Whether it’s for a part-time job alongside your studies, or for a graduate job, compiling your CV can be incredibly intimidating.
Following the covid-19 pandemic, 2021 saw increased competition for graduate jobs, with an average of 91 applications per position.
With this in mind, you want your CV to be the best that it absolutely can be. Here are some of my tips:
Engage with extra-curricular opportunities
Whether this means a paid job or volunteering positions, unfortunately, this is the absolute must for a stellar CV. Sometimes, this might mean stepping out of your comfort zone and reaching out to employers to get a few weeks’ experience.
Make it relevant
Try to imagine yourself with a stack of 91 CVs in front of you, needing to be read. What would be your pet hate? Reading through reams of irrelevant qualifications that have nothing to do with the job that you’re employing for?
You don’t have to include ALL of your life experiences to make a great CV – more often than not, less is more.
Don’t use a generic CV
If you’re applying for multiple jobs, don’t assume that a ‘one size fits all’ CV will guarantee you a job. Each time you submit a CV, make sure you’ve tailored it to add a few key words from the job application. E.G. If the job application is looking for someone time-efficient and creative, mention in your CV how your time-efficiency and creativity is perfect for that specific job.
Skills
Simply listing your previous experience won’t stand out the way that you might want it to. What skills did you gain from your previous employment/experiences, and how will these skills translate into the role that you’re applying for?
Easy to read
Remember that stack of 91 CVs? Imagine that they are all written using long sentences and/or paragraphs.
Whatever you do, don’t do that.
Feel free to use bullet points to outline skills and/or statistics, and make your headings clearly distinguishable from the rest of the text.
Confronted with a page full of long paragraphs, versus a neatly-labelled bullet-pointed page, I know which one I would rather read through.
For more CV content, check out the National Careers Service site here.
