We’ve all been there, trying to bulk up a CV to show more interesting detail to fill in the remaining half a page of space (almost feels like writing this post!). Before you go on about being great at MS word, email and breathing in and out, here’s a little inspiration to get more valuable information on that precious pair of pages on your CV.
Write about the real you
Before resorting to bullet points and hunting around for relevant awards that you have gained, explained yourself in a narrative. This helps your personality come through and gives a more human touch to your CV compared to rolling off a long list of words. When writing about yourself, explain what you have that you can bring to the company. What parts of your personality are ideal for the duties of this role. Why of all the countless jobs advertised online did this position get you attention?
Your profile should write about yourself, who you are, your qualifications, education history and all relevant skills and awards as succinctly as possible. Keep it to a maximum of 4-5 sentences. This has the added bonus of keeping the task of writing your profile from becoming too daunting. As for the design, remember that recruiters spend as little as 6 seconds scanning a CV so ensure you use an easy to read serif font (the ones with feet at the bottom of each character). When looking for a CV style, you want something unique but clean. Narrow down a selection of CV layout templates and ideas and then go for the simplest one you like. If you need inspiration on why simple is best, look at the Google homepage- the most visited webpage in the world is also the simplest.
Keep it honest, accurate, relevant and clean
Your CV needs to be a thing of quality. If it was a product it would be a precision engineered piece. Your CV is only as valuable to recruiters as the information is accurate. Therefor, be sure to ensure all facts and achievements listed are accurate. Keep the design lean and constantly cut out segments that don’t add anything to the value of yourself. Write your CV in a professional tone using accurate wording to minimise sentence length and cut out the need for long descriptions. As for the looming concern of that limited work experience, by now you should have forgotten all about it and the space you had for it taken up by your profile. Congratulations, that work experience was never that essential anyway.