Do you want to impress employers with an awesome CV that ticks all of the boxes? Then make sure it has these 6 things.
1. Correct contact information
This is ridiculously obvious we hear you say! Well, it’s easier than you may think to make a typo when listing your mobile number or email address and believe us, we’ve seen it happen numerous times. Check and double check that your details are correct or you could be missing out on great opportunities when employers can’t actually contact you.
2. What you’re looking for
Employers want to feel assured that you are a great fit for the role that they are offering. Being a great fit isn’t only to do with your skills and experience, but also your career aims and ambitions.
Use the personal statement section of your CV to let employers know exactly what kind of opportunity you are looking for at this stage in your career. You may want to tailor this to ensure that it reflects the role you are applying for. There’s no point in saying I am looking to start a career in marketing when you’re applying for a sales job.
3. Desirable skills
Desirable skills do vary from job to job, but generally speaking, these are some of the most common skills them employers want to see from candidates:
4. Evidence
So you’re telling an employer that you have all of the skills above, great! But, saying you have them doesn’t count for much unless you can back them up with examples.
We’ll give you an example. When talking about your work experience as a Retail Assistant, you may list the following as one of your responsibilities:
Developed excellent customer service skills through serving on the till and dealing effectively with complaints.
5. Facts and figures
This is more important if you are applying for senior roles. To further back up your skills are there any key facts or figures you can include, for example playing an integral part in increasing the company’s annual turnover from £X to £X.
6. Correct spelling and grammar
We know that you know your spelling and grammar needs to be correct on your CV. However, this is the most common mistake that candidates make! The REC (Recruitment & Employment Confederation) has reported that around half of CVs received by recruiters contain spelling and grammatical errors.
Don’t let yourself down with something so simple and completely avoidable. Check and double-check your CV and get friends and family members to check it too!
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