Intelligent and articulate communication should use few and wisely chosen words. That's why we strongly suggest taking your newly updated CV and cutting the content in half.

Your CV should be 1-2 pages if you are a student or recent graduate, 2 pages in length for the majority and 3 pages if you have a minimum of 10 years of experience or an exceptional circumstance.

Why does this matter? Employers view your CV as the first evidence of your communication skills. All employees need good communications skills. Employers look for concise writing, clarity, structure and logical flow. The language needs to be short and to the point.

You must be ruthless about what is included in your CV and work harder to generate content employers will be impressed by. That means every work needs to be there for a reason.

Not many job seekers go this extra yard, so in doing so you give yourself a grand chance of success.

1) Be ruthless and cut out material that is not relevant for the roles you are applying for. Condense long sentences and start bullet points with a verb (e.g. contributed, managed, achieved, implemented). Ensure the skills you describe are consistent and clear. It is far better to show great evidence of 2 skills than weaker evidence of 4.

2) Re-consider your personal statement. It should be no more than 4 lines. If, like many, it mentions more than 3 skills you may start to weaken your profile. Being too generic looks bland and ends up being about as revealing as your shoe size. Condense what you say and be specific.

3) Make sure you have at least 4 bullet points for each of the jobs you have held in the past 5 years, but dramatically reduce descriptions of older jobs to a maximum of 2 or 3 bullet points. If you have held several roles over a short period of time, it may pay to condense the roles under a single heading.

4) You should be left with a very short CV. Now make sure you have separated your responsibilities and achievements, at least for your most recent job. Check you have more achievements than responsibilities and that they demonstrate skills your target employers seek.

5) Leave room (we suggest about 20%) to include points specific to each employer you apply for. Examine the job description carefully and relate it to your previous experiences. Weave in the new content using short, punchy language. Recruiters have repeatedly stressed 4 critical components differentiate poor and high performers: Clarity, Conciseness, Structure & Logical flow.

This applies equally to the interview. A wise approach is to follow the interviewer's lead and answer only those questions posed to you. Your answers should be sound-bites lasting 30 to 45 seconds. Telling the interviewer more than he needs to know could be a fatal mistake. You could ramble on and talk yourself right out of the job.

Take Away Points

Employers want your CV to be short, to the point and specific. Make sure you give them what they want.

Listing too many skills looks unrealistic and that you have no idea about where your strengths or their requirements lie.

Condense the points you make for your older jobs.

Keep your personal profile to a maximum of 4 lines.

Back