What to Focus on in Your CV

What to Focus on in Your CV

We all know the fear of having to fill in a CV; at first it begins with sense of depression that, for all your achievements, you still cannot think of enough to fill in one side of A4 to convince someone you are useful. After this initial stage, and once you start writing, you come to realise your successes are endless and indeed handing over a memoir might be better than a thin CV.

This reaction is one which is not the most helpful.

How to Make Sure Your CV is in the Running

While you may think that writing a CV is boring, imagine the poor soul who has to read them all! For this reason you must remember that potential employers will spend only 20 to 30 seconds scanning your CV to begin with. While this sounds like a short time it gives you the first target for CV writing: a clear layout. A CV which offers a potential employer all the required information quickly and easily is the best option, be clear and business-like. Hiding information amongst an array of beautiful but superfluous graphics might not be the best idea.

Now your potential employer is able to gain all the information required with ease you should attempt to remove all errors from your CV. It is deceptively easy to leave a spelling mistake or grammatical slip-up in an important document, especially when it is one you dislike writing and really dislike reading through. While this doesn’t make your CV stand out it makes sure it is in the race!

Finally, to ensure your CV is not immediately designated for a “Cross-office three-pointer,” make sure it is up to date. Updating regularly, although boring, makes producing a CV on demand much easier than scratching your head over when you did what for whom!

How to Make Sure Your CV Stands Out

Once you’ve covered all the bases in terms of making sure your CV gets considered at all you should focus on making it stand out above the rest.

Make sure you show your potential employer not only that you have skills which are applicable but also that you can offer a solution. A job only exists because there is a problem or issue which needs to be resolved; providing information on how you can tackle the role you are presented with will give the employer a better understanding of you and your methods.

This leads to the second way to make your CV stand out; target your audience. Researching your potential employer is always advised. It is particularly helpful for creating a CV dedicated to that employer. Making sure your CV emphasises attributes of yourself which will appeal to the employer is one way to get your foot in the door and hopefully into the job!