Are you applying for roles left, rights and centre but can’t seem to get through to an interview? It could be that your CV needs some editing.As someone who shortlisted countless candidates for roles, here are 3 tips I would share, to increase your chances of being selected.
- Make your CV tailored to the role
One of the most common reasons candidates do not get shortlisted is due to their CV being generic/not tailored to the specific role. Utilise either the key skills section or your profile/personal statement to address the job you’re going for directly – ‘I would be an excellent fit with Company X because…’
Also, remember to read the advert or person specification closely and make sure your CV addresses what the company seeks, especially if there is no option to attach a Cover Letter. This would mean making your most relevant experience come first and focusing on the skills and achievements you’ve developed which are specifically relevant to this role.
- Capture the audience with Page 1
If I get a printed copy of a CV, I will look at page 1 first, as you would expect. If that page does not catch my interest, it’s unlikely I will move on to page 2.
Your CV should be 2 pages long (longer if you’re wiring an academic CV, a template of which you can find here). It’s therefore essential to capture your audience from page 1, making them want to read on.
Audience
Some tools I’ve seen and used are an effective key skills and achievements section where you summarise what your strengths are and how you’re suitable. Another good tool is dividing your experience into ‘relevant’ and ‘other’ – so you can present the relevant experience you’ve had that suits the role first. This is especially a good tool if you have a lot of work experience and if you want to come back to a field you worked within before, after a break. Say you started working in finance, then decided to try out IT but now feel it’s time to come back to finance. The relevant experience section allows you to highlight your financial experience.
- Present your experience in a clear and concise way
One of the best tools in creating an easy to read CV is bullet points. They’re easy to move around and allow the writer to summarise concisely the point. It can be very hard to grasp large bulks of text andClear.PNG given how limited a recruitment managers time is, they may not read the content if it’s bulky and hard to grasp.
Allow for white space on your CV, as a cramped CV could be very off-putting also.www.iibmindia.in
