The Critical 7.4 Seconds for Your CV!

Welcome to the series of daily tips on job hunting! In today's tip (5/7), I will discuss?some CV tips. According to research conducted by The Ladders.com in 2018, hiring managers spend an average of just 7.4 seconds reviewing a CV! Therefore, it's essential to ensure your CV can capture the hiring manager's attention in just a few seconds. Having reviewed over 200 CVs and interviewed around 30 candidates over the last two years to hire five talented product people, I have put together the following tips to help you create a standout CV:

1. Keep it short: Unless there is a specific reason to elaborate further, limit your CV to two pages only. This is primarily to ensure your cv is concise and helps the reader find what they are looking for without having to go through too many pages. As people tend to focus on the middle of the page first, ensure you highlight the most important content in this section. Just because you only have two pages, you don't have to cramp everything you have done so far. Be selective and if possible tailor your CV to the job you are applying for.
2. Make it easy to navigate: Use headings, bullet points, visuals and spacing to give your CV structure. Information such as company name, tenure and your title should be effortless to find & read. Consider using a visual template from tools such as Canva to make your CV more visually appealing.
3. Elaborate on recent roles: If you're applying for a job in a similar field to your current role, focus on this in your CV. Interviewers are typically more interested in your current role and the one before, so provide more detail about these and reduce the amount of detail as you go further back in your career to ensure you stick with the two pages rule.
4. Use outcome-based responsibilities: When describing your responsibilities in each role, focus on the outcomes you've achieved and the measures of success. A good structure for this is: outcomes achieved + actions taken + measures of success/results. For example, "Led a team to discover and solve the most important problems in US and CA Go-To-Market regions, reducing manual effort by 600 hours per year and increasing potential subscriptions growth by 5-10%."
5. Include training, passion etc: Don't be afraid to add details other than your work experience & education to make it more personable. A short profile about what makes you unique can help articulate your individuality better. You can also add information about any training you've attended, awards you've received, extra-curricular activities or passions you're proud of and any other demos, presentations, or portfolios you'd like to showcase. Bonus tip - adding a hyperlink (assuming it won't be printed & viewed digitally) to your external digital-assets within the CV helps you pack in more information without cluttering the document.

By following these tips, you can create a concise, visually appealing and easy-to-read CV that captures the hiring manager's attention within those valuable first few seconds. Good luck with your job search!