Spring has sprung=time to bloom and grow!

Personally, a ‘spring clean’ has always meant time for a change… out with the old & in with the new! Nothing makes me feel more refreshed especially this time of year! Whether that is personally or professionally!

So, for my LinkedIn audience, I thought I would give some tips on how to tweak, adapt and update that CV of yours, especially for those candidates who might be thinking about a career change this year! I released some of these CV tips over the last few weeks so, I thought it would be beneficial to release the full article with some additional tips!

As professionals, we are always learning, developing, and taking on new responsibilities. It is important that your CV should reflect that. 6-12 months can fly by & before we know it, there are a few things to add or delete.

A few important things to note right from the get-go:

? Don’t be afraid to delete old/out of date information. As a recruiter, I see plenty of CV's which have been constantly added to which can get very lengthy!

? Add in new information/responsibilities you have taken on.

? Keep it neat & tidy.

? Keep it short, sharp & factual.

? Bullet points are your best friend.

Personal profile:

I always recommend having a brief overview of your career alongside the key strengths that you would like to highlight within this section. The ‘personal profile’ should be a simple snapshot. Perhaps, you could also add what you are passionate about or how many years you have been working within your profession.

The purpose of this opening statement is to catch the reader in as few sentences as possible so it should be punchy, factual, clear, and concise. In my opinion, it doesn’t need to be a long explanation either, a quick few sentences will do!

Bullet points:

Always try to have short & sharp sentences in your resume when describing your responsibilities in your career history section. The biggest tip I can provide here is to give enough information away to the reader but not the whole story. This is where most of us want to squeeze in as much as we can, which results in a very lengthy CV.

Two things to remember:

1) If you are called for an interview, you will have the chance to go through your experience in more detail! This is where you bring your CV to life.

2) Sometimes...Less is more!

Dates:

Often enough, I see CV’s that have vague timelines in the career history section such as “2017 – 2020” my recommendation to anyone adapting their CV, would be that you need to be more specific with the dates. For example, “July 2017 – September 2020”. This gives a clear timeline to the hiring manager or recruiter that is reading your CV.

Career History:

This might seem like a small thing, but I’ve seen some CV’s that list the career history starting with the oldest first! In my opinion, I believe that CVs should start with the most recent experience! So that whoever is reading your CV can quickly understand what your most recent experience is.

If you have any gaps in your CV, don't ignore them & leave this blank, instead acknowledge the gap in the history and explain briefly what it was! This will keep the reader from guessing or questioning what the gap is!

Personal details:

A lot of candidates still put on their date of birth, gender, age, or marital status! This information is not required when submitting your CV. However, putting your nationality/right to work alongside your email, phone number and postcode certainly helps!

List the sections that are important for you:

Another piece of advice I would like to offer to you is to start off by having the bones to the CV laid out first, for example, my own personal CV I always started off with the subheadings that were non-negotiable, after that, I filled out the rest of the CV. It makes the whole process much easier!

Quantify your achievements:

Lastly, if you have made any significant changes within the business you work for that were performance or process-related, make sure you state what impact this had on the business. For example, you could provide information where you been responsible for regular training sessions on a particular topic that benefited other employees in the business. Or perhaps, you could have completed a cost-saving exercise that has had a positive impact on the business.

Lastly, enjoy your 2021 spring clean, I hope the above tips have helped you!