A compelling and high-quality CV is a must for all job seekers as it attracts the hiring manager’s attention. A CV allows you to give your potential employers an overview or summary of your skills, education, and past experiences.

Even though CVs give you room to sell yourself to potential employers, they are not exactly easy to write. We’ve compiled a list of 10 top CV writing tips that can make your CV flawless in 2022.

1. Make use of a clear CV format
2. Be specific about your work experience and skills
3. Include your contact information
4. Utilize the top third of your CV
5. Keep it truthful
6. Be confident
7. Create extra sections
8. Make sure your CV structure is easy to scan
9. Make sure your CV fits the job description
10. Add your finishing touches

Make use of a clear CV format

Selecting the CV format to use is very important for the outcome. The most common format is the reverse chronological format which requires you to write your recent work experience at the top and the oldest at the bottom of your CV.

You don’t want to complicate your CV by using an over-sophisticated font, so you have to choose a simple & clear font like Arial, Times New Roman, or Helvetica. The simpler, the better.

Select a readable font and keep its size between 10-12pt. Putting your font size smaller than that will make your CV difficult to read and bigger than that will give you little space to list your achievements. Your name should always be the most visible and biggest word in your CV.

Be specific about your work experience and skills

When listing your work experience in your CV, you have to list the relevant ones only. Listing only the skills that are related to the job you applied for will give you an upper hand and the hiring manager won’t find your CV irrelevant.

You should highlight your important achievements and accomplishments in your CV to give your potential employers an idea that you are fit for the job. Adding outstanding achievements to your CV puts you way ahead of other job seekers. 

In addition, quantifying your achievements with numbers and time frame makes them more credible.

There is no need to add every work you have ever done to your CV, only add relevant jobs from the past 10-15 years of your career.

For recent graduates with little or no experience, you can list what you are passionate about, acquired skills, certificates, awards, relevant hobbies, and volunteering experience.

Include your contact information

Include at least two of your contact details to make it easier for the hiring manager to contact you if there is any important information to be passed.

Make use of a professional email address when writing your CV. No employer will call you for work or an interview if you send your CV from an unprofessional email full of nicknames. A professional email should contain both of your names e.g Richard_collins@gmail.com

You can also include your phone number, location, and links to your social media account (LinkedIn). Double-check to make sure that you provided the correct contact information.

Also make sure not to include highly personal or confidential information like birthdate, gender, and social security number.

Utilize the top third of your CV

The top third is the most important part of your CV and you definitely want your best achievements and experience to be included here.

Interviewers often focus on the top third of your CV when they are scanning. This is why your top third should be outstanding.

The most relevant and recent skills and experience related to the job you applied for should be arranged orderly in the top third of your CV to increase your chances of being called for an interview.

Keep it truthful

In the desperation of finding a job, you can be tempted to give false information or exaggerate your work experience and accomplishments. But it is not advisable to do that. If caught, your image could be tarnished and you risk facing legal charges, so it isn’t worth the risk at all.

Being truthful with your accomplishments can also help you build your self-esteem. If you land a job without having to put false achievements in your CV, you begin to feel more confidence in yourself and your achievements.

Be confident

You need to show confidence while stating your achievements and work experience as it makes the hiring manager think you are the most passionate and most fit for the job.

Self-confidence brings excellence!

Create extra sections

Create extra space to add some relevant skills you have acquired. This can help recent graduates with no experience and who are applying for their first job.

The extra sections could include:

• Certificates and Awards
• Completed projects
• Languages learned
• Hobbies & Interests
• Extracurricular activities
• Volunteering Experience

Do not include hobbies or interests that are irrelevant to the job you applied for.

Make sure your CV structure is easy to scan

Employers most days receive hundreds of CVs for every vacant post they want to fill up. It is highly advisable that you make your CV easy to scan so the employer can find important information without stress.

Avoid bombarding your CV with too much unnecessary information. Include white space when writing, it makes your essay easily scannable.

Make sure your CV fits the job description

Not all your skills and experience are related to every job you apply for, you have to identify the skills needed and tailor your CV to fit the description of the job you are about to apply for.

This step is very crucial to writing outstanding CVs. The hiring manager will be searching for the job description keywords in your CV to know whether you are what they are looking for.

Add your finishing touches

Your CV has to be error-free for it to grab your recruiter’s attention. You need to add finishing touches to your CV and there are various ways to do that.

Proofread and edit your CV because most hiring managers neglect applications with poor spelling and grammar. This step allows you to make corrections to your CV if there happen to be any mistakes.

After the proofreading and editing, name your CV properly and save it as a PDF unless stated otherwise (e.g Richard_Collins_Resume.pdf).

These tips could still be overwhelming for some job seekers to put to use while others are too busy to sit down and write an outstanding CV. They tend to ease themselves of this burden by hiring skilled and experienced professional CV writers to complete their job applications. These writers do everything it takes to write CVs that impress and grab the attention of recruiters. They craft your specially tailored CV at very affordable rates because they are more concerned with the customers’ satisfaction.

Conclusion

These 10 tips can help you get better with your CV writing skills.