As the final week of 2022 approaches, some of us will start to look at the year ahead. With the hustle and bustle of the holidays over, taking a fresh look at what comes next may feel like the natural thing to do. If, for you, that involves a career or job change starting off on the right foot will make all the difference. Getting your CV / resume right is crucial whether you’re applying for a course or new job.
The gate keeper
Your initial intention is to get you CV past the ‘gate keeper’. This is the person, or AI, that will sift CVs for shortlisting. The gate keeper will be focused on picking out CVs with the skills, qualifications and experience listed on the job description. In the case of AI it will be looking for certain keywords via an Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
Your CV must be tailored to the job description. Follow my blog on creating a killer CV/Resume for details on how to do this.
Layout, grammar and spelling
Cluttered, disorganised layout
Once you get passed the gate keeper you need to make sure your CV is laid out so the reader can access easily the information you want to draw their attention to.
It doesn’t matter how amazing you are, if finding relevant information is hard work you might find your CV ends up on the reject pile. Bullet pointing key information and limiting the length of sentences and paragraphs will help.
The first page of your CV is a sales document. You’re promoting you to the employer. If you omit key information or make accessing that information a trial, you’ll fail.
Poor grammar and spelling
It may seem obvious but first impressions count. Remember this is your sales document, so if it’s badly written or hard to read you’ll be doing yourself a disservice.
In most cases this would also mean choosing a standard font like Arial, Times New Roman or Calibri.
Once you’ve written your CV, re-read it and re-read it again. Then ask someone else to take a look at it. Getting the first impression of other people goes a long way towards making sure you have got the basics right.
Irrelevant information
You need to tailor your CV to the job and employer. Don’t produce a CV and then just fire the same one off to every job you apply for. This approach is unlikely to work except for low skilled jobs or for very similar jobs and employers. In most cases an employer will spot a generic CV a mile off and all you will be doing is regurgitating irrelevant information that will see your CV on the reject pile.
Remember your CV is a sales document. It’s not that you shouldn’t mention the breadth of your work experience, but that you should focus on highlighting the relevant stuff. This might mean details of irrelevant work experience should be kept to a minimum, put on the second page and any irrelevant personal details left out altogether.
Including too much non-relevant information can make it difficult for recruiters to quickly find the relevant information they need and they may decide to not bother.
CV Length
Two pages is the rule of thumb. There are very few exceptions to this rule. If you want your CV to stand out for the right reasons try to keep to the two page rule. Overloading your CV with interesting but irrelevant detail isn’t one of the exceptions that would justify breaking it.
If you believe your CV has only relevant content but exceeds two pages check the details are concise and not repeated. If you have two similar jobs there is no need to repeat your experience. An unjustifiably lengthy CV, when an employer has a pile to get through, will not be appreciated.
No hook
You need to capture the attention of the employer from the start. This is usually done with the personal statement at the top of the document. A covering letter would also help achieve this.
The personal statement shouldn’t be more than a few lines long but should relate to the job. You could refer to experience and interests. You might reference a previous job, project or hobby from where your experience or interests stem.
Whatever you do don’t use empty buzz words. They are boring to read if not substantiated with evidence within your CV. The purpose of this statement is to draw the employer in. You want to pursuade them that your CV is worth their time to read.
And finally…
When employers are quickly scanning hundreds of applications, they want to see a concise CV that is easy to read and skim for the information they are interested in. They want to see that you have taken the care and shown the attention to ensure there are no grammar or spelling mistakes. And they want to know you are genuinely interested in working for them by addressing the job description in the process of completing your CV.
In a competitive job market you need to shine to stand out. So if you don’t want to end up on the reject pile avoid making the common mistakes that might put you there.