1.Identify details worth mentioning and details better off left out.
Studies have shown that potential employers can spend as little as 7 seconds reading your CV before casting a form of judgement. This means that whilst including the fact you have an amazing degree is worthwhile, listing every module you participated in is probably a waste of valuable time.
2.Make efficient use of the skills section.
You may have hundreds of valuable skills but it’s important to know which are relevant to the position you’d like and which aren’t. Mention the skills that make you a great candidate for the position you are applying for.
3.Make your CV easy to read.
This is crucial. Even if you have the best CV in the world, if the employer finds it a pain to read or struggles to follow the structure they may not bother to read it at all. Employers will have lots of CVs to go through and if they can get away with reading less, they will.
4.Tailor your CV to the job.
It is imperative that you tailor your CV to each job application, it may be faster to send the same CV to 50 different employers but by doing so your application will appear generic. If you’re applying for a cooking job you want your CV to reflect your excellent cooking skills. If applying for an accountancy role you want your CV to highlight your mathematic skills.
5.Ask for feedback
Asking for feedback is a really helpful tool when it comes to improving your CV. If you didn’t manage to progress to the second stage of the employment process, ask them why. The employer may not get back to you but if they do you can alter your CV for next time. Similarly, if you succeed in getting an interview or you get shortlisted, don’t be afraid to ask the employer what they liked about your CV.
6.Do not put your references as the bottom of your CV.
Putting references at the bottom of your CV is unnecessary during the CV filtering process and uses up too much space, instead state that references are available on request. If an employer likes your CV they can get references from you later on in the process.
7.Pictures are a bad idea.
One easy way you can improve your CV is to make sure you have not included a picture of yourself, unless you are applying to become a model it is not convention to add a photograph to your CV. Primarily this is because a picture may influence an employer’s decision on the basis of looks or gender and this is against discrimination laws.
8.Do not lie.
Lying on your CV might be tempting but it isn’t worth it. Even if you get away with lying about your qualifications initially, if your employer finds out later on that you have lied you will lose your job and maybe get into trouble with the law.
9.Do not use words that you do not fully understand.
Using advanced language is great and employers will be impressed if you can express yourself well, however be careful that you aren’t using as many big words as you can to sound smart. It will be very obvious to an employer if you are using words that you have found online. It is much better to use simple language accurately than to use advanced language in the wrong context.
10.Update your CV regularly.
Never consider your CV finished. CVs need to be updated as you grow as an individual and hopefully by reading this article you have found some great ways of improving yours.
