How to write an outstanding CV to increase your employability and catch the recruiter’s attention. Best tips to improve your curriculum vitae after your Erasmus Plus Internship in Seville
With recruiters receiving hundreds of applicants and relentlessly reading over countless CVs, you, of course, want to be the few that gets short-listed and impress them enough to get through the interview process. There are many unspoken rules of dos and don’ts, and we will cover all of them to help you get that job you so yearn for! Get your notes ready, and let’s get started!
1. Eye-catching design
As mentioned, recruiters are skimming (literally) through numerous CVs for an average of six seconds. So your CV needs to retain their attention long enough to make them feel like they want to invest in more and consider you a strong candidate. To do this, you want your CV to have an appealing design and perhaps incorporate your personal brand in if that is something within your arsenal. You could also change the layout of your CV to be landscape, as most CVs will be in a portrait layout. However, please do not go overboard with your design and make sure that the CV is still easy to read!
2. Well structured with a clear hierarchy
Your CV should look aesthetically appealing; however, the most important thing is in the CVs practicality. It needs to be easy to read and shows immediate hierarchy so that the recruiter can easily browse for the information they are looking for. Remember, if a CV is hard to read, this in itself reflects poor design and attention to detail, which can cost you from making it to the next round. Keep the layout simple and clean!
3. What to include and how to structure them
Every CV should include key skills, personal profile/contact details, education & qualifications, work experience, and awards. Again, your CV should be easy to read, and make sure that the information presented is in bite-size paragraphs or even bullet points! Also, be sure to list your qualifications, work experience, and awards in chronological order from most recent, as your recruiter will want to see the most relevant information (which should be recent experiences & qualifications). You should also include links to your portfolio and work to give your recruiter easy access.
4. How long your CV should be
Again, from a recruiter’s point of view, it is not ideal for them to read five pages per CVs alongside the hundreds of others they have to get through. The motto is short and effective! Make sure you condense your information to a maximum of two pages but keep it at one ideally. And if you are to have more than one pages, you should put the less important information onto the second page as a cherry on top to compliment the first page.
5. Good typography
Good typography is key to making your CV balanced and easy to read, which we discussed is the core objective! If you have a personal brand, make sure to follow that! Using a san serif font can help make your text clearer, but serif fonts can give more character to your CV. If you are using a serif font, make sure it isn’t too distracting. Also, use a maximum of two fonts and keep it at one ideally, to maintain consistency.
6. What software to use to create your CV
There are plenty of options on the software you can use to curate your CV. If you have the Adobe suite, we would recommend you using Adobe Indesign. It is the perfect program to edit text with for a clean and neat result. But most notably, you can insert hyperlinks to your exported PDF CV to your portfolio, which the recruiters will thank you for making their lives easier. You could also use Adobe Illustrator using storyboards to create your CV. If not the Adobe programs, Microsoft Word is a common software used to develop a CV, which you can also add hyperlinks to.
In conclusion:
Your CV is the essential tool you’ll need to give the best impression of yourself and your work to your potential employer. Exposing yourself is understandably a daunting process, but trust me that it is worth doing. Because when you get outside of your comfort zone, you’ll wound up in great places. We hope you find these tips helpful, and we wish you the best of luck in finding your perfect job!