This guide outlines the most important CV tips for any professional wanting to further their career, no matter what field they are in.
At the core of any successful career is CV-writing abilities. Companies want “sure bets” and the way they get these is by going through everything you say in your resume with a fine tooth comb.
As such, women are focusing more on how they write their CVs. Many are spending hours every weekend planning and fine-tuning them to be more successful.
But what are they doing, specifically? We spoke to Distinctive Career Services who offer professional resume templates to get their take on the situation and give some expert CV tips.
CV tips to improve your chances
Tailor the CV For The Job
“One of the biggest CV tips we believe in,” the agency says, “is tailoring CVs for the job. Applicants need to show they actually care about the role and the company.”
The reasons these types of CVs that focus on specific roles are successful are multifold. “The main benefit is that it shows that the candidate is interested in a specific company and isn’t just looking for any old job in the field. This tells companies that they are a cultural fit for the candidate and hiring them is likely to lead to a good match.”
But there are other reasons, besides this, why this approach to resume-writing works. For instance, candidates who tailor their CVs to specific companies also show their unique skills and ability to add value.
This role-specific approach gives companies a better idea of the type of person they will get. It also provides them with a path to some insights into whether the individual is a cultural fit for the firm.
Highlight Career Achievements
Women are also boosting their CVs by emphasizing their career achievements. “This is something we recommend people do all the time as one of the key CV tips,” Distinctive Career Services says.
“Candidates who talk about their career achievements give potential employers more insights into what they can do and how they can benefit them by joining their teams.”
Career achievements could include just about anything relevant to corporate and commercial success. And it can be departmentally specific, which is helpful for anyone who hasn’t been able to branch out or achieve broader goals.
“We encourage women to talk about their achievements across the board, highlighting the way they helped former employers achieve their objectives. For example, we continually see the benefit of highlighting things like boosting corporate revenues, improving output per employee, or making HR departments more efficient. Companies want individuals who can spearhead or be a part of this type of change.”
Quantify Achievements
Quantifying achievements is another of the professsional CV tips for women who are enhancing their CVs and moving ahead with their careers. Writing down key metrics shows employers the raw details of what they can achieve.
This approach is beneficial for hard-nosed managers who care primarily about the bottom line. It’s a great way to get into firms that care about performance above all else and pay salaries to match.
“Using a template can be an excellent option when applying to companies like these,” Distinctive Career Services says. “It frees women up to list more of their achievements and spell out precisely what it meant to their former employers in terms of the raw numbers. It’s that kind of approach that businesses can respect.”
Include A Powerful Summary
The most compelling professional CVs today also offer a powerful summary that condenses everything the resume says into a couple of short sentences that hiring managers can quickly evaluate before making any hiring decisions.
Summaries are easier to write than ever before. AI tools assist, while templates are showing women precisely how long they should be. Distinctive Career Services claims that writing an impactful summary is half the work of creating a killer resume.
“Most women don’t understand how limited company time is. Hiring managers often only have an hour a day or less to look through applications. Their job is to filter people quickly and so having a summary helps them do this and view your resume more favorably.”
The summary is essentially the soundbite that every hiring manager wants to see on CVs that come their way. It makes their job easier and it helps women showcase the fundamental value they bring to the firm succinctly.
Include Relevant Keywords
Another one of the top professional CV tips is to include relevant keywords that will pass through companies’ applicant tracking systems. Women are using these to ensure that software picks up on their applications and automatically forwards them to hiring managers.
Those planning on using this approach should seek help. “It’s not always obvious to applicants which words employers look for when scanning applicant documents,” Distinctive Career Services explains.
“Therefore, women looking to get ahead often do their own private research, looking for the types of work that are most likely to get an application noticed. Unfortunately, knowing what these are is challenging because most companies are a black box and don’t open-source their data.”
Women who aren’t sure which keywords to include should focus on keywords associated with the type of person companies look for in the role they want. Keyword planner tools can be helpful in this regard.
Use Concise Formats
Women are also adopting more concise formats for their CVs to make them more readable and to the point. For Distinctive Career Services, this is their bread and butter.
“The reason we started creating templates was because we wanted to make it easier for women to fit their entire CV onto a couple of pages. We saw an opportunity in the market and decided to fill it. The more concise we can make CVs, the more likely our customers are to experience success.”
Being concise, of course, doesn’t mean omitting information relevant to the role and Distinctive Career Services is keen to emphasize that as part of these CV tips. However, it does mean using lists, bullet points, and short sentences where possible to convey maximum information without going onto a third side of paper.
“We’re looking forward to working with more women to help them craft stunning CVs that grab employers’ attention,” Distinctive Career Services explains. “Nowadays, it is easier than ever to download templates and create CVs that get results in the modern job market.”
