What makes a good CV?
Whether we're navigating the process of crafting our first CV or refining our existing one for a job search, this article outlines what makes a good CV today, so we stand out for the right reasons.
Simply put, our three principles are:
Prioritise
Coherence
Language
1. Prioritise
Recruiters will not be interested in experience or content that is not related to their job. They have very little time to peruse irrelevant info given the number of applications they typically receive. Concise delivery of applicable info is the name of the game. Many of us could fill a book with content we would like hiring managers to know about, but we must prioritise and refine.
Above all else, we need to ensure our CV aligns with the job(s) we are applying for, tailor each section with the specific job in mind. Examine the job description to understand the recruiter's/organisation’s preferences and customise our CV accordingly. Put our related skills and experience front and centre, ensuring it takes up the most space and attention. Emphasising the most crucial information gives us the best opportunity to stand out.
For example, if pursuing a human resources role, emphasise relevant HR software experience like Workday, but downplay experience with design software. We may think something looks good on our CV, but if a recruiter is not interested then it is taking their attention away from the info that will get us through to the next round.
We want our CVs to be two pages or less - Eliminate unnecessary details. There is a good chance the hospitality job we had in our local pub as a teenager is no longer relevant. A good CV provides a quick and accurate snapshot of who we are and what we can contribute. It is essential to keep our work history concise and relevant. Focus on our most recent jobs, presenting them in reverse chronological order.
Lastly, avoid including extraneous personal information, such as marital status or religion. They hold no relevance to our job application and actually open us up to bias. Even adding a photo is unnecessary and irrelevant to the application. It becomes outdated as soon as it's included and takes up space that should have info that helps our candidacy.
Remember: Recruiters do not have enough time; we need to make their job easier for them. Concise delivery of hyper-relevant info puts we in the best position to progress.
2. Coherence
Regardless of the strength of our experience or education, or how fascinating our hobbies or achievement are, a poorly laid-out, incoherent CV is an instant red flag. A clean format is the easiest part about getting our skills together, gaining all that experience is the hard part. A visually inept CV is essentially shooting ourselves in the foot at the final hurdle. Ensure we are following a tidy template that has consistent spacing and font style.
Bullet points typically make for easier reading and are a standard when it comes to CVs. The harder aspect of writing our points is making sure our wording is concise and clear. Related to our first principle, we must detail our hyper-relevant info exclusively – succinct language is key to this. Remove as much filler and fluff from our sentences as possible. It adds nothing to our CV and only stands to take attention away from the crucial info.
Proofreading is our final phase in the CV-writing process, we need to catch any errors before a recruiter reviews it. Spelling and grammar mistakes, although honest errors, will negatively impact a recruiter's hiring decision. These simple but easy mistakes create an impression of unprofessionalism and a lack of attention to detail.
Some simple tips:
Maintain consistency in our use of the 1st or 3rd person throughout the CV.
Keep our descriptions of our current role in the present tense and describe past roles consistently in the past tense.
Check each line, making sure our font size and spacing are uniform.
Consider using a spell/grammar checker or reading it backwards to check our CV for spelling errors.
Remember: It is much easier to have our CV turned down than accepted, don’t give any simple excuses. Ensure we have an aesthetic layout, no typos and succinct sentences.
3. Language.
Ensure we are examining the job description and identify the skills or competencies that we can demonstrate. Review our experiences, education and personal competencies and outline concrete examples of how we have applied these skills. The more of these key words we can include in our CVs, the easier it is for the recruiter to identify us as a good candidate and move us onto the next round.
At times, this will occur naturally when our college courses or our job experience relates perfectly to the job description. Other times, we may find this difficult and think that none of our experience applies to the roles we want. Explore all the aspects of our experience; extracurricular activities, hobbies, achievements, interests, etc. – we will likely find something that we can use. If we consistently can’t, it might be worth looking at upskilling ourselves and gaining the experience in the areas we are lacking.
Often, we get so used to the everyday language or abbreviations we use in our current course or role we assume it is common knowledge. Very often it is not, scrutinise all ‘technical’ words and abbreviations. If there is a potential they will not be understood, replace or explain. Professional language and CVs do not encounter this problem. We need to write the CV as if the recruiter has no experience of our industry.
Remember: Language is important – Wording and keywords used correctly could be the difference between an OK and great CV, while overt complexity adds nothing.