CV Writing Tips

The job market has become highly competitive especially in the face of the current downturn in the fortunes of the world economy. For any jobseeker who dreams of landing a job, regardless of the position, he must update his CV to speak the language of employers. Follow these 5 simple steps to update your CV and turn into an instant winner!

1. Do a Quick Research on the Employers in the Industry

You’re updating your CV for employers, not yourself. So, you must understand their needs and problem so that you can specifically address them in your CV. Take a quick look at the adverts in the newspapers and Internet. Look for positions you’ll like to apply for and watch out for trends — what are employers looking for? This will give you a good foundation to begin updating your CV.

2. Scan Your CV for things that Need Changes

Face it: Your current CV isn’t the best you can write. If it were the best, it would have landed you a job. Certainly, there are things that need changes. Take note of them and look for the best way to tweak them or completely replace them.

3. Attend any Trainings or Workshops? Include Them!

Recently, I have been seeing ads advertising seminars on how to cope and soar above the current economic meltdown. Did you attend any of them? Don’t send your CVs out without including them.

4. Polish Your CV to Grab Attention at First Glance

With thousands of CVs to review for a single job position, hiring managers spend less than 5 seconds to decide whether to read a CV or send it to the thrash can. So your CV must be inviting in the first place.

Now, I am talking about your designs, formatting, fonts, font style, font size, bullets, and so on. Things have change since you last wrote your CV; the font you used may now be unacceptable as a professional font. This is where CV writing skills comes in. You simply have to learn how to write a good CV. I recommend the excellent resource at http://www.mycvwizard.com.

5. Proofread a Hundred and One Times

The need and importance of a flawless and error-free CV cannot be overemphasized. Error riddled CVs turn employers off. You want to avoid that. So, spend time to proofread you CV. Really, you’re not the best proofreader of your work, so give it to your friends to help you out.

If you put these few tips to work, you stand a better chance of generating interviews than the average jobseeker who keep sending out the same CV he’s been sending out for years.

Discover how to write killer CVs that no employer dares to refuse! Visit http://www.killercv.mycvwizard.com

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The way you write your CV speaks volume about the kind of person you are. Your credibility is based on how you are perceived by employers. And in case you don’t know, employers’ perception of you is everything. What shapes employers perception of you is how you package your CV.

When your credibility is in doubt, generating interviews and getting your dream job become virtually impossible. Here are 5 things that destroy your credibility fast. You want to avoid them.

1. Typographical errors – Are errors in the way you write and present information. I’m always embarrassed when I come across grammatical blunders in the CVs of university graduates. What they go to school to learn, I don’t know. This alone can bring down your worth and value and make employers decide not to have any relationship with you.

Want to know the secret job-winning question that every job-seeker must know how to answer when writing his CV?

Great! It’s a secret until you know it. I’ll tell you, but first you have to promise me that you’ll never divulge it to anybody. Promise?

Okay, here is it…

What’s in it for the employer?

Yes, that’s the secret job-winning question.

You see, employers don’t care about what you want or how you want it. What they care about is what they want. They hire employees to help them meet their needs, solve their problems, and address their concerns.

The mistake most jobseekers make is cluttering their CVs with what they (jobseekers) want and little or nothing of what the employers want. Then they sit back, scratch their heads, and wonder why they are still jobless.

If you want to generate interviews and win your dream job fast you must know how to answer this question well. You must let employers in on what’s in it for them.

Ensure you answer this question in your…

•  Profile statement,

What you don’t know can hurt you. Your resume can hinder your chances for a job interview. Most hiring managers agree that common mistakes on resumes may hurt an interviewee’s chances of being called back for an in person interview. With the current tight job market you need every piece of the process to work for you and not against you. In the end the final decisions may come down, to experience level or qualification, but to the quality of the resume.

The average job opening gets hundreds of applications and at best a hiring manager peruses resumes to determine who will get the precious few interviews. Any mistakes, misspellings, or other mistakes are red flags for managers and glaring mistakes may well prevent an interviewee from moving to the next step.

Be wary of the following common mistakes on resumes that may sink your chances in a job interview process.

First, if you want an advantage in the job market, you must be willing to stand out in the crowd. Realize that no two companies are alike. You should never give a generic resume to everyone. Each resume should be tweaked to accommodate each organization. Emphasize the skill sets, experience, and use key words to match your skills and experience to the job posting to which you are applying.

Second, do not try to impress with your verbage. Use clear, concise terms that express in the simplest terms the point you want to get across. The idea behind a resume is to be short and sweet, not long and wordy. The idea resume is one page or one and a half at most.

Third, be sure your materials submitted are neat, clean, and contain no misspelled words. Managers do not have patience to deal with sloppy work, and they certainly will not give consideration to someone who is careless to detail. A recent survey says that more than 75% of hiring managers reject applicants because of more than one misspelled word.

Finally, stay on topic. It is amazing how many people talk themselves right out of a job by talking on and on until they divulge information that hurts their chances. Keep the home drama at home. Your resume should not include information that is of no relevance for the job for which you are applying.

The resume is usually the first contact with an employer. To move to the next step, it should be a clean, concise representation of your education, work experience, and a few pertinent facts that place you above the crowd. Anything belong that may well hurt your chances of getting to the next level.

Never embellish or lie on a resume. Anytime an employer decides to check your resume details, a falsehood may get you terminated. Any gaps in employment are suspect and it is well to get ahead of the game by explaining any negative information.

Consider printing your resume on a pastel paper to set it apart from other resumes. It is well worth the investment to make a good impression. A well done resume may well be your ticket to a great new job.

Article source: http://www.helium.com/items/1278289-resume-job-winning

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