When looking for jobs, you need to make sure that your CV represents you as best it can. This is the first (and sometimes the last) thing the employer will see from you, so you want it to be good. It is said that employers take less than one minute to look over a CV and decide whether it is good or not, so you want to grab their attention whilst they are reading it. Here are some top tips for students to improve your CV and make it better than your competitors.
Relevant
A lot of people just have one CV for all applications, but you need to be tailoring it to the specific job you are going for When it comes to tips for student CVs, this is arguably the most important. It is easy to know when someone has sent you their basic CV that they have just mass sent to everyone else. It is vague and doesn’t usually relate to the job, and this can turn employers off.
Look at the specific job application and use language that relates to it. If the role is about computers, don’t write about your love of films in your personal section, write about how you love playing computer games, hence spending a lot of time on the computer.
Short And Snappy
If employers get 100 CV’s, even if they spend one minute on everyone application, that will take almost two hours. If they receive a CV that is multiple pages or full of blocked-out paragraphs, it may just get tossed in the bin straight away, as they simply don’t have the time to read through it.
You should aim for a maximum of two pages, with the best case being a one-page CV. Make sure you break up the lines, so it isn’t just four long paragraphs. Bullet points are your friend!
Related: How To Prepare For Your Graduate Job Search
Match Skills
Looking at the job description, you can tailor your CV to include the actual wording they have used.
This will show employers that you have actually looked at the job description and make them feel as though you may be the right person for the job. Even if they don’t catch on that you have used their own wording, they are clearly looking for that kind of verbiage, so it will still stand out when they look at your CV.
For example, if they are looking for a ‘friendly, computer-savvy graduate with customer service experience’, then you can write that your main skills are computer literacy, a friendly attitude and that you have however much customer experience that you actually have.
Awards
Some people may not want to list their professional or educational achievements as it looks like you are showing off. But, for a job application, that is exactly what you need to be doing. You are up against any number of other people who want the job, so you need to stand out.
Showing the employer that you are not only a good worker, but that you have gone above and beyond in previous jobs is a great way to catch their eye. You want your CV to be the one they put to the side to read later, rather than getting lost in the mountain of boring applications.
