In the digital age, your CV is still your best, and first, advertisement when it comes to nabbing a new job.
Having a fresh, snappy CV is crucial for standing out in a competitive market but the mere thought of updating it has most of us reaching for the booze/door/social media –whatever it takes to avoid it.
This needn’t be the case. Updating your CV can be a fast and efficient process that will make you proud of what you’ve achieved. There are some basic tweaks you can make for maximum impact in the space of 10 minutes.
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Want to know what they are?
Swap passive verbs for action words
Employers are looking for people who will take the initiative and employ creative solutions to problems. It’s easy to fall into a passive voice, especially when we are talking about ourselves: ‘I was given responsibility for’ and ‘I had the opportunity to’ are common examples.
Switch such phrases to direct, action verbs: I employed, I created, I managed. They will instantly give your CV more punch and ‘show’ your potential boss what you are capable of, rather than ‘telling’ them.
Remove your references
Simply having ‘References on request’ is enough; potential employers will pursue your referees if they are keen to hire you. Select, delete –done.
Replace soft skills with hard ones
Communicating well or performing in a team are not outstanding skill. You’d assume most people have these basic proficiencies and they will not make you stand out from your competitors.
Instead, add examples of hard skills wherever you can. This might be a time when you contributed to a group and thus achieved a certain outcome; language or conflict resolution skills, or the ability to program or code.
Even if the skills are not directly relevant to the role, they will show potential employers that you are eager and willing to learn and, potentially, that you are a self-starter who takes control of their own professional development.
Delete introductory or general courses
These add little and take up space when space is at a premium. If they are particularly relevant to the job you’re applying for, see if you can convert them into a hard skill: a ‘Beginners Italian’ course can become ‘I speak Spanish at conversational level’.
Add examples to your extra curricular examples
It’s tempting to list seven sports, three charity roles and 29 past times to show you’re well rounded; after all, how will the boss check whether you can knit or not?
Yet without specifics, these important extra curricular skills hold little water for employers. If you run, have you completed any races recently? If you like reading, have you joined or – better yet – formed a book club? These little extras take seconds to include but add a huge amount to your personal value.
Check for typos
It almost sounds to basic to point out but but you’d be amazed how many CVs are riddled with speling mistakes and errors. Not surprisingly, its a total turn of for employers.
(Want to check your proofreading skills? See how many errors you can spot in the above paragraph.)
Temporarily format your CV with large font and print it out (remember to change it back afterwards!) and proofread from the paper version – it tends to be more accurate.
Then, when you’re done, sweet talk a friend or colleague into giving it another read.
That takes you no time at all.
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