We all need a job – that’s just a fact of life. The importance of having a well written CV when looking for employment cannot be understated. Your CV is going to be the first impression that you make on your potential employer, so it’s essential that it shows off just how great you are in every way possible. Here are some tips on how to sell yourself and secure that position!
Follow KISS
An important rule of thumb is to KISS – keep it simple, sweetie. Concise and to the point is the best way to go. It’s important to focus only on essential information that will aid you in getting the job that you’re applying for. You might lose the attention of your potential employer if it’s too long and full of information not relevant to the job! This also includes the format! Stay away from crazy fonts and colours.
Write a Personal Statement
A personal statement gives an overview of you as a person and as an employee. Write a little about who you are and where you’re at in your career, including your career objectives. It shows drive when you talk about things that you’d like to achieve in the future, which is something that employers will always be impressed by! Don’t be afraid to communicate your value here too – this includes your suitability for the position and all of your relevant achievements. You’re amazing, and they should know that!
Talk About Your Skills
There are three main skill types that will be useful to include in your CV – job related, transferable and adaptive skills. Job related skills are pretty self-explanatory. What skills do you possess that are directly relevant to the job that you’re applying for? For example, if you’re applying to be a receptionist you might want to include that you are skilled at data entry. Transferable skills are things that can be used in all sorts of occupations and aren’t necessarily job specific. This includes things like leadership, critical thinking and teamwork. Adaptive skills are the practical, everyday things that we all need to be able to do to function (e.g. social skills and communication).
Add Your Qualifications
These can be academic or anything else that you think might be of significance. It’s most useful to include the highest level of qualification that you’ve received. If you don’t have any, that’s okay! Not all jobs require concrete qualifications. You can skip this one out if necessary.
Mention Former Jobs
You want your employer to know that you have had previous experience in the field if that’s something you’re able to offer. Even if you’ve never had a job similar to the one that you’re applying to, it’s always good to make it clear that you have experience in the workplace. If this is your first job, no worries! Everybody has to start somewhere, and there’s plenty of other things to mention that will help catch your potential employer’s attention.
Update Your CV Frequently
As you gain new experience, be sure to write it all down. The more experience you have the stronger your CV will be, but that takes time. Just keep doing your best!
Applying to jobs can be stressful, but these tips will help you flaunt how amazing you are and give you the best chance at landing a career!
rubies let us know in the comments below if any of you will be using these tips to update your CV?
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Definitely will be using this tips to polish my cv
I surely will be using the tips given as I am in the process of updating my CV currently. Love the “Update Your CV Frequently” tip if only I knew about this earlier. Jobhunting can be really stressfull so if at least your CV is on point one less thing to stress about. I am enjoying all your reading material Rubybox keep up the great work! #Thank You Rubybox Loving the tips and looking forward to the next article!
This was my best article as am eyeing a position somewhere and I need to update my CV. The tips will be very helpful thank you.
Thank you for the tips, will come in handy as i am in the process of marketing for a better job.
Will surely use ☺️
Thank you so much I will updating my Cv every year thanks for the tip
Thank You very much for this article, used to just to update my CV once a year, not frequently,
Will keep doing my best.
Thank you for this important information. I loved this article because you have outlined everything that is important . That should be done in a CV and included. It will help many people and l to correct our CV . Thank you so much
Thank you for these useful tips and for the reminder to constantly keep my CV updated
Loved this article because it gave some great pointers ( like “keep it simple, sweetie”) and I’ll defs be using it to help me make my CV. I am graduating in June so this is super helpful and hopefully I can get a permanent job soon. I’ll admit I am always stumped with the personal statement part of the CV. Would you recommend making a LinkedIn profile and putting the link to it on our CV or not? My lecturers keep talking about LinkedIn as a great place to network and even find future employers and it can generate a CV/resume based on what info you place on your profile which is pretty neat. Hopefully LinkedIn can help me with that personal statement hehehe.
Thank you very much for these useful tips. Job seeking is stressful enough. Compiling a CV that stands out from the rest is imperative.