5 Quick CV Fixes that will get you more INTERVIEWS

It’s not easy to write a good CV. It can be even harder to land an interview! Here are a few quick tips to increase your chances of getting that elusive face to face interview.

Short and Simple – Keep it to two pages. Most recruiters will spend an average of just 8 seconds looking at your CV. Remember K.I.S.S - Keep it Short and Simple! Use bullet points and short and precise sentences to make sure your CV can be easily digested in a single glance. Recruiters look at thousands of CVs every day. They don't want to keep scrolling through page after page.

Tailor it – Don’t use the same CV for every single application. It’s easy to go to a job site and apply, apply, apply. But you should take the time to find a job that you like. Read the job description, research the company and tailor your CV to highlight the experiences you have that are most relevant to the job. Don't lie, don't exaggerate, just emphasize the parts of your experience that are most important for this particular job.

Numbers and Stats – Don’t list your job tasks in your experience. Explain what you have achieved and back it up with numbers and stats like improving performance rating by 60% within a 3-month period or increased year on year sales by 70% (but don’t just make stuff up). A lot of people copy and paste the job description for their position on to their CV...DON'T DO IT. Slightly better people edit, rephrase, improve their job description and put that in their CV...DON'T DO THAT EITHER! The best candidates rip up their job description and write about what they have achieved for their company and therefor what they can also achieve for the company they are applying to.

Keyword friendly – Identify words that best describe your experience in relation to the type of job you are applying for. A digital marketing candidate might want to include keywords like SEO, SEM, Traffic, User Growth etc. But make sure not to just list words, include them in meaningful sentences. Not only will this make it more impulsive of the reader, it will also help your CV to appear higher up in database keyword search results (make sure you check for typos too).

Make it Beautiful - Image is everything, your CV has to be eye catching to standout from a thousand other CVs. Make the layout easy on the eye. Use colours and graphics but make sure you use a common font for the main body of text. Don’t cram too much into a small space…less is more.

There is no formula for a perfect CV. Everyone like things slightly differently and everyone takes in information in a different way. These tips should give you a slight edge over the rest.

Let us me know if these changes worked and I will publish more job-hunting tips.

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