In a candidate rich market, your CV has become a critical tool in the initial shortlisting process.  Your CV is the perfect vehicle to showcase YOUR journey and value-adds.  It also allows you to distinguish yourself in an increasingly competitive market.

Your CV provides you the ideal platform for you to do more than listing your career and achievements.  It should be a document that synthesises your history in an interesting and relevant way to present your own personal brand.

Follow these 10 tips to enhance your CV and to improve the likelihood that you will stand out in the shortlisting process.

  1. Include a brief introductory paragraph or executive summary.  Consider your unique selling points and what you would most like to be identified with.  Use it to establish a positive first impression.
  2. Identify key skills and areas of expertise next.  This helps employers scan for certain competencies.
  3. Use evocative words and concise phrases to draw attention to your personal brand throughout your CV.
  4. Provide brief organisational summaries throughout your job history.  This offers a helpful insight to the employer regarding work cultures you have been exposed to.
  5. If any of your roles listed in your CV were project-based, provide a concise summary of what you were brought into to achieve and what were the outcomes.
  6. Aim for a document that is no more than 4-6 pages.  Your career history needs to be broken down in a concise, reader friendly document.
  7. Avoid large slabs of text.  Use dot points to highlight your key responsibilities and achievements.
  8. Keep your key achievements relevant.  Simple facts and figures in context can be more powerful than long lists of statistics.
  9. Tailor your CV to align with the competencies of the role in question.  Having a generic CV is useful but don’t rely on it when applying for different positions.  You must spell out the relevant facts for the specific employer.
  10. Always include a covering letter but keep it brief and specific by highlighting the relevance of your experience and expertise with the key requirements of the position in question.

For more information about preparing and enhancing your CV, please do not hesitate to contact us.