14 Tips to Maximise your CV’s Chances of Getting Chosen
When it comes to applying for a new job, your CV is the first thing an employer sees about you and could be the ticket to get your foot in the door and secure an interview — but how do you ensure your CV is added to the interview pile rather than the reject pile? Writing a CV can be a daunting task, especially if you’re starting from scratch…And although there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for the perfect CV, it should always be tailored to the role and reflect that most important achievements from your career. Here are some basic rules on how to write a CV:
- Do your research
The very first tip to consider comes before you start applying to new opportunities. Research your target industries and roles. For your application to be successful, it needs to contain the skills and experience that your desired employers are looking for. Hit the job boards, scan through lots of relevant job adverts, and make a list of the most sought after requirements for your target roles.
2. Understand the job description
Make sure to read the details from start to finish and highlight everything that you can satisfy and the bits that you are unable to meet. The clues are in the job application, and so with the areas where you’re lacking, adapt your skills and fill in the blanks. For example, if the job in question requires someone with customer service experience, there’s nothing stopping you from using any hospitality work you’ve undertaken — even if it was something to help pay the bills through university. It will demonstrate the skills you do have and show how they’re transferable. Make sure to identify the soft skills too as they are just as important!
3. Tailor your CV for each job
This links with the point above, it is important that for each opening you have customised and tailored your CV to fit their requirements. It may take extra effort but this extra time will often be paid back in interviews and roles that are more relevant to your skillset. You don’t have to re-write the whole thing, just adapt the details so they’re relevant, one quick way to do this is edit the personal profile at the top of your CV and swap around your core skills to reflect the job description.
When customising make sure to look at the company’s website and social media accounts, look to see what is important to them their visions and values and reflect this in your resume or you cover letter — see point below
4. Include a cover letter
Unless the employer states otherwise you should always include a cover letter. It allows you the opportunity to personalise your application and show your engagement and extra effort. You can draw attention to a particular part of your CV, disclose a disability or clarify gaps in your work history. Make sure to include the following: why you’re getting intouch, why you are suitable for the role (highlight 2 or 3 skills and or achievements), what you can do for the company and closing with your interest in the role again.
5. Put the most relevant accomplishments first
Depending on the opportunity decide whether an academic, chronological or skills-based CV is right for you. Order the content of your resume so that your most important and relevant experiences are listed first. Describe key accomplishments at the top of each position and quantify them if possible.
If you are hiding any crucial skills that are required for a particular role, at the bottom of your CV, then make sure you move them up to the top of the CV for that application and make them prominent.
6. Making the most of skills
When putting together a CV, it can sometimes be hard to determine what skills or experiences to include and what to leave off and so make sure to cross check with the job description. These could include: communication skills; computer skills; team working; problem solving or even speaking a foreign language. Skills can come out of the most unlikely places, so really think about what you’ve done to grow your own skills, even if you take examples from being in a local sports team or joining a voluntary group — it’s all relevant.
7. Experience
- Positive Language
Make sure to use active verbs like ‘developed’ ‘achieved’ ‘organised’. This presents you as a positive person who shows initiative.
- Link your previous experience
Really aim to relate the skills and experience that you have learnt in previous positions to the job you’re applying to at the moment. For example instead of ‘carried out administration duties’ write ‘this position involved strong organisational and communication skills as I was responsible for a variety of administration tasks like diary management etc.’
- Back it up
Show the impact you have had for your previous employers by backing up your achievements with numbers/facts. Instead of ‘I increased our audience on social media accounts’ show that you ‘increased the audience consistently by 20% over the last 6 months with engagement levels doubling’ You may not be able to do this for every point on your CV, but always try to where possible.
8. Shorten older roles
Aim to keep your CV to 2 pages, if possible. If you are an experienced candidate with years of experience, there’s no need to write huge amounts of detail on your older roles. Your most recent work is the most relevant and so cut down the older roles with a brief summary. Don’t include things just to fill out the CV; every item on your list should be relevant to the task at hand.
9. Explain gaps in your employment
If you have taken time out to travel, study, complete a personal project, or even due to illness; be transparent and include it on your CV. Time spent outside of work can often involve plenty of skills (for example travelling requires organisation, planning, social skills etc.) so you can always put a positive spin on a career break description. You do not have to include why you left your previous roles.
10. Education and qualifications
List your education and qualifications, with the most recent first. Include:
- The name of school, college, university or other organisation
- The type of qualification
- A brief summary of the course and what you learned
- The dates you attended
- Your result or expected result if you are still studying
You can also include any professional memberships in this section.
If you’re at the start of your career you may wish to put the education section before the work experience section. And if you are an experienced candidate it may not be needed to go into too much detail regarding the summary of your course.
11. Are you interesting?
Link your interests with the company and role if possible, for example as a content creator you may design graphics in your spare time
Include anything that shows how diverse, interested and skilled you are. Try not to include passive interests like watching TV, solitary hobbies that can be perceived as you lacking in people skills. Make yourself sound really interesting.
12. Keep your CV updated
Everytime something significant happens in your career make sure to record it, you will always review and condense your CV before you apply and this will make sure you don’t forget something that could be important. Make sure to add any new skills or courses that you have completed.
13. Make it keyword friendly
Keywords are very important if you’ve uploaded your CV to a job board or a company talent pool. Job titles and buzzwords will help a search engine pick out your CV from the pile and these buzzwords should be the same that appear in the job description.
Don’t forget to include keywords in your cover letter, because that most likely will be screened too. Keywords change with the times, so stay up to date within your industry.
14. Be truthful!
Yes, use a bit of creativity when describing your role to show how proactive you are but don’t be tempted to falsify qualifications or make up jobs that you haven’t done.
A white lie may get you an interview but the interviewer could quite easily catch you out if you don’t appear to know what you are talking about.
Also, most companies will run reference checks after making a job offer, so it’s not worth risking your reputation.
We can appreciate that writing a CV takes concentration and care and hopefully the above tips have given you a few pointers. Sometimes you need a new perspective and a little help on the final bits and so if you have more questions, please do reach out, we’re happy to share our experiences (details below). If you have your CV ready please feel free to upload it to our talent pool on our website.
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