✍️ 7 Powerful CV Writing Tips

Did you know that hiring managers will only spend around 6 seconds reading your CV?! Yikes! That’s why it’s so important to carefully build your CV to give it the best chance of standing out from the crowd.

Let’s get straight to work with my top tips for a standout CV 🌟

#1 👉 Size matters – 91% of recruiters said in a survey that CVs should ideally be no more than 2 pages long.

#2 👉 Summary – this comes at the top of your CV and employers really value your summary.  Write a few sentences to highlight your qualities, any relevant experience, and the nature of the work you’re looking for e.g. full-time, in a busy customer-facing role.

#3 👉 Layout – next comes Career Experience, listed in date order starting with the most recent. Hobbies, Skills and Education should sit at the bottom.

#4 👉 Bullet points – hiring managers don’t have time to read long, fancy paragraphs in your CV. They want short bullet points that get straight to the point!

#5 👉 Tailor your CV – use the keywords that are in the job advert like ‘excellent customer service’ or ‘working to deadlines’, and remember to highlight the duties that relate most closely to the job you’re applying for.

#6 👉 Save space – save space by writing ‘references can be provided upon request’ instead of listing your reference contact details. Any GCSE qualifications can simply be listed as ‘10 GCSEs A-C including maths and English’. 

#7 👉 Hobbies – don’t be generic by listing ‘travel, cooking, running’. Instead, make it personal to you e.g. ‘Travel: 6 months backpacking in Asia’.