Getting into the habit of regularly tweaking your CV to reflect your current skills, achievements and experience can be a real time saver in the long term and help you raise your game when the time comes to step up into a new challenge career-wide. Keeping your resume updated means it’s not a massive headache to change everything and bring it up to date when you do start looking for a new job, and means that you won’t have forgotten all of the strong achievements made along the way. But this is not the only action you should be taking to raise your CV game this year. Try these other tactics to send your resume super stellar…
Buzz Words
A huge volume of job seekers fall into the trap of still using meaningless buzz words and ridiculous jargon in a vain effort to make their CV stand out. Words like ‘passionate’, ‘goal-orientated’ or even ‘driven’ add little to your CV. Go through and cut them out. Be concise, clear and don’t be afraid to add a little character.
Quantifiable Achievements
Stating achievements is obviously an important part of any CV but you can make this more effective by adding accurate figures and quantifying outcomes. Stating that you increased sales by 50% to bring revenue up to £100k for example is much stronger than simply saying you increased sales. If you cannot do this with figures you need to relate your achievements back to the business and briefly explain how they had a positive effect.
Upskilling
If you’ve been out of work for a while or work in a fast-paced industry like technology, it is well worth taking some time to upskill. Online courses or single day training sessions can have a notable impact on employability.
Digital Recruiting
Some of the biggest employers and employment agencies in the country now use computer software for the initial CV sift. This means that you need to be really specific in the keywords you use and target your CV to the role because the computer will simply overlook you if you don’t do this. Use the job description to identify key phrases and skills – then make sure these are included within both your CV and covering letter. It’s a simple tip but one that will help you climb the computer system’s CV ranking algorithm.
Samples and Portfolios
Most CVs could benefit from the addition of examples of work undertaken. This is especially true for more creative industries that require you to write or use skills like Photoshop and video editing. Providing a sample actively demonstrates to the recruiter that you do know what you are doing and that you have the skills to meet the needs of the role.
Do you want to improve your digital skills to land a dream job? The Academy Class offers beginner and advanced level training to help you take the next step.
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