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Viewing Your CV from CV - CV Help, Hints and Tips Written by Contractor Supermarket

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Your CV

A recruitment agent will look for reasons to throw out your CV and not call you for an interview. A job applicant has about ten seconds to impress before the recruitment agent hits the ‘delete' button. This is because, for the average job advertised, several hundred applicants will send their CV through - and why not? It's so easy to do.

Faced with a stack of CVs to whittle down to a shortlist, a recruiter hasn't got the time or inclination to read through every single CV in front of them. There isn't any room for anything but a perfectly presented, convincing CV that shows you in the best possible light for the job.

Competition for each job is fierce

The job market has always been competitive, and never more so than now. You need a professionally constructed CV to stand out amongst the hundreds of CVs that you are competing with - it's not an option anymore. Each job vacancy is a fierce competition - are you prepared?

Your CV is a document designed to sell. It sells based on how well it can reflect your uniqueness and suitability for the given job. You might be good at fixing widgets but what are you like at comprehension?

• Asingel mostake on the CV cud end you dreems of tht prefect job.

James Innes, Managing Director of The CV Centre and author of The CV Book, suggests his top five tips when writing your killer CV.

Maximise Readability

• It is essential for your CV to be easy for the reader to scan quickly and effectively. You need to separate different sections on the CV and insert clear section headings.
• Avoid long paragraphs; use bullet pointing to break up text into more manageable ‘bite-size' chunks.
• Your CV should be eye-catching and uncluttered. Check vigilantly for spelling and grammatical errors.

Include a Professional Profile and Objective

• These sections on the CV should summarise and emphasise your key attributes and your intended future career path.
• Your words must flow seamlessly - avoiding cliché and superfluous hyperbole. They should each only be a few lines in length but they must spark the reader's interest.
• If you can't successfully ‘pitch' yourself in under ten lines then you risk losing the reader's attention.
• Be brief - you can highlight examples in later sections.
• Be persuasive.

Include Achievements on your CV

• If you can include an 'Achievements' section then it can make an instant and dramatic difference to the power of your CV, enabling you to distinguish yourself from other candidates.
• A CV is no time for false modesty.
• A CV is a time to show what you have achieved - and to imply that you will be capable of achieving similar results in the future.

Keep your CV Concise

• Your CV should be informative - but also concise. In general, two A4 pages is a maximum for a CV. Too many CVs are, quite simply, too long.
• Only include information on your CV that will actually help to sell you. Recruiters don't want to waste time reading a CV with details irrelevant to your ability to fulfil the job role.

Target/Tailor your CV

• If possible, tailor your CV according to the specific vacancy for which you are applying. Many people use a general CV designed to suit any position.
• Greater success can always be achieved by tailoring your CV according to the needs of the specific role to which you are applying.
• It stands to reason that every job and every organisation is different, and every CV should therefore also be subtly different.

A good CV will ensure you stand out from everybody else.

These points encapsulate the most important principles when constructing your CV. The real purpose of your CV is not to get a job - it's to get an interview.

After the interview, your CV is still working hard acting as a refresher for your skills whenever the recruitment agent reads through it - refreshing his/her mind as to the impression you made and your skills-set. Even if you're shortlisted to one of 5, you don't want to be the next CV to be eliminated.

If you think you could do with some help with your CV visit The CV Centre.

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written on2010-06-27 01:34:34

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