Jobs & employment blogs

At this time of year, many are naturally contemplating some kind of change in their professional lives. For some, this will spell leaving their current role. If you’d like a new job to be on the horizon for you, I would advise refreshing your CV in the following ways:

1. Retailor your CV

In all likelihood, your CV hasn’t been updated in years, and is probably still tailored to the last role you were looking for. Since then, your skills, experiences and career aspirations will have changed and evolved, and as such, the information you should be emphasising on your CV  will be different.

So, take some time to retailor and refresh the below sections of your CV:

• Your personal statement

This part of your CV should concisely explain your career history to date, how this led to your current situation and what you are looking for next. Given that this will be different to when you last looked for a role; this section will be desperately in need of a refresh. You can read more advice on how to do this here.

• Your experience

Some of your previous work experience may not be relevant to the types of roles you are now applying for. For example, you might still be using up a fair bit of space on your CV going into great detail about a fairly junior role you had many years ago. Since then, you will have gained much more relevant and impressive experience. As such, remove all of the excess information about the junior role, and simply list the company, your role and the dates of employment. You can read more advice on how to streamline your CV here.

• Your skills

Which skills have you learnt since you last updated your CV? Think about training courses, ways in which you have upskilled yourself, or taken on more responsibility. Add these to your CV, and remember to evidence them with online examples of your work and achievements.

• Your keywords

Lastly, identify the keywords listed on the job descriptions for your ideal roles, such as “people manager” “project management” or “data analysis”. Make sure these are incorporated within the key skills and work history sections of your CV, as well as your personal statement. The job search game is changing, with recruiters using keyword screening algorithms to shortlist a select few CVs for a role. Incorporating relevant keywords through will ensure your CV makes it past the first hurdle.

2. Cull the clichés and include action verbs

Whilst a tailored and optimised CV is more likely to reach a recruiter’s short list, they may be put off by any overused clichés which lack evidence of suitability. Therefore, if you are claiming to be a “strong team player” or “an effective people manager” on your CV, be sure to back this up with proof.

Also, include action verbs throughout your CV to provide evidence of your achievements. For example, if you say that you ‘”motivated” or “united” a team, this will encourage you to give an example of when you did this, and what the results were.

3. Proofread  

Lastly, check that your contact details, location and any links to your online professional profiles are up to date. Next give your CV a meticulous proofread, checking for spelling, formatting, consistency of capitalisations and abbreviations, as well as grammatical mistakes.

In short, if you want to gain a competitive edge over other jobseekers, and achieve job search success in 2018, you must update your CV in the above ways. Try to make this process habitual throughout the year, rather than a one off occurrence you do only when switching jobs. As my colleague Nick Deligiannis explains in a previous blog, it is simply good practice to continuously update your CV as your skills and experiences evolve: “After all, you service your car no less than once a year, so why not update your CV and online profiles at least as often?”

Updating your CV? Our CV writing tips and advice will help you get started 

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