CV Advice
CV Writing Tips
Did you know: on average, recruiters will spend 5-10 seconds looking over any given CV?
‘5 seconds?!’ I hear you cry, ‘how could they possibly know if I’m right for the role in just 5 seconds?’ – the answer is simple, they can't, but there’s little place for logic when you have 5 active roles on, hundreds of CVs to work your way through, and all within a tight deadline.
In an ideal world, the recruitment consultant would take more time to look over your CV, but we can’t change facts.
However, what we can change, is our CVs.
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We look through 100s of CVs on a daily basis so you don't have to.
Here are some CV essentials that you must have:
- Your education doesn’t belong here – list this at the end
- Keep your opening personal statement to a short paragraph. This should be edited and tailored to suit the specific role you’re applying for
- List 3 to 4 unique selling points (USPs), such as your biggest achievements in previous roles
- Now it’s time to dive straight in with your employment experience
- Start with your most recent employment and work your way backwards
- List your role title, employer, dates of employment and reason for leaving, followed by a list of your responsibilities within the role
- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – tailor your CV for EVERY role you apply for
- Make sure the most relevant responsibilities are at the top for each position or, better yet, remove anything that isn’t relevant
- List your last 10-15 years’ experience - applying for an HR Director position and still have your ‘sales assistant at retail store’ on your CV? It’s time to delete it. If your employer requires full employment history, they can request it
- The same can also be said for your education history, we’ll let you decide if your D in Latin Studies is relevant for this role…
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