Though it’s not my specialist area, people often ask me for advice about writing a compelling CV. With so much competition in today’s job market, your CV is a crucial starting point to help you stand out against hundreds of applicants. For youngsters looking for casual work or graduates taking their first steps into professional careers, it feels difficult to shine with a minimal history of paid work. For more experienced candidates, working out the right level of detail to share from a long career history is also a challenge.
Writing a CV is a delicate balancing act. You want to create an immediate impact, to catch the attention of a recruiter leafing through a huge pile of CVs. At the same time, you need to maintain a professional and credible approach.
My number one piece of advice is to tailor your CV to each employer. This may seem like a lot of effort, particularly if you’re bulk applying for dozens of roles online. But for those you really care about, it’s worth it. I recommend that you build and maintain a master CV document, containing all your qualifications, career information, hard and soft skills and personal interests. To create your tailored CV, choose and customise relevant portions, asking yourself what’s most relevant to the role you’re applying for and carefully consulting the job spec, if you have one.
This doesn’t mean you have to use a narrow range of traditional work experiences. Activities outside work can be a good way to show yourself as a proactive and committed person and make you more memorable to a potential employer, but you must specifically relate the skills and responsibilities to your target role and organisation. If you can explain clearly how participating in an improv circus skills troupe has improved your ability to make split-second decisions and work under pressure, use it!
But don’t be tempted to share every single success or activity. Think about it from the employer’s point of view: if you’re ten years into your professional career, they probably won’t need to know about your prefect responsibilities at secondary school. Including too much detail can feel like padding, obscuring the most relevant qualities that you want the recruiter to see. It can also look desperate, as if you lack confidence or credibility. And it makes reading your CV hard work – an easy way to encourage the reviewer to give up and toss it into the trash. Avoid over-complicated language and jargon for the same reason.
First impressions are important. The most valuable information should be the first thing an employer sees when they skim your CV. Your professional summary paragraph or bullet points are key! Highlight experience, achievements and qualifications that are directly relevant to the job spec and that make you stand out.
In the main body of the CV, list career experience, highlighting hard and soft skills and tangible attainment. In most cases start from the most recent and work backwards. A short paragraph for each role is enough, or 2-3 one-line bullets. Finish with any relevant factual information such as your clean driving license, eligibility for work and other certifications not mentioned elsewhere. There’s no need to include your date of birth, although your approximate age will probably be clear from the number of roles or educational institutions you list. You can either include contact details for a referee (with their permission) or state ‘References available on request.’
If you don’t have a lot of work history, present your qualities with specific evidence. I recently advised a sixth former to select five key characteristics that matched with the needs of the role they were applying for, with a couple of bullets demonstrating each from their volunteering, school responsibilities, life and sporting achievements. They were offered a role in a local business, with the employer commenting on the clarity of their CV.
Use a clear, professional font in a legible size. Don’t include a photo (unless you’re applying for a modelling job or similar) – it’s against UK hiring laws, and in any case takes up valuable space. Aim for a CV no longer than two pages. That may sound short, but you’re not trying to tell the employer everything about you in this document: you want to provide easily digestible highlights that will get you onto a shortlist, saving details and examples for the interview. Using clear and accurate English and making sure there are no spelling or formatting mistakes is a no-brainer: a simple automated spellcheck or grammar.ly review will pick up all the basics for you.
While I’m not a recruiter or HR expert, I’m always happy to help associates and friends build or improve their CVs from a writer’s viewpoint. If you need an objective eye casting over yours, drop me a line!
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