How to Rework Your CV For Each Job
When it comes to job applications, it may be useful to rework your CV for each application. Now, we’ve got plenty of blogs on how to write a good CV! But how can you impress right out of the gate? Well, if you have that question, then we have your answer! We’re going to go through what you can do to make it more precise for each job application.
Your CV can be an opening to a new job or can be a door-closer. So it’s key that you strengthen them as you job search. Sometimes when you’re applying to larger companies they may have an ATS system or an applicant tracking system. This is a system that checks CVs manually before it gets to the interviewer. The ATS collects, sorts scans and ranks CVs that it receives for open positions. It’ll then reject ‘least-qualified’ CVs based on format and content. So that managers aren’t swamped by applications, especially if they are a large company. With smaller businesses, they could sift through the applications by hand.
Now don’t worry, you don’t have to do a full rework of your CV for each application you do, minor changes can often be better. The way to start with the CV is to have a strong foundation to bounce off. It should start out with what you have done but also pick out what you want to continue doing. What you’re applying for and what you’re targeting should reflect what you want to continue doing. So here are a few things you can do the adapt your CV.
Self-assess
Self-assessing is a great way to start before you rework your CV for job applications. Try and determine what role you want before doing the revamping as it can be structured better to land you the job. This is the pre-work, having a clear job target. Narrow down a few complementary roles, you need to be extremely clear on where you want to go.
Rethink the way you view your CV. Instead of it being an exhaustive list of everything you’ve done, some of which may be irrelevant. Start to think of it as a marketing document. You’re marketing yourself to respective employers, so you want to stand out among the rest. You’re creating a document that has all the information you want to move forward in your chosen career.
Doing a self-assessment can give you the clarity needed to identify what to put on your CV.
List keywords
Accentuate any of the soft skills learnt within your position, employers will often look for soft skills. Which we talked about in our recent blog. Using numbers also helps, if you can put anything into a literal number like if you held an event with 100 people or taught a class of x amount of learners then that could be a factor that sticks in the brain. It’s also essential to include keywords in your CV that make the job descriptions you’re applying for.
If you’re using the likes of LinkedIn, keywords can help employers find you. It can help identify whether you’re a good fit for the job when you have the right keywords. However, you have to be careful not to fill your CV full of keywords, so it starts to look auto-generated, or fake.
Revamp key elements
Your CV title should reflect the kind of job you want. You as a job seeker should make sure you look at the top 3 to 5 bullet points of job descriptions. Those bullet points should be the most important parts of the job. This makes it essential that you show your relevant experience that matches the job outliers.
If you are also including details of people who could be contacted for a job or character reference make sure these are up to date as well. Keep in mind the length of your CV as well. As a general rule, we found, that if you have under 10 years of experience 1 page is fine. However, if you have over 10 years of experience, then 2 pages are more than acceptable. It would just be silly to try and cram 25 years of experience on 1 page.
If your CV isn’t getting responses?
It’s extremely easy to be discouraged when you’re applying for jobs, but are not landing any interviews, or have constant rejection. If this happens to you, then reassess, look at the job descriptions and make sure you have keywords. But also ask family and friends to look at it. Ask them for constructive feedback and specifics on what you could do better. Is there a part of it that you can strengthen?
There are also online resources which offer free CV templates and samples and encourage you to not shy away from showing your personality. The key to this though is balance. You don’t want to go overboard on fancy fonts, especially if it’s going through an ATS system. Be mindful of what a machine could read.
When job hunting, your entire CV doesn’t need to change each time you apply for a job but making small changes can boost your chances. How do you change your CV to work for you? Is there anything we missed out on? If so, let us know! If you need any help with writing CVs or have any questions then don’t hesitate to contact our team on 01205 805 155 and we would be happy to help.