality will grab the employer’s attention. Do not pour everything into the summary and limit this section to a minimum number of sentences from where the employer should just get an idea of you and your achievements and how they’ll play a role in their company and the job offered.
Eliminate Errors and Mistakes
You would be surprised to learn that professional cv writing companies main focus is on the grammatical structure of the content used in the CV. Ensure there are no grammatical or punctuation mistakes in the CV as this may give the recruiter impression of the applicant not being as detail-oriented as they say they are. It also gives a sense of being laid back and prone to make mistakes. This turns recruiters away as poor attention to detail is not what companies want, they want someone to make as few mistakes as possible because small errors translate to bigger ones with time and it’s in their favor to forecast problems that may affect their workflow in the long run by only hiring efficient and productive employees.
Highlight Achievements and Results
Recruiters scan through the CV in 7 seconds and in that small window, you have to grab their attention and sustain it enough to convince them that you are the perfect fit for the company. This is why in your Work Experience section it’s essential to start sentences with action words, converting your responsibilities into achievements and highlighting the results you achieved in the job. For example, the recruiter would be interested if you cut the costs by 15% of the company or increased the profit by 10%. Wherever you have shown your leadership skills should also be highlighted may it be in a volunteer project, other skill-based projects, or the workplace.
Professional Structuring
As we have already established that the recruiter is scanning the CV so it’s upon you to provide them with clear, concise information with structuring that will make it easier for them to navigate your CV. They’ll read whatever catches their eye leaving some information which may be very important for the applicant. Congested spaces make reading difficult as some words get jumbled up and meaning is lost in the process. Recruiters won’t try to decipher the meaning behind your words and will simply discard the CV if it is not legible to them.
Information should be clear to the reader as well as include the keywords that pass through ATS. Sentences detailing work experience should start with action words as they are the attention grabbers and should be written starting from the present job. The tone should uphold professionalism with a hint of personalism as the CV belongs to you and should be an extension of your brand and personality. Many job seekers for this reason tend to go to a professional CV builder to get help. A CV builder knows what type of structure, font, and color will be most attractive to the particular recruiter. This will make the applicant stand out from the rest of the crowd. Color can also be used in a CV to make it more attractive but in a way that is not distracting and is enhancing the overall look of the CV.
Relevance of the Content
People are often advised to put in every job experience or skill you have ever mastered but that is not the case at all. The CV should be tailored according to the job description of that particular job including only those experiences and skills should be highlighted that play a role in showing the recruiter how you are a good fit for the applied job. For example, if you are applying for a job in a sales position you can put down the role of being in a lead position in engaging customers or volunteering for fundraising. These are the category of skills and work experience that can impress your recruiter.
Don’t shy away from putting down all the relevant skills including interpersonal or if proficient in technology, software, and others, which are highly sought after in the market. Instead of just writing soft skills like the ability to effectively communicate which is very important and most often than not is overlooked by the applicants, in the skills section rather show how your ability to effectively communicate has benefited the business, if in any way.
Hobbies should only be included if they are enhancing the experience and skills section, recruiters are not looking for well-rounded individuals but those who will be an asset to the company by their work performance, they are not interested in the activities you take on outside of work. If you’re applying for a job as a proofreader or content writer, the hobby of reading books will enhance your CV but the hobby of running or being a marathon runner, in no way fits here and shouldn’t be written.
Gaps in CV
Gaps in the CV can arise a recruiter’s suspicion so it’s advised to write even one sentence, explaining the gap. It may be that your company was merged, taken over, or just shut down for other reasons, this explanation will put the recruiter’s mind at ease as job hopping is looked negatively at because it makes the applicant seem unreliable. Make sure your CV show that you were being productive even when out of work to increase your prospects of getting the job.
Jeena Alfredo is a passionate digital marketer at The Business Goals. She is working with other companies to help them manage the relationship with The Business Goals for the publications.
