in the world of online recruiting a good CV has never been so important, sadly it’s a skill that isn’t really taught in education – we want to share our top tips to make your CV stand out.
Digital job boards make applying for jobs very easy, with a few clicks of a button in fact, most now ask for a CV to be uploaded – this is sent to the recruiter to determine your potential suitability for a position, but it’s worth noting that this simple task could be doing you a disservice.
Many online job boards and recruitment engines use technology to “read” your CV, looking for key words and phrases – this is a process called “parsing” and can mean that without the key words your application may possibly be rejected early in the process.
We don’t think that is right, or fair, so we’ve created some hand tips to ensure your CV gets past the electronic gate keeper!
- Always include your name, email address and a contact telephone number – sounds obvious right? A potential employer needs to be able to contact you if they want to discuss your application, or arrange an interview etc. It is best to have an email and a phone number as this increases the options the recruiter has to reach out to you.
- Include your location – but not necessarily your address – many online recruitment tools use “geo-location” to match applicants to roles based on their distance, so it it is important to include which town/city you live in.
- DON’T include your age or date of birth, your gender, your National Insurance Number, your bank details, any medical conditions, religion or sexual preferences.
- You don’t need to include a photo.
- Start your CV with a “personal statement” – a brief paragraph about you and how you would be suitable for the role, try to give examples of times you have been successful in your career. Don’t make things up, or put things that aren’t true – it normally comes back to bite you.
- Include your qualifications – try to include all of your qualifications but at the very least include any that are required for the role itself.
- Include your work history – starting with your most recent employment at the top – this helps recruiters get to your current work history quickest.
- In your work history include some key tasks and responsibilities, avoid using jargon or overly technical language.
- Lastly – don’t over do it – your CV should be no more than 2 pages long.