Top Tips to writing the perfect CV

Top Tips to writing the perfect CV

We understand looking for your next role can not only be time consuming, but also worrying. If you’re looking to land a new job, you’ll need a quality CV that will impress employers and stand out from the crowd, especially post pandemic, with so many candidates applying for the same roles.

1. Do your research

The very first thing you should consider before tailoring your CV to match your skills is to research your target roles and the required skills and attributes that recruiters could be looking for. Spend some time scanning through relevant job adverts and make a list of the most sought after requirements for your target roles. Analyse whether you have these skills and ensure you shout about them!

2. Short and precise paragraphs

Recruiters and hiring managers are short of time, and large chunks of text are off-putting for readers and make it difficult to pick out key information. Make it easy for recruiters to spot your talents by breaking text up into easily digestible sections and ensuring the information flows in a sensible and logical format.

3. Add a punchy profile to your CV

The top of your CV is hugely important, as it the very first thing a recruiter or hiring manager will see. This is your opportunity to sell yourself and make a big impact with an attractive CV profile. We recommend keeping it short and sharp in order to hold readers’ attention, summarise your most valuable skills and highlight the benefits of employing you.

Quick tip: If you worry that your spelling and grammar might not be correct, try using a free writing assistant tool like Grammarly to eliminate the risk of making mistakes.

4. Use a core skills section

A core skills section is a bullet pointed list that sits just under your profile. It can include anything from industry experience and qualifications to skills and IT knowledge. The purpose is to give readers a very quick snapshot of your offering so that they can see that you are a good fit for their vacancy at first glance.

Quick tip: for best results, tailor these points to reflect the requirements of the jobs you are applying for through your earlier research.

5. Use a professional email address

Every part of your CV will be judged by employers, so it needs to reflect your professionalism at all times. ilovehotdogs@gmail.com probably isn’t the best representation of yourself that you’d like to give your new employer, so keep it professional and use your name.

6. Show your impact

When writing your CV role descriptions, it’s important to show your responsibilities. But it’s even better to show what impact your actions have for your employers.

For example, instead of just writing:

“Sourcing and approaching potential customers.”

Expand to show your impact:

“Sourcing and approaching potential customers to generate leads for the sales team and build pipeline.”

You may not be able to do this for every point on your CV, but always try where possible.

7. Structure your CV for easy navigation 

With recruiters often receiving hundreds of CVs for every job they advertise, it pays off to make yours easy to read. We recommend breaking your CV down as follows:

Length: 

• Ideally 2 pages

Format: 

• Use a simple font, break the text up and avoid using images!
• Contact details
• Introduction: 2-4 sentences
• Employment history
• Education
• 2x references 

8. Give a high level summary of your roles

Delving into the nitty gritty details of your roles without first setting the scene, can be confusing for readers. Give your role descriptions some context by heading them up with a high level summary that explains what the employer does, where you sit within the organisation and how your role benefits the employer.

9. Avoid generic clichés

These phrases may appear impressive at first glance, but they don’t actually tell recruiters anything factual about you!

Cliches to avoid include the following:

• “hard working”
• “team player”
• “enthusiastic”
• “out-of-the-box thinker”

Quick tip: If you want to show employers that you are a hard-working team player, don’t simply state the fact; instead use examples of the results you have achieved within team settings to prove it.

10. Tailor your CV to every job you apply for

Although your CV will be tailored towards the general type of roles you are applying to, you can give each application a boost by tweaking the CV even further, every time you apply for a different role.

Assess each job advert before applying and make sure that your CV is highlighting the most important requirements for each one. If you are hiding any crucial skills that are required for a particular role, at the bottom of your CV, then make sure you move them up to the top of the CV for that application and make them prominent. 

Now that you’ve read our top ten tips to writing your CV, get writing or get in touch with the team for more help by emailing us at info@brsjobs.co.uk