As an active recruiter I see 70-100 CV’s every day. We all know that within 30 seconds of meeting somebody we form an impression, it is no different when you open a CV.
So why do candidates, many of whom are out of work, still allow a poor quality CV to damage their chances of being noticed and landing that job they are after?
Poorly written, out of date CV’s get passed over for two reasons:
- If it is not immediately obvious what job you are currently in, how long you have been there, what your duties are and how you are measured, we cannot match your experience to the role we are trying to fill.
- A casual lack of attention to detail, when preparing and presenting your CV, implies you may be casual with a lack of attention to detail in the workplace and also suggests apathy in searching for a new job.
CV Checklist
- Keep it to 2/3 pages, use an appropriate font size.
- If you are sending a covering letter, it must be specific to that role.
- Put your most recent job first. Detail role, responsibilities and achievements.
- Explain any gaps in employment.
- Tailor your CV to match the role you’re applying for.
- Ensure your contact details are up to date.
- Finish with personal details, education and interests.
- Finally, use a format that the recruiter can open. We are unable to open up to 5 CV’s a day. Sometimes the CV is not even attached!
- If your CV doesn’t look interesting to you, it certainly won’t look interesting to a recruiter.
- Try and record the jobs you apply for, so that if you are called about your CV you can recall the advert you applied to.