If you are finding it difficult to land job interviews, it’s time to seek help with your CV.
Our team of recruitment experts help thousands of job hunters to improve their CVs every day, so we’ve created this list of CV resources that will help you create a better CV and start landing job interviews quickly.
1. Download a free professional CV template
One of the easiest ways to write well-structured professional CV, is to download a free CV template.
They are easy to fill out and will allow you to create an interview-winning CV in minutes.
For some extra help, the points below show you how to fill out each section:
CV profile
Your profile sits at the very top of your CV, and is intended to grab the attention of recruiters and employers as soon as they open your CV.
Use you profile to summarise your skills, knowledge and experience at a high level and describe what benefits you bring to an employer.
Role descriptions
Head your role descriptions up with an overview of the company and role.
List your responsibilities in short sharp bullet points for ease-of-reading.
Round off roles with quantifiable achievements to prove the value you added.
Education/qualifications
Add your education at the bottom of your CV. Experienced candidates can keep this section brief but junior candidates will need to expand upon details of their qualifications.
2. Check out our example CVs
If you want to write a successful CV, it helps to have some good example CVs for inspiration.
Our batch of example CVs is one of the most visited CV resources on the web and covers all major industries. Check them out here.
Each example CV is accompanied with comprehensive notes explaining exactly why it will be effective in securing interviews.
3. Find out what recruiters want to see
If you understand what recruiters want to see in your CV, then it’s much easier to create a CV that will impress them.
Before you start writing your CV, you should identify the key requirements that recruiters want to see in candidates applying for your target roles.
A simple way to do this, is heading over to a job website and doing some research.
Run a search for your ideal job and scan through as many job adverts as you can. Whilst you do this, make a list of the most important candidate requirements that keep appearing.
Things like:
- Length of experience
- IT tools
- Market knowledge
- Qualifications
- Skills
- Languages
Once you have created your list of essential requirements, you know exactly what you need to include in your CV.
It’s also worth noting the following facts about recruiters…
They are very pushed for time – Recruiters are often dealing with multiple job vacancies and working to strict deadlines. This means that they will only be able to dedicate a limited amount of time to the initial read of your CV, so keep it short and sweet – no longer than 2 pages.
They read hundreds of CVs every week –To ensure you talents don’t get lost amongst the noise, you need to lay the information out clearly for them. Make your CV very easy to read by using a simple font, clearly dividing sections and breaking text up as much as possible.
They are easily frightened – Recruitment is an important part of any business, so nobody wants to mess it up, especially recruiters. A bad hiring decision could cost a company thousands of pounds and ruin relationships with clients – so recruiters tend to be very picky about who they put forward to vacancies, and will be very wary of mistakes.
Keep your CV free of any spelling errors, typos or formatting blunders, to ensure that you don’t give recruiters any reason to doubt you.
4. Learn the CV mistakes you need to avoid
What you keep out of your CV, can be just as important as what you include.
There are certain mistakes that could see your CV rejected instantly, so you need to be aware of them.
We have the most comprehensive list of CV mistakes on the web here, but below are the main ones you need to look out for.
Spelling and grammar errors
With spellcheck and even grammar-check tools becoming a common feature in most word processing applications, there really is no excuse for spelling errors and typos. Proofread your CV thoroughly to check for anything the auto-correct systems don’t pick up.
Huge chunks of text
Big unbroken paragraphs are off-putting for readers and they make it very difficult for busy recruiters to extract the details they need.
Avoid this situation by making good use of bullet points and short paragraphs.
Generic clichés
I’m sure you’ve seen these classic CV clichés and may have been tempted to use them.
These types of phrases don’t tell recruiters much about you – they are generic, overused and vague.
Stick to the facts and fill your CV with industry-specific skills, knowledge, qualifications and achievements.
Not showing your impact
Don’t fall into the common trap of listing your responsibilities without showing how they impact your employer.
For example, don’t just write:
“Managing department budget and dealing with suppliers”
Expand on this to show how your work affects your employers like below.
“Managing department budget and negotiating supplier terms to reduce monthly spend by 20%”
5. Follow our CV writing help guide
If you want to learn every aspect of the successful CV writing process, then check out our ultimate CV writing guide.
It’s the most in-depth CV writing guide on the web and contains plenty of explainer diagrams and examples.
It may take you a while to read in full, so it’s worth bookmarking if you want to read over a few sittings.