CV Advice From Our Recruiters

As someone who reads through endless amounts of CVs all day, I can tell you straight away that the pages upon pages in mass detail of every single job you ever had – including that one afternoon you did of work experience ten years ago – it’s not helping you. Neither is the flip side of the coin where so little detail is mentioned that you haven’t even finished writing out your entire phone number.

Where to start

So let’s start with making sure you get the important stuff right. Your contact details – name, phone number, where you live, email address, that’s it – we don’t need to know your star sign nor your dietary requirements. Double check, triple check – get them right and get them clearly on the top of the page. If you’re going for a double page, make sure you’ve got a header or footer with them in, so that second page is instantly recognisable as yours. Aim for 2 pages max, no one is reading past that, save some things for your interview.

A template off the internet can help yes, but guess what – everyone else is on there googling it too, so take the basics great – but you HAVE to make it your own. The best advice when it comes to writing your CV is to remember you are UNIQUE, so make your CV UNIQUE too.

It needs to be clear and concise, get it pleasing to look at and easy to read. Unless you’re going for a graphic design job we don’t need all these fancy fonts and complicated templates, being difficult for us to read isn’t helping you nor me, make life simple for that recruiting manager, they’re busy enough.

In fact, we practically scan CVs in seconds just looking to pick out the key words that we’re after. So pick your key words carefully and use them! Everyone is ‘confident’ with ‘good communication skills’ and an ‘excellent team player’. Believe it or not, no client has ever called up asking specifically for that candidate. Focus on your abilities, skills and talents that can benefit your future employer. Don’t read it as yourself, read it as the hiring manager – they’ve already told you on that job description exactly what they are looking for, so tailor it to that. Add a core skills section and choose four or five bullet points from the job description and rewrite them as your own with your own previous achievements.

Hobbies & Interests

‘Socialising with friends’, ‘watching films’, that’s boring and tells the hiring manager nothing. You’re missing a perfect opportunity to showcase your personality and highlight and prove some of them key words everyone loves. You play a competitive sport? (there’s your teamwork, there’s your competitive edge, there’s your commitment) You organise a social group? (there’s your organisation, your communication, your ability to interact well with others).

So in summary, make your CV job specific, you know what you’re looking for, you know what skills you have – so pick your KEY WORDS, highlight them and make that CV UNIQUE!

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