With the job market remaining highly competitive in 2015, modern job hunters can often find themselves applying for scores of roles on a daily basis in a bid to maximise their chances of landing interviews. However when applying for a large number of jobs (even in the same niche), the requirements for each role can differ greatly and therefore your standard CV won’t quite match the spec every time. The quick and easy steps below allow you to tailor your CV to make sure it appeals to each and every recruiter you send it to.
Read the Job Advert
This may sound basic but when you’re pressed for time and sending off your 17th application of the evening; it’s all too easy to simply glance at the job title and fire your CV off. But without reading the job advert in full you won’t understand what the most important requirements of the job are therefore you won’t know what areas of your experience you need to highlight on your CV. For example they may ask for a particular software package experience which you have left hiding at the bottom of your CV. Once you understand the most important requirements for the job; then you can start effectively tailoring your CV.
Pack the Top Quarter of Your CV with important Buzzwords
The top quarter of your CV is extremely important as it is the first thing a recruiter will see and many of them will skip past your CV if they don’t see what they want upon opening it. Edit your profile and first role to make sure that the terms and phrases from the job advert are clearly visible to the reader – this may just be a case of simple rewording, or it may be a case of drawing on experience you hadn’t previously thought to include. Be honest though – don’t make things up or you will be caught out eventually
Cut down on irrelevant information
Recruiters are busy people and they often look through hundreds of CV’s per day so make it easy for them to see why you are a good fit for the role. Cut down on irrelevant information so that they don’t have to wade through big chunks of text to find what they need. The easier you make it for them, the more likely you are to get called in for an interview
Author: Andrew Fennell is the Director of Professional CV Writing Service: StandOut CV
Read the Job Advert
This may sound basic but when you’re pressed for time and sending off your 17th application of the evening; it’s all too easy to simply glance at the job title and fire your CV off. But without reading the job advert in full you won’t understand what the most important requirements of the job are therefore you won’t know what areas of your experience you need to highlight on your CV. For example they may ask for a particular software package experience which you have left hiding at the bottom of your CV. Once you understand the most important requirements for the job; then you can start effectively tailoring your CV.
Pack the Top Quarter of Your CV with important Buzzwords
The top quarter of your CV is extremely important as it is the first thing a recruiter will see and many of them will skip past your CV if they don’t see what they want upon opening it. Edit your profile and first role to make sure that the terms and phrases from the job advert are clearly visible to the reader – this may just be a case of simple rewording, or it may be a case of drawing on experience you hadn’t previously thought to include. Be honest though – don’t make things up or you will be caught out eventually
Cut down on irrelevant information
Recruiters are busy people and they often look through hundreds of CV’s per day so make it easy for them to see why you are a good fit for the role. Cut down on irrelevant information so that they don’t have to wade through big chunks of text to find what they need. The easier you make it for them, the more likely you are to get called in for an interview
Author: Andrew Fennell is the Director of Professional CV Writing Service: StandOut CV