You may think that recruiters spend a great deal of time carefully looking through every detail of your CV once they receive it. The truth is, with so many people likely applying for the same job they simply do not have the time. In fact, it’s been stated that recruiters spend as little as 6 seconds looking at each CV.
With only a few seconds to get your skills and experience across you have to do all you can to make sure you are put forward to the next stage. Resume tips are as simple as making your application easy to read, clear and to the point. It should be easy to spot all the qualities they are looking for that would make you right for the job, so make those few seconds count.
Select the Best Resume Format
Getting your CV noticed for the right job is not about making it stand out from the rest with fancy fonts and graphics. While this type of application looks great if you are applying for designer type roles where you want to show off those particular skills, they won’t earn you any bonus points for a standard office job and may even have a detrimental effect on your application if you seem like a retention risk.
The best resume format to use in this case is a standard format, which will actually make it easier for recruiters to identify the key points they are looking for on your CV. Keep it simple and present them with a clean and organised layout that keeps things professional and straight forward.
Highlight the Important Parts
Recruiters will typically have an idea of what they are looking for from their ideal candidate. Whether they want specific experience, certain skills or a minimum level of education, you should make sure you highlight these key points in your application.
This can include putting key words in bold, or placing your most relevant work experience at the top of your CV. Your structure should still make sense, but you could include a short summary at the top, or divide your work history up by relevant fields. That way, employers can quickly find what they are looking for, without getting confused about your work history.
Use Emphasis to Your Advantage
Think about how you arrange your work history to make it appear more impressive. So, if you did an internship at a well known company, put emphasis on the company, rather than your actual job title.
On the other hand, if you worked for a relatively small company, but had the opportunity to achieve a great deal, then you will want to focus more on the experience and skills gained. This will help to point out the most impressive parts of your work history and get you to stand out.
Pay Attention to the Job Advert
You may not have the time to tailor your CV to every job you apply for, but if there is something you are particularly interested in and you know there are things you could do to improve your application for the job in question, then it might be worth the additional effort.
You could include a short profile that addresses some of the key points in the job advert to make it more obvious that you are the right person for the job. It could be worth having a different CV for certain job roles and industries if you find you are applying to a few different ones. This would be particularly useful for graduates who are more flexible about the type of work they are looking to go into.
The best resume format should make it obvious to the employer why you are the right person for the job. They typically have an idea of what they are looking for, so make it clear and keep things simple with our easy resume tips.
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