There is stiff competition for most roles today so it’s important to know how to get your CV noticed.
A strong CV can make a tremendous difference to your job hunt so investing your time into creating the perfect CV is a valuable exercise. It can be the difference between success and failure.
Here are my top ten CV tips to help get your CV noticed.
How to get your CV noticed
1. Match your CV to the job description
A job description is a wish list for the employer. You want to try to match this as much as possible. Use their terms for descriptions and try to put yours in the same order too. This will make you quickly look like an ideal match. Remember, they are looking for someone who is ‘a good fit’ to their company.
2. Send your CV with a targeted cover letter
If the job you are applying for is in the services industry – show how you are suited, and why you are interested in working in the services industry in your cover letter. Name the company in which you are applying so the application is targeted and does not look generic. Employers like to see keen interest from candidates in working for their company.
3. No errors
Attention to detail is something all employers look for, and errors in your application are unacceptable and easily avoidable. Don’t let yourself down with silly mistakes.
4. Strong Presentation
First impressions last, so the layout, formatting and presentation of your CV should be as strong as possible. Irishjobs.ie have a number of CV templates to assist you here.
5. Highlight Core Competencies
Core competencies are behaviours that employers like to see that are necessary to do the job. Your CV should highlight these throughout – show how you did the tasks, not just listing basic tasks.
6. Write a great Personal Profile
A personal profile is a good opportunity to summarise your core competencies and experience and also highlight your writing skills. A good Personal Profile paragraph is a good first impression, and good first impressions last.
7. List Impressive Achievements
Achievements are a good opportunity to show your outputs, special skills learned and value added to previous employers. They really help separate your experience from others and show your worth.
8. Show Personality
CV’s can be very generic and one-dimensional. If you can show your personality, it will make you stand out. How you do this is by highlighting core competencies, achievements, hobbies and interests. Showing recommendations on your LinkedIn profile for example can also help. For those who have work done available online, links to these work very well.
Interesting hobbies can be a good way to show personality. If you do not have any interesting hobbies, no problem, just show you’re fit and healthy and a team player if possible. If you do have hobbies like sailing, golf, martial arts, or charity work for example; add these to your CV, as many employers like to see them. Employers also like to see leadership, so if you had roles of responsibilities in your hobbies, this would look very good.
9. Highlight IT/Technical Skills
A lot of candidates have plenty of IT and/or technical skills but do not highlight these in their CV. A lot of employers and recruiters conduct searches based on job titles and IT skills so you would be omitted from their findings. I have seen software knowledge being the difference between selecting one candidate over another, so don’t sell yourself short. You don’t have to be an expert in any of these to list them on your CV.
10. Hire a CV Expert
Writing CV’s is a skill and not one that most people are naturally born with. To assist you and ease the burden of writing your own, hire a CV expert so that you can be professionally guided and advised and give you the peace of mind that you are presenting yourself in the best possible manner.
There are no exact rules on how to get your CV noticed but no matter what your approach writing the perfect CV one thing is for sure the perfect CV takes time and effort.
However the energy exerted is well spent as it will mean the difference between be selected for interview or not.
Gillian Knight is the MD of Kala Management Solutions and has extensive experience within the field of HR. She has assisted thousands of people write job winning CVs as well providing one to one interview coaching to job seekers.