Your CV is your promotional advertisement that aids in selling your skill. Think of it as a flyer; you must make it attractive enough and catchy for potential audiences to devour. When you do poorly in that regard, grasping attention would be almost impossible.
Here are a few creative ways to increase the value of your CV significantly.
1. Make a Great Impression
You only have one chance to make an impression. Making sure you utilize this opportunity will give you a shot at getting the job. The headline and summary of your CV should stand out and serve as a punch line. Also, it must boldly emphasize your expertise, professional qualities, successes, and experience. Here is an example:
Headline: Experienced Marketing Manager
Summary: Target-driven Marketing Manager with 10+ years of experience leading largely content-focused teams. Led a 7 man team which boosted revenue by 100% for an ecommerce company via a 6 month content marketing campaign. Subsequently took over a 12 person B2B focused team, reformed their CMS to boost content production by 65% while reducing employee turnover from 25% to 0% in the first year.
2. Improve Readability
Nothing annoys a hiring manager more than a painstaking CV. No one has got time to waste, trying to decipher what your CV is all about. Making sure you improve readability will ensure your potential employer spends more time on your CV. Avoid using some words, phrases, or contractions that are not familiar in the workplace. In other words, your CV should be easy to read without roadblocks. Making some changes regarding readability will be a decision you won’t regret. Here are a few tips that would help:
- Merge job positions rather than listing each assignment separately.
- Use fonts and attributes to differentiate headings and sub-headings
- Avoid repetitive information
- Eliminate any content that reads like a job description
3. Call-out Your Significant Accomplishments
Ever had a big win where you were so proud of yourself? What if I told you that you could call out your big wins in your CV and blow your potential employer away? Yes, it is possible. Your career summary section is where you can make that happen. Here is an example:
“An accomplished Sales Manager with proven skills to make great returns that boost business revenue and financial objectives. Have led sales operations that spilled in over $1 million and contributed to over 500 percent stock increase.”
Take note of how numbers were incorporated to highlight the results. Not only does it state your accomplishments as facts, but it also makes it more impressive to the reader than writing in plain English.
4. Use Charts, Graphs, and Diagrams
Apart from helping you highlight essential data; it makes your CV much more appealing to the eye. It also boosts your readability score to a great extent. To improve your CV, use these elements to illustrate your data. Your skills can be in a bar chart, making them more distinctive. You can also represent your past sales performance in a column chart format. These are essential ingredients that, when used in your CV, will significantly increase the value.
5. Resume Length and Feel
Your experience will determine the extent of your CV. If you have over eight years of experience in different positions, a two-page resume won’t be a bad idea. But if you have a few work experiences, one page should be enough to do the trick. Your CV’s font is also vital. Make it look modern by using a great looking font like Century Gothic. It will surprise you how standing out works to your benefit.
Wrapping Up!
Going an extra length to make your CV stand out is very crucial. There are only a few available jobs in the country, with thousands of people fighting for the same spot. The only strategy you can use to beat them all is by improving your CV and standing out. With that, you improve your odds of getting the job.
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