1. Up to date, correct contact details.
Make sure you include up to date, working contact details. Look to include your email address, contact number and area of residence as a bare minimum. Additional contact numbers, portfolios (where applicable), Skype, additional email addresses are always a bonus!
2. Chronological Order
This may seem obvious, but it’s critical. Recruiters, on average will spend circa 10 seconds reviewing each CV, meaning you’ll have to ensure that your most current, up to date experience is listed right at
the forefront of the page. This will act as the ‘hook’ for Recruiters to ensure they continue to read through your list of skills and experience.
3. Referees
It’s important to include information about where the potential employer can find Referees for your previous work. This not only shows organisation from you, but shows that you have left previous employment/education on good terms, and have people to vouch for your success to date.
4. Explain Gaps in Employment
It’s a well-known fact that Recruiters may discard a CV based on a lack of detail surrounding a gap in a CV. A simple explanation that offers detail into why you were unable to work over a certain period and offers an answer to an outstanding question. Recruiters love it when you make their job easier!
5. Avoid Buzzwords!
If you were to ask a Recruiter what the most commonly used phrases and words are on most CVs, the answers will be ‘Able to work both independently and part of a team’ or ‘hard working’ or ‘dedicated’. In truth, no-one will openly admit that they’re lazy, disloyal and unable to be flexible! Rather than including these terms, try to offer examples of certain skills you’ve exercised within your previous role; this will help you to be more visible when Recruiters are searching for candidates.
In a nutshell, write your CV in chronological order, stay away from generic, vague buzzwords and include relevant contact details so that Recruiters are able to easily reach you with relevant opportunities!
If you’ve covered the above, congratulations! Here’s some insight into how to totally optimise your CV for online job searching for maximum exposure to the key Recruiters in your selected industry.
6. Keywords, Keywords, Keywords.
For a Recruiter, running a CV Search is just like running a Google search. If you’re not including many relevant keywords on your CV, you’ll struggle for visibility. How can you counter this? List all of the job titles that match your current/expected role. List all of the skills that you’ve exercised to date, in recent education, or employment.
By listing these within your CV, you’re essentially increasing the number of searches in which your CV will be found. Visibility in more searches = increased CV views = greater opportunity to be contacted.
Here’s a quick example. Meet Dave. Dave is a Web Developer. On his CV, Dave only used the term ‘Web Developer’, and consequently only appears in searches for Web Developer or Website Developer.
Now, meet Alan. Alan is Dave’s brother and is also a Web Developer. Alan, however, listed his skills and competencies within his CV.
Consequently, Alan is now appearing in searches for Web Developer, Website Developer, Front End Developer, HTML, CSS, Javascript and many other variations of the search, allowing him to gain more visibility when Recruiters are searching CVs.
A CV appearing in a search is just like a website appearing on Google. Those that contain the relevant keywords, and are laid out effectively, will gain the greatest visibility. If your CV takes too long to read, like a website takes to load, your visibility will decrease. Optimising your CV with relevant, consistent Keywords is one of the greatest ways to gain visibility when uploading your CV to be viewed by Recruiters, or by applying for jobs. Here’s a quick example:
“Achieved 2.1 – BSc Hons Web Development. Throughout my course I’ve exercised, and significantly developed knowledge within the areas of HTML, CSS, Javascript, Adobe Illustrator (AI), Photoshop, PHP and UX Design. I am now actively seeking a position as, or similar to, the following: “Junior Web Developer”, “Web Developer”, “Website Developer”, “Web Development Internship”, “Graduate Web Developer”, “Junior Website Creation”. I’d love to send my portfolio for you, simply drop me an email!”
The above paragraph, at the top of a CV, tells the Recruiter very quickly, a list of your practised skills, the job titles you’ll be suitable for, and a quick call to action to entice the Recruiter to contact you. With this paragraph shortly following your contact details, on occasion, this could be all the Recruiter would need!
About the Author
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