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Content Tip
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Your
resume should be well drafted, organised and focussed.
Make sure there are no typos and spelling errors.
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How to
Dramatically Improve your CV / Resume
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Does your CV make a
recruiter want to invite you to that all-important job interview? Because
if it doesn’t your CV will just be thrown in the bin – hence no interview
and no job offer.
Your CV is
your sales pitch and you only have one chance to make a favourable
impression.
So, what makes a good CV? One that attracts a recruiter’s attention in the shortest amount of time
and makes them really want to meet you. The average recruiter only spends
about 20 to 30 seconds glancing at a CV, which means that you have to grab
their attention very quickly indeed.
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You should therefore highlight what you have to offer at the start of
your CV, rather than hiding your main attractions at the end. An
attention grabbing summary and a list of major achievements at the start
of the CV should help stir a recruiter’s interest in you and make them
really want to meet you.
Summaries
The summary should be short and sweet, no more than four or five lines of
text and should highlight your key skills and attributes. This should
paint a highly favourable picture of you and indicate your strengths which
are relevant to the position you are applying for. Your summary, however,
must be completely truthful, because if your description doesn’t live up
to your performance at an interview you will brand yourself as a ‘liar’.
Major Achievements
After the summary you should list three to six major achievements that are
directly related to the job you are applying for. It is important to pick
achievements that are relevant as this shows that you have understood what
the recruiter is looking for.
If possible you should mention facts and figures, although you may feel
that these are confidential and you may not want to disclose them. They do
however make the CV more interesting and give the recruiter a better idea
of your capabilities.
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Work Experience
Your work experience should come next and should describe your
responsibilities, skills attained and achievements in each position that
you have had. This should always be in reverse chronological order,
starting with your most recent position and working backwards from there.
You should concentrate on your two most recent jobs, unless these are not
relevant to the position you are applying for or you were only in these
positions for a short time. Mention budgetary responsibilities, number of
staff managed (if applicable) and try and give a good picture of where you
fitted into the organisation and what interactions you had with other
companies and departments. |
Education / Qualifications
Obviously if your education is in the dim and distant past then you should
not waste too much space on it, because your work experience will be far
more important to the recruiter. It goes without saying that you must
actually have all the qualifications you have claimed for yourself.
IT Skills / Training / Other Skills
You should list your up-to-date IT skills, training and other skills (such
as language skills and typing speeds if relevant). For IT skills you may
want to include hardware (PCs, Macs), operating systems (Windows 95/98)
and applications (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
Personal Details
This should include your date of birth rather than age, driving licence if
relevant, marital status (optional) and nationality (optional).
Hobbies/Interests
Hobbies and interests are generally not considered very important on a CV.
However they may be able to tell a recruiter a lot about your personality,
leadership potential and team working skills. So they should not be
overlooked completely.
References
References do not generally needed to be included on a CV unless
specifically asked for.
Format
Generally, when you are writing a CV you should keep it to two or three
pages. One-page tends to be too short and more than three pages may not be
read. If you are emailing your CV you should send it in Microsoft Word
format.
Interview-winning CVs
You will have to devote a fair amount of time to writing and producing an
interview-winning CV. But, once it is finished you will have a CV that
will really make an employer sit up and take notice of you and invite you
to that all-important job interview!
Contributing Author: Paul Bradley,
BSc, Cert. RP, MREC, Bradley CVs.
Interview-winning CV writing service by Bradley CVs
Alec's free advice on CVs, resumes, interviews & job hunting
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