Modernise Your CV: A Few Tips
In highly competitive job markets, when looking to hire employers are typically inundated with countess CVs. Often, many of these CVs do not meet the basic requirements of the job description, and sorting through piles and piles of applications can be exhausting and frustrating.
One easy way to give your CV the best chance of being noticed, is to spruce it up. CVs are typically far more concise and punchy now than they were five years ago. Make sure you CV matches modern standards if you want to make it as easy as possible for your prospective employer to shortlist yours.
Kill the clutter
Your CV does not need to tell your life story. If you can identify sentences or paragraphs that are not really relevant to your professional ambitions, then chances are, most prospective employees are going to skim through them absently. Also, identify old or irrelevant roles on your CV, and make sure you are not giving them too much space. You could also consider shortening your education section. Specifically, if you have a university degree, then you don’t need to go into too much detail about your Matric results. It is also worth tweaking your CV for specific applications. Look closely at what the position requirements are, and put emphasis on your CV points that match them.
Tighten up your layout
It’s worth putting some effort into the layout of your CV, because the more visually pleasing it is, the more likely a prospective employer is to take the information it contains in properly. Your CV should open with a short paragraph about yourself that is designed engage the reader. From there, highlight your main selling points in one or two lines. Go with a font that is easy to read, and avoid anything too unusual, because some fonts will grate against prospective employers’ own preference. It is also worth spacing out your text, and using bold headings to clarify different focus points. Two pages of well spaced out text is a lot easier to read than one page of clutter. Finally, while bullet points can be used effectively, keep them short. Long lists are not pleasing on the eye, and can be mentally taxing on the reader.
