Help with writing an Impressive CV

 23 May 2021

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News & Information

Writing an Impressive CV

Have you been thrown back in to the job market unexpectedly because of Covid?

Are you looking for your first job following completion of your studies?

Maybe you're looking to take a change of direction in your career. 

People often delay their job search as they struggle to ‘sell themselves’ on their CV or become despondent as they don’t hear back from job applications made.

Harris Jones have been recruiting in Richmond and the surrounding areas for over 28 years, which in turn means that a wealth of knowledge and experience has been gained by the team. As an Independent recruitment agency, we are here to assist you with not only finding that ideal next role, but to provide you with support and guidance, from help with writing your CV to support with interview preparation.

Below is our take on what makes an ‘impressive CV’.

It is difficult to put a specific number on it, but the team at Harris Jones have read well over 100,000 CV’s, each, during their careers as recruitment consultants. Some are unpresentable, and others come into the category of ‘could do better’.  BUT thankfully, we've also had the pleasure of reading an impressive number that ‘stand out from the crowd’.  So we feel well versed in providing a credible opinion on what works and what doesn’t work, when writing a CV.

When applying for a job, you need to bear these things in mind.

Your CV is the first impression someone will have of you. It is your ‘60 second moment to shine’ & present yourself and your skills – before a recruiter or employer has even met you.

So, it needs to make the RIGHT impression immediately if you want a positive chance of being picked to apply for a job. You need to be sure your CV hits the ‘Save as’ button, not the ‘Delete’ folder. Consider the following:

Do:

1. Keep to 2/3 pages maximum. A very long CV is time consuming to read and off putting for the reader. Less is more.
2. Grab attention with your opening personal profile statement.  Choose the right words to describe who you are and what you are looking for.  Be concise; explain your skills and strengths - you want people to keep on reading!
3. Be honest and be yourself. Fabrication of grades, abilities and achievement can come back to bite you. Check that your dates add up.
4. Check your spelling and grammar – UK spell check is your best friend! Check that you are writing in the right tense for present and past job duties. Sloppiness gets noticed.
5. If you’re stuck - get advice from an agency. At Harris Jones we have CV templates and the experience to help to guide you.

Don’t:

1. Use email addresses that are unprofessional – i.e. hotlips@hotmail.uk – a crass email address will see you not being taken seriously. Create a new email account just for job applications if need be.
2. Don’t use a flowery font, graphs, photos, different colours. We recommend Calibri and 10-11 for body text, 14 for subheadings and for name at the top.
3. Don’t use big chunks of text. An employer may well read in excess of 200 CV’s for any one job. Make scan reading easy. Use bullet points to clearly define your key job duties in each of your roles.
4. Include irrelevant information if it doesn’t support your application for the job
5. Don’t waffle! Avoid repeating things in an attempt to fill space.

Check out our current vacancies on our website and if would like help writing your CV, prior to applying, please contact us,  and we would be more than happy to help.