Just to give you a head start, a good CV can be the most important part of your job search as it is the driving force to persuade someone to meet you face to face. Again and again, opportunities and offers may be missed because the document you create fails to bring home your achievements. Read more to find out some key ways to ensure your CV is as profound as your career. 

Contact details

Surprisingly, the amount of people that either disregard their contact details or put the wrong details on their CV. Top tip, make sure your contacts details are clear, make sure they are correct. Nothing is worst than having the wrong email address on your CV. Finally, make sure they are professional – particularly when it comes to email addresses.

Work History

The Golden rule is: more information for recent roles, less for older ones. Make sure your most recent positions (listed at the start of the CV) have more information than the older positions. What you did many years ago usually has little relevance to the current opportunity you are applying for.

Education

There have been talking heads about being for and against education details, most especially at senior level. I do agree that relevant educational achievements and qualifications are appropriate, especially if they show a commitment to your chosen field of expertise and continuous professional development.

Achievements

Many seem to just simply list roles and responsibilities of previous positions. First advice this is not enough to draw recruiters to you. Make sure you detail any achievements in your role, what difference did you make? If possible, use data and growth percentages instant impact.

Length

Eight pages long CV's are a thing of the past. We still get these school boy errors from senior interim level. With the best will in the world, pages 3-8 will hardly ever be read. Your ability to be concise is important in written word, as it is in speech. Long – winded individuals are rarely impressive, and this includes your CV.

Generic Statements

Uniqueness, distinctiveness and sleekness is what your CV needs to read. Statements such as “highly motivated”, “team player” and “personable” are a given and not required. It is more preferable to use the valuable limited line space to highlighting hard skills, responsibilities and achievements.

Format

It should be self evident that candidates should not be using unnecessary fonts,formats ,colours and tables. To add to this, using Microsoft Word document is usually preferable. Why is this? PDF's can be easily corrupted, and even if not, free PDF to Word converters no longer make your CV 'unchangeable'.

Personal Information

The CV is a document communicating information about your career, skills and achievements. Anything else included is small talk which is only safe when you have gained the interview and even the job!

Photo

Your LinkedIn profile will be looked at anyways. No need for a picture on your CV. 99.9% of jobs do not require a photograph on the application.