Back to Career Advice Services Home
Creating an interview generating CV
Whether you are looking for a career change, a move up the career ladder or are applying for an internal position, preparing an attention grabbing CV is the first step to achieving your goal. Long gone are the days when a CV would be a simple list of your qualifications and work experience. In today’s competitive and results orientated work environment, your CV should be a marketing tool; an opportunity for you to succinctly tell an employer, in the brief twenty seconds they spend on your CV, what you can do for them.
There are elements of a CV that are very personal and what appeals to one person, may not appeal to someone else. You need to appreciate that your CV will not be every employer’s cup of tea, but by following some of these simple tips, you are greatly increasing your chance of selection.
Achievements – Achievements – Achievements
It is not enough to tell an employer what your key skills are; they need to see it. They need to be able to flick their eye over your CV and see how you can add value to their organisation. One way to do this is to separate the information under each role into key duties and achievements. Alternatively, for many sales or executive level positions, your achievements will be what makes or breaks your application and so, in some instances, a completely separate section to emphasise your achievements, may be appropriate.
Put yourself in the reader’s shoes
When writing your CV, you need to consider what the reader wants to see. Do your homework and determine what skills and achievements the reader is looking for and ensure that it is this information that is emphasised throughout the document. Remember, this is a marketing tool and therefore drawing attention to those elements that match the employer’s requirements is the key to success.
Evolve and adapt your CV
It is surprising how many people still follow the “one CV fits all” approach. Every job and company will be looking for something slightly different in the perfect candidate and so it would be impossible to create a CV which will attract all employers. Your CV needs to be altered for every role you apply for. This may only be a slight modification, but by simply changing the order of the information or changing the emphasis to highlight directly relevant skills, you are dramatically increasing your chances of avoiding the CV cull.
A final point to remember is that a really effective CV will make the interview process a lot easier. A good CV will dictate the direction of an interview and you will know, from looking at the skills and achievements highlighted on your CV, on which competencies the interviewer will focus.
These may seem like simple concepts, but you need to remember that during the first stage of a recruitment process, your CV will probably not even reach the hiring Manager. The job of short listing candidates will fall to a HR Manager or Recruitment Consultant and they may have hundreds of CVs to look through. They will not have time to read your CV in detail, so by following these tips and ensuring that, when they flick their eye over the CV, they see the key skills and achievements they are looking for, you stand more chance of securing your place on that all important shortlist.