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99+ Key Skills for a CV [Best List of Examples for Every Job]
Recruiters will trade great skills for a great job. All you need to know is what key skills to put on your CV and that job is yours.
20+ powerful CV writing tips to give you a head start in the job hunting race. Learn how to optimise your CV to make the most of your achievements and experience.
You’re about to discover a treasure trove of useful CV tips and advice. But first, consider this. CV stands for “curriculum vitae,” which is Latin for “course of life.” And few documents can change the course of your life as much as your CV.
It can be the key to career success or doom you to rejection after rejection. And recruiters spend just seconds looking at it before they decide if you’re a yes, or a no. So your CV can’t just be good, it has to be great.
Read on and you’ll see 20+ easy to implement tips to make a CV that recruiters will love and land you more interviews than ever before. This is a listicle you can actually use! Let’s begin.
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Sample CV made with our builder—See more templates and create your CV here.
Recruiters are busy people. They get around 250 applications for every corporate job and spend only 8 seconds looking at each CV. They want to see proof that you’re the best candidate for the job in the form of experience, achievements and skills. What’s more they want to see perfect structure and layout so they can find what they’re looking for fast. Get it wrong and it’s a one-way ticket to rejection. But you’re about to get the ticket to a town called hired.
Here are our top tips on how to make a powerful first impression with your CV.
If you only remember one tip from this list it should be this one.
Read more CV writing advice here: How to Write a CV: Professional Examples
CV format is the structure or framework you build your CV on. Different formats communicate your employment history, qualifications and education in different ways. In the UK there are two main types of CV format. Reverse chronological and skills-based. Choose the right one for your employment history and life experience.
Once you've chosen your format, see how it looks in different templates: 20+ Free CV Templates to Download Now
Your header sits right at the top of the page and that’s the first place that people read. So make it visually distinct and information-rich.
Your personal statement is the short paragraph that follows your CV header. Its purpose is to give the recruiter or hiring manager an overview of what you have to offer as a professional. As the first section of your CV to be read it should instantly convey that you’re the best candidate for the job. Follow this advice to get it right.
Read more: How to Write a CV Personal Statement
Use bullet points in your CV experience section and for your skills list and education details. Bullet points make it easier to skim the text and pick out the most important information. Keep them short to maximise white space and have no more than six bullet points for each job you list.
Don’t just say what you did, explain how well you did it. The best way to do that is to use quantified achievements. Here’s how to include them on your CV.
Use PAR statements to give your CV some added wow factor. It stands for Problem-Action(s)-Result. Here’s how it looks.
Empowered an underperforming sales team (Problem) by introducing novel and desirable incentives, improving motivation (Actions) and achieving a 40 percent increase in gross sales in one quarter. (Result)
Take a look at your CV and axe any tired, overused words and phrases like “responsible for.” Use impactful action verbs like these instead:
When making a CV in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your CV here.
When you’re done, Zety’s CV builder will score your CV and tell you exactly how to make it better.
Including extra sections on your CV is a great way to make you stand out from the competition. Here are some suggestions to help you go beyond the basics.
Some things have no place in a CV. Never include the following:
Write your CV in plain English as much as possible. The recruiter isn’t necessarily familiar with all the technical jargon in your industry. Needlessly complex business-speak just comes across as nonsense. You might know what it means to “uniquely cloudify cooperative strategic theme areas” but nobody else does.
Don’t ruin all your hard work. Unless the job advert says otherwise, save your CV as a PDF to keep all of your formatting and content intact. Choose the right filename, too. Use CV.pdf and you’re just asking for the file to get lost. Make it instantly identifiable by using the formula name_position_document e.g. Jay_Hunt_Accountant_CV. Or if that’d be too long then go for name_document e.g. Jay_Hunt_CV.
Yes, cover letters are still important so make sure you write one. More than half of employers have said they prefer to receive cover letters and find them valuable.
Read more: Complete Guide to Writing a Cover Letter
Using the right CV layout is like a paint by numbers kit. With the right outline and framework all you need to do is fill in the gaps to create a masterpiece. These tips will show you how to get your layout right.
You’ll find even more great CV layout tips here: How to Layout a Professional CV
Why not leave all the hard work to someone else? Use a professional CV builder: choose a template, enter your content and let the builder do the rest. No messing around with settings in Word and perfection every time.
Last tip. Always proofread your CV. Around 80% of CVs have grammar or spelling errors. When you’re finished writing check your CV for mistakes, ask a friend for feedback, too.
By all means, use a proofreading tool like Grammarly, but watch out for any auto-correct fails. Don’t make the mistake of announcing that you’re a “Pubic Relations Officer.”
You've got the tips for a perfect CV. Get your cover letter format right too: How to Format a Cover Letter [Examples & Step-by-Step Guide]
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your CV will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
Writing a great CV doesn’t have to be a nightmare. Just follow these CV tips and tricks and you’re well on your way to job-hunting success. Above all else, remember to target your CV to the job description and customise it for every application you make. And when you’re done, check, check and check again.
Thanks for reading. Have you got any CV tips or advice you’d like to share? Need help with a problem that I haven’t covered in this guide? Don’t be shy, use the comments section. I’d love to hear from you.
Recruiters will trade great skills for a great job. All you need to know is what key skills to put on your CV and that job is yours.
Write a CV that’ll get you a job before the ink on your degree is dry. With templates and expert tips to get you hired fast, even without experience.
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