Over the last 15 years I have seen all sorts of CVs from the 20 pagers over exaggerating to the 1 pager who simply names the company’s he/she has worked with. I thought I would put down a few words of advice to help you when writing your CV.

Firstly, let’s start with a few stats to hit home how important a CV / Resume document is:

This infographic I think gives some good starter points to give you an idea on how to lay it out, how long the CV / Resume should be etc.CV stats

 

As an experienced recruiter I can assess a CV in give or take 10-20 seconds. The first page is the most important page. So, you have to grab the attention of the reader immediately. You also have to consider those bots (Ill go into that in more detail below).

The below are my 5 tips for what your First page should look like.

  1. Top of the page, your name, location (not address), phone number, email, LinkedIn Profile, Github (if you have one) and link to your work (if you are looking for a design/UI/UX based role). Across the top, easy to read, nice size font etc. Clear.
  2. Next, create a profile. Make it easy to read but point out why you are applying for the job. Try be specific to a job in particular. Find 3-4 points from the job specs responsibilities that are relevant to you and highlight them. Showcase how many years you have with a specific skill that is required by the business.
  3. Staying on the first page. Highlight your education. School/College – Qualification. Also point out any other relevant certs to the role.
  4. Again, we are staying on the first page – lets start with your experience. Always go in chronological order or your most recent role first. If you have 5 years’ experience as a Java Developer 2 years ago and for whatever reason you worked outside that sector, that’s ok. In one line worked in abc Ltd – job title – start date – End date. Simple. Don’t leave it out. Just make sure your relevant experience remains on the first page. Experience will spill out to page 2 and 3 to complete the document.
  5. Fill in the gaps – if you travelled for a year. Slot it in where it should be. If you looked after a sick family member/friend/ relative, put it in. Don’t let those gaps be in the conversation. Identify them. Remember you want to talk about how you can do a great job. That starts with your CV template you are creating.

5 reasons as to why your CV is so important:

  1. Its your ticket to an interview – The sole purpose of creating a CV is to get an interview. This is obvious, right? A terrible CV will rarely get to interview, you might have 5 years’ experience as a Network Engineer but if you don’t highlight it with care, potential employers will simply assume you either don’t care or overlooked the importance of the document. Take the time your career deserves in creating the perfect CV template.
  2. It highlights your value in your words. Don’t copy other peoples CV, use your words make the CV interesting and a reason for the reader to continue to read.
  3. Catch the employer’s attention – Make your CV template clear, use bullet points and bold, get the employers attention immediately, so they are calling you right away. Remember in some cases Recruiters and hiring managers will review hundreds of CVs a week (in some cases a day).
  4. Positions you as the right person for the job. What I mean by this is keep the CV relevant to the job. As mentioned above, in your profile point out our experience that is relevant to the role.
  5. It allows internal teams seek approval. A Hiring manager or Recruiter will need to seek approval to pay you your salary (Click here for more details on Salaries). A good CV might just be the ticket to a higher salary.

Give some thought to the layout and fonts on the CV / Resume.

A potential employer will notice the layout of your CV before they even start to read it. It’s important to create or choose the CV template layout that presents the most important information as mentioned above. The font should be consistent through the CV. Keep with the same size, you should be able to comfortably read it. Don’t make the words smaller to keep the CV under 2/3 pages. Just go the extra page, fair to say, whatever in on the 4th page or onwards won’t be read anyway. Might as well condense it or remove it. Use a font again that is readable and professional, like Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman.

Click here for a few some templates, and this one in particular would perhaps be the best, but it would be worth looking at for inspiration. Be unique and personalise it.

Once you get to that interview, here are a few pointers should it be a virtual interview. Click here

Now, lets finally speak about the CV bots that are becoming more and more apparent in Talent Acquisition departments around Ireland and the world. These are machine learning programs that use the CV and marry it to the job spec. The bots will then send a score to the Recruiter on how relevant your CV is to the job spec. In some cases, you will get an automated rejection of your CV is a particularly low score. These bots are getting better and better and as Machine Learning and AI bots get better So key words are so important. So, use the relevant words from the spec. For example, if they are looking for the word React.js, and you use the work React. There is a chance the bot will miss it. Important tip: Read the spec and use similar words that is used on the spec.