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 Recruiters are looking for high quality staff that they feel will be able to add some real value to their organisation and importantly, will stay long enough to make a worthwhile contribution. This clearly presents problems for candidates that have a fairly volatile career history and it is even more difficult if that volatility was in the recent past. This gives the candidate two possible options.   The first is to have a bout of severe amnesia and start missing out jobs and doing all sorts of creative stuff to stretch details to cover the gaps. This is not recommended for many reasons, all of which will see you either squirming at an interview when it becomes apparent that “something doesn’t add up” or possibly ejected from a new position when an unexpected reference check is conducted and the information doesn’t match your CV. So: what’s the strategy for overcoming this? The very best advice here is to avoid using the classic “reverse chronological” CV format. This is the ...

More realistically, start writing your CV with the end in mind. Still confused? Stop thinking about yourself for a moment and give some thought to the poor soul who will have to wade through the mass of CVs that they will undoubtedly receive for every advertised position. The response could well be in the hundreds, so unsurprisingly, the recruiter’s first task will often be to lighten their load and the easiest way to begin this is to spend a few seconds with each one before deciding to reject it or select it for further consideration. It really is unrealistic to expect a recruiter to read each CV in full, particularly as the majority of them will appear to have been constructed with the aim of making the reader’s task as difficult and joyless as possible. So, with this in mind, how would you perceive that a poorly formatted CV with information randomly spread across several pages would be received? Or, against this background: how would a clear, concise and visually appealing CV be vi...

 “As long as it needs to be”, is probably the first answer that comes to mind but this doesn’t provide a definitive answer. The reality is that there are no rules but there are some good guidelines and 2-3 pages should cover the majority of CVs. So how do you edit your 12 page novella into an impressive CV? With a lot of time and effort is the true answer but the following should offer a few clues.   Make an impact with the first page and more importantly, start with a compelling “profile” There’s a previous post that covers this key area in more detail.   Restrict your first page to 3 sections: “Profile “and then two of the following: “Key Achievements”, “Key Skills” and “Key Qualifications”   - you need to think about which two you select and this will be dependent on your job description and career length and history.   Add a heading to the second page called “Career History”: this will offer a valuable clue as to what you should think about adding here....

 When thinking about CV content, “Less” can really be “More”. Don’t be tempted to include everything about your history in great detail. Don’t add loads of woolly  nonsense about how you are “trustworthy” (no one is looking to employ a thief), “hard working” (no one wants a slacker) or other padding. Think about: WHAT THE JOB SPEC DEMANDS HOW YOU CAN MEET OR EXCEED THIS. If what you are writing doesn’t serve to achieve this aim then it’s likely that you are waffling.   Successful CV Writing  produces the  highest quality CVs  at affordable prices. Need more help, advice or  just want loads of free CV writing information ?

Writing a CV Common CV error - number two.   Think about the recruiter with a mountain of CV's to analyze and spending  no more that 20 seconds on each before rejecting  or adding to the long list.   What are your achievements, how did you achieve them and what was the positive impact that they had on your employers business ?   A  common CV error  is failing to bring these key points almost immediately to the attention of the recruiter. The most important points that the recruiter needs to understand are what you have done successfully and  what positive impact did they have on your employer  (saved them time, reduced the budget, managed change, reduced customer complaints, increased their account base etc).   Recruiters will not spend time that they do not have searching through your CV for information that may prove to be of interest to them. Neither will they waste time speculating why potentially  strong achievements are simply...

  Writing a CV Common CV error - number nine.   A  common CV error  is to list all jobs that you have ever had; a particular problem for people with long work histories and frequent job changes.   This approach can easily give the recruiter the impression that you job hop and never really settle; in effect, that the time and money that they invest in you will be repaid by you leaving before they have seen any tangible return on their investment. This will clearly be something that they will not consider doing when they will undoubtedly have the opportunity to consider candidates who have (or appear to have) more stable employment histories.   By choosing the  correct CV Format  and by including only  relevant and recent history  it becomes an issue that can be successfully addressed without resorting to submitting an inaccurate CV that won’t stand up to scrutiny at the interview stage.   A  skills based CV  or a  Hybr...

  Common CV error - number six.   Unusual CV layouts  are not usually welcome by recruiters and it's  a  common CV error  to try to make your  CV stand-out  by including unusual formatting, colours, fonts and layouts. Keeping the “ 20 second window of opportunity ” that your CV has to considered further, any move away from a clear, concise and well written format could well consign your CV to the bin. Recruiters  want to be able to  extract the maximum amount of worthwhile information about you in the shortest possible time  and anything that prevents this is destined to fail.   Unless you are applying for a position that is design based, there is no advantage to move away from accepted formats. Even if you are a graphic designer, your CV may well be read by someone from HR who will typically deal with a host of applications for all sectors of the business and may well have little or no specialist knowledge about graphic design...