Landing the dream job isn’t impossible.
And while a well-crafted CV isn’t the only step you need to take to get there, it’s a good start.
What’s more, it has the power to make or break your chances of success in your chosen field.
There are many things you can do wrong when writing your CV, so it’s worth being aware of the most common mistakes. Together with that, there are some hacks you can try and a whole new approach to use when creating it, so that you can grab attention and look like the ideal candidate in your employer’s eyes.
The following CV writing tips will help you out:
Decide what not to include.
Some people include anything possible in their CV, and it gets overwhelming to read it.
Your CV writing is the first form of communication your employer gets to experience with you. And how it’s written and what’s included are big factors.
It means that if you make it too long, it will have too many details that you should have left off. And your employer will understand that you like to go into details, but often most of it is just unnecessary and time-wasting.
Just like there are things you shouldn’t say in a job interview, so are there things it’s best to leave out when writing your CV.
Make an outline before you start creating the content.
Now set a goal for your CV. Let it be something like, ‘I want to tie in who I am and what I can do, with what the company is looking for.’
Some elements you can’t go without are achievements, skills and work experience.
Make these short but sweet.
Include examples that describe the value you can bring to the company.
Make sure you skip adding anything negative. These are things such as what you haven’t achieved so far, what you decided not to pursue in the past, comparison to other candidates that puts you in an unfavorable position, etc.
Also remove odd or totally irrelevant jobs you had in the past.
For everything you add about yourself, ask if it’s necessary. Would you care about that if you were the one hiring?
Put yourself in your employer’s shoes.
One of the biggest mistakes is to copy a CV template from the Internet and use it for every company you apply for, after changing a few names and sentences.
What’s wrong with that?
Well, for a start anyone reading it will know what you did. After all, you’re not the first one looking for easy ways out.
In their mind, you’ll be lazy and preferring shortcuts over hard work (which in this case means doing a thorough research and creating a unique CV tailored to every company and the people who run it).
Second, you’ll sound like the rest of the candidates. Which makes your CV boring.
And last but not least, you won’t be adding a personal touch.
If you do try to make your CV special though, you’ll need to sit down and go over anything the company did over the last decades, see every page on their site, what’s discussed about it on forums or social media, even read the biographies of the founders and CEOs.
Even if you don’t include exact facts when doing the CV writing, you will have gotten a feeling of what they are all about. Knowing their values, past successes and future aspirations (by checking out news about them in online magazines, for instance, or what they themselves have recently announced on their social media channels), you can now craft the ideal CV.
When reading it, the potential employer might have a light smile on their face. He now knows what you did, and if it’s genuinely written to show how you see yourself as being part of the team, he’ll like it.
To take things to the next level, you can use a professional CV writing service.
Stand out, but do it the smart way.
Almost any position and field is competitive today. Which means there will be tens or even hundreds of other CVs to be checked out on the same day, or even before yours.
The only way to get it right at this point is to show what makes you unique.
The world is full of eager careerists who just graduated, prepared their CV following each and every guideline experts have shared, included all their achievements and activities related to the dream job, and who probably applied to tens of companies at the same time.
They are your competition. And your CV is where you can make a difference and form a good first impression.
Yes, you’ll mention what you did over the past few years, both at college and in real life, that an employer might find relevant to the job. But what else?
For instance, what’s your biggest passion and what have you done to pursue it?
What unique vision have you always had, or how did the entrepreneur within you took control even though you were hanging out with average people?
Make it personal too. Not too much, though. What I mean is, make the reader relive the short story you include as an example, and even see in you one of those potential overnight successes everyone will be talking about years from now.
So that’s how you go about CV writing in a way different from the masses.
What other ideas do you have?