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How To Write a Cv

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How To Write a CV

A Strong CV is your gateway to success when job hunting. It’s the very first impression that employer will have a view, so you need to make sure It impresses. This Article guide will show you how to write a winning CV that will get you noticed by recruiters and employers and land you plenty of job interviews. Here at standout CV, we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of people to land their dream jobs. And hopefully the advice in this Article will do the same for you. During the course of the Article, you will learn

  • What research needs to be done before you start writing your CV.
  • How to structure your CV to best please recruiters how to format your CV for a professional outlook.
  • How to write a profile that will grab recruiter’s attention, how to detail your work experience and education.
  • How to include your hobbies and interests.

The biggest mistake that job seekers make is failing to research their target rows before writing their CV. If you don’t know what skills and knowledge your potential employers are looking for, it will be difficult to write a CV that impresses them. So, before you start writing your CV, you need to hit the job boards and browse through lots of relevant job adverts in your industry. Take note of the candidate requirements that keep appearing and make a list of them. Focus on hard skills such as

  • Industry specific skills,
  • IT system knowledge
  • Languages

Once you have a list of the most in demand skills and knowledge for your target roles, you know exactly what to focus your CV around. This preparation will make the task of writing it much easier.For you, the structure and format of your CV will define its overall outlook and determine how the document will be read. Your CV should look flawlessly professional and should be easy for busy recruiters to navigate and find the information they need.

Firstly, you should use a word processing program like Microsoft Word or Google Docs to create your CV. They are very easy to use and are the globally recognized format for CVS across all industries.

Keep the format simple by sticking to a clean and crisp font that can be easily read. The color scheme should also be basic black text on white background as best. Don’t be tempted to use fancy fonts and wacky color schemes in a bid to stand out. This will look unprofessional and could make the CV difficult to read.

There is no set-in stone rule around CV length but two pages. Just remember that recruiters and hiring managers sometimes see hundreds of CVS a day, so try to keep it concise if you want to hold their attention.

Use bold headings to divide the sections of your CV. This will help recruiters to navigate it when skim reading.

Once you have a format for your CV, you need to structure it in a way that draws attention to your most valuable skills and creates a pleasant reading experience. This is a brief overview of how to structure your CV before we delve into the details of each section.

  • Your name and contact details should sit at the very top of your CV so that recruiters can easily see how to contact you.
  • Your CV profile or personal statement is a brief introductory paragraph that summarizes your abilities and aims to grab recruiter’s attention when the CV is first opened.
  • A bullet pointed list of your most relevant skills provides a snapshot of your offerings as a candidate.
  • Your work experience should be listed in reverse chronological order to showcase your ability to apply your skills and the workplace.
  • Your education should be listed near the bottom of your CV.
  • Hobbies and interests are an optional section and can be added to the bottom of your CV if you think they will add any value to your applications.

Now let’s take a look at each section in detail and how to write them.

You don’t want your contact details to be missed, so place them at the very top of your CV underneath your name. You can also add a professional title next to your name to really set the tone of the CV, anything from management accountant to chemistry graduate. Ideally it should relate to the roles you were applying for.

The only contact details you need to include are your

  • Email address, just make sure as a professional looking one with no nicknames,
  • Your phone number
  • Your location

You don’t need to include your

  • Full address,
  • Date of birth,
    marital status,
  • Photo of yourself.

None of these things will have any effect on a hiring decision and they will waste valuable space.

Your CV profile or personal statement, as it’s also known, is the first proper content section of your CV. It is an introductory paragraph which summarizes your skills, experience and knowledge and its purpose is to catch recruiters’ eyes when they open your CV, excite them and encourage them to read the rest of your CV. It should give readers a nice overview of your

  • Industry specific skills,
  • Types of companies you’ve worked for qualifications
  • the benefits you deliver for an employer.

 

To write a successful CV profile, you should keep it short and sharp,

Underneath your profile, add a bullet pointed list of core skills. Your most valuable attributes split over two or three columns. Keep the points under three words ideally, so that they jump off the page and create a snapshot of your offerings, which can be digested in seconds by busy recruiters and hiring managers. It’s a great tool for making sure readers stick to your CV and don’t skip past it. Again, these points should be heavily tailored towards your target roles, including things

  • Like role specific skills,
  • Qualifications,
  • Market or industry knowledge,
  • languages,
  • IT Skills.

They can also be quickly edited if you need to tweak the CV slightly when applying for different roles.

Your work experience gives you a great Opportunity to demonstrate your ability to apply your skills in the workplace and prove the impact you make. Your work experience should be listed in reverse chronological order. That’s latest to oldest, with plenty of detail in recent roles and less detail in older roles. The reason for this is that employers are more interested in your recent work, as it gives a better reflection of your current capabilities. If you don’t have any direct paid work experience, you can also add

  • Voluntary roles,
  • School or university work placements,
  • Part time jobs,
  • Any example where you have worked to support a company or organization.

When writing role descriptions within your CV, you need to ensure that you make it easy for recruiters to read them and process the information you are trying to get across. This simple but effective structure is a great way to do that. Head each roll with the dates who were employed, namely

If the employer and your role title, follow with an introductory line, which describes who the employee is, where you sit within the organization, and what the overall goal of the role is this build context for readers. Then list your responsibilities in short, concise bullet points, trying to showcase your full skill set and demonstrate how your actions impact the employer. Most importantly, try to round your roles off with impressive achievements that have made big positive impacts for your employer. And try to quantify these achievements with facts and figures where you can to truly show how valuable you can be.

  • Good examples of achievements include
  • Saving costs,
  • Generating revenue
  • Saving time
  • Improving processes
  • Hitting targets
  • Helping customers.

Although there should be mentions of any important qualifications in your profile, your full education section should be placed near

The bottom of your CV, it should simply be a list of all the relevant qualifications you have, along with dates obtained. If you aren’t an experienced candidate, you can keep the detail light here. But if you are a junior candidate, then it will be worth going into some more depth.

Hobbies and interests are an optional section and it’s entirely up to you whether you include them or not. You should only include them if you feel they will have a positive effect on your applications. Common interests such as eating out or watching movies probably won’t make a big impression on anybody, so leave them out. However, if you have interests that are related to your target roles, then it would be beneficial to include them.

For example, you may be applying for writing positions and you run your own personal blog. This will give you a chance to showcase more relevant skills and experience. It can also help to include impressive achievements, such as running a marathon or raising money for charity.

These types of achievements can show that you are driven and help you to stand out, especially if you have limited experience.

That brings us to the end of this CV Article guide. Hopefully you found it helpful. If you want to save this Article to come back and replay whilst you write your CV, don’t forget to like the Article and subscribe to our channel. Also, if you want more CV advice or tips on how to land your next job, please leave a comment telling us what help you would like from us below the Article. We will make more helpful job-hunting  .Good luck with your job hunt.