What Does Your CV Say About You?
You might be surprised what a piece of paper can say about you, given a palpable lack of vocal chords, or indeed a central nervous system. However, the fact is that those couple of sheets of paper can speak volumes about you in the mind of a busy interviewer or employer, and unfortunately, this assessment can often be less than kind. No wonder then that an increasing number of people are turning to the professional proofreading services supplied by companies like proofreading.co.uk to avoid, well, avoidable errors. You might be the best qualified person in the world for the job that’s up for grabs, but if you lose sight of the appropriate spelling of site, your CV may be landfill before the ink has properly dried.
A CV should be a master class in presentation. Given the strictures of acceptable format, you really don’t have a lot to play with when it comes to standing out from the crowd, so in a nutshell, this means keeping it clean.
This not only involves a thorough proofreading to be certain that the document is error free, it means trying to achieve a clear and concise presentation. Lists should be avoided where possible, and most definitely edited to include only those elements which are relevant to the job. If this process requires a heavy edit, as may be the case when it comes to lists of vocational qualifications, then simply state that you’ve focussed on the pertinent. It is usually a good idea to leave some obvious questions open for the interviewer anyhow, as this can present a welcome chance for a brief diversion from dull standard questions. Better still, by including such omissions as teasers, you can steer the interview towards questions that you want to answer.
While we are on the theme of leaving things out, don’t feel compelled to include your whole life story, especially if this includes a brief tenure which really didn’t work out, and you walked out, or got fired. While we would never encourage you to outright lie, you may always have been out of the country travelling at the time/ digging wells in Africa/ cleaning up endangered species after an oil spill…
Andrew G. Rosen
Reader Comments (1)
No one has a completely "unblemished" work record, whatever that means, and so many people I've met have spent too much time worrying about the rigours of a strictly chronological CV.
Thematic CVs, focusing on specific areas of expertise and experience are, in my opinion more effective. They are more focused and therefore more eye catching to a potential employer. They also take less effort to decipher and pick out the key information, which is a plus for any reader who has a stack of CVs in front of them!