In these days when competition is fierce, spend some time thinking through how you can best present yourself.
1. Let your personality shine through – Nothing worse than reading a bland description of responsibilities that tell you nothing about the person. If you’re a Swindon Town FC season ticket holder, mention it – shows humility!
2. Make it achievement focused and don’t forget to evidence those achievements.
3. Try to stick to 2 pages, no-one cares what you did in 1992!
4. Use a modern easy to read font – avoid Times New Roman!
5. Explain any gaps, there’s nothing more infuriating for a recruiter or a hiring manager to have to ask what happened in an 18-month gap.
6. Use strong language like led, initiated, spearheaded, enhanced, only if it’s true of course!
7. Show your likeability. Tell people about yourself, list hobbies and activities, but please don’t just say, reading and socialising with friends!
8. Bullet points are always a good idea, trying to read a mass of block text isn’t fun.
9. Don’t waffle – give them a flavour but leave them wanting more!
10. A photo can be a good idea, but not from your hen night.
11. Please, please, please check it for grammar and spelling, attention to detail is so important.
And lastly, don’t forget to customise your cv if you are aiming for a specific opportunity and whenever possible write a covering email to put your sales points across.