What Does A Good CV Look Like?

Creating an impactful CV doesn't need to be a huge task.

When we begin to think about updating our CVs or even creating a new CV as we haven't ever had one or needed one for a while, we can be guilty of putting it off until the last minute. Leaving it late creates a rushed job and can have a negative impact on your job search.

Looking at CV creation as a daunting task can result in adding too little or way too much detail, getting over-inventive by creating fancy graphics, fonts or tables, or even resorting to spending a couple of hundred pounds to have a supposed 'professional CV writer' to do the job for you.

In my time as a hiring manager, agency recruiter, and now internal recruiter, I have seen tens of thousands of CVs and there are some shockers out there. The majority of what I have seen have clearly been rushed, haven't been written by the person the CV is supposed to represent, have a stack of mistakes or even have some crazy ideas that actually baffle me as to why they are there.

 The faults here are down to poor career education and listening to the noise around us which has led us to believe that it is better to go big, but this results in going overboard, or even more likely, it is down to the external personal pressures that have created an element of desperation for us to stand out.

I will share with you some tips on what a good CV looks like, and believe me, when I see people that have kept their CV simple, I usually find that they are the ones that do not struggle to find work.

You may have seen my article, 'Are you over-complicating your job search', and if you haven't, take a look. In the article, I mention a couple of behaviours that have changed over the years when managers or recruiters are viewing CV's. The main point being that managers and recruiters will form an opinion on a CV within seconds. So, the priority is to think about really nailing down that front page of your CV.

Below are a few areas you should focus on:

Your Personal Brand

Remember, the purpose of a CV is to sell your skills and experience to a potential employer. So, think about how you would like to be seen by potential employers. What you write and how you present it does actually say a lot about your personality traits, so have a think about that also.

The key thing to shout about is your specialist skill set, so add any certifications, links to personal projects etc. that says you are the right candidate in your field, to the first page. Also, ensure you have a link to your LinkedIn profile alongside your contact number and email.

This creates intrigue and will ensure that anyone reading your CV will want to learn more about you.

Keep It Short & Simple

Get rid of any fancy fonts, tables, graphs, pictures, and odd-looking layouts and just stick to a simple format. If you create too much noise on the first page it becomes more of a chore for someone looking at your CV. And if a recruiter is looking at hundreds of CVs for one role, they will want a simple document to make a quick first impression.

A little secret, great agency recruiters will look to add their branding and try and tidy up a CV before submitting to their client. If your CV has way too much of the above going on, they will more than likely not submit your CV to their client and pick another out of their shortlist instead. Remember, agents are under pressure to deliver in a quick time frame so faffing around for half a day trying to format someone's CV will not be at the top of their to do list.

Also, keep your CV to two pages maximum. You will be amazed at how many people send what looks like a novel, it's overkill. Keep it short.

Eradicate Any Potential Biases From Your CV

Unconscious bias is a natural human behaviour that everyone displays, it is how we are wired. You don't want to be overlooked for an interview based on someone's personal opinion. So, things not to include on your CV are; home address, D.O.B, head shot of yourself, dates on your education (just include where and what you achieved), and only include the last ten years' of your employment history.

I am not saying that any of the above will go against you 100% of the time, but what you are doing is eradicating any potential for people to add you to the back-up shortlist rather than the primary one.

Employment History

Ensure that your employment history stacks up against your LinkedIn profile.

You will be amazed at the amount of people who add wrong dates of employment in or leave out certain roles to their CV which is different to the information on their LinkedIn profile.

Make sure everything is mirrored, and also ensure that the month and year are added to each role. Just adding years doesn't tell the whole story.

The STAR Method

A lot of people will just use bullet points in each role, which doesn't really tell potential employers a lot. If you really want your CV to tell a story about you, then implementing this method to each role in your employment history is a great way to showcase what you are about.

The STAR method is something that I believe has a real positive impact and the epitome of CV formatting. So, what does the STAR method stand for, well, it's Situation Task Actions Results.

How to implement the method to each of your previous job roles:

SITUATION

Describe your role and the reason why you were hired into this role. For example, you were brought in to turn around a poor performing department.

TASK

What were your main responsibilities in the role and what skills did you bring to the role e.g., coaching and training improvements etc.

ACTION

Explain your process and the skills used in each action.

RESULT

Summarise the end result e.g., increased revenues, customer satisfaction etc.

A Jack of All Trades And Master Of None

Your CV is there to tell potential employers what you are good at. Adding every single skill you have accumulated in your career will have a negative impact. Adding everything can lead to confusion and potential employers or recruiters wondering what you really are good at.

Coming at this from the tech world as an example, just because you worked with a certain technology once 10 years' ago, doesn't mean you are an expert and so should be added as a key skill.

When you are in interviews, interviewers will find out how little you know about something and that is not going to get you the job. So, best form of action, just don't add it. It also reduces the weight carried behind your true specialisms as you will have diluted the trust and enthusiasm the interviewer had for your CV.

Do Not Change Your CV For Every Role You Are Applying For

A lot of people will apply for multiple roles with various requirements in one organisation. This then leads to people adapting their CV to match those roles. Guess what? It doesn't work. In fact, this will mean you will most likely not get an interview.

It really does reflect badly on you when you send multiple versions of your CV as you then lose all credibility. Stick to your original CV and if you feel that you are a good fit for a role that may well look like it is outside of your core skill set, then write a covering letter to explain what secondary skills you have.

Thank you for reading, hopefully you will be able to take something away from this and improve your job prospects.

If you have any feedback or questions on this article, please do leave a comment.