Irish Job News - News on Jobs for Ireland

Hello again, last week we talked a little about “Outplacement Services” and explained this new and emerging trend in Ireland. Today we are going to discuss about Professional CV Writing. At some stage in your life you will probably need help and advice about writing a CV, and here are our tips to get you started in this.

Professional CV Writing – Content and Layout

If you regularly read the news on this site you will notice a dramatic increase in the number of job losses. This will impact those directly affected but also have a knock on effect for jobseekers currently job hunting. Redundancy will mean an increase in competition in the job market. Jobseekers will have to change with the changing market and this will mean taking a professional approach to CV design and interview preparation. I will focus on CV writing and design for this article and address interviews in a later post.

Your CV needs to have focus

Over 95% of CV’s fail because they lack focus. What I mean is that they are written without any though about the reader and what they want. When jobseekers start to realise that CV’s are not actually about them they will start to see a vast improvement in their application to interview ratio. A CV does contain information about you the jobseeker BUT what information will depend on what is important to the potential employer. You have to write about what the employer will want to read.

Where to place information on your CV

There is no point having very relevant qualifications or work experience hidden at the end of your CV. You cannot assume that the hiring manager will read you CV from start to finish. It is essential that all critical information is in the first page. I have previously designed CV’s with references and hobbies at the top of the first page. Why? Because this information played a key part in the sales pitch. Get creative – if you worked in a role 10 years previously but felt it was relevant to your application then create a header “relevant work experience”. CV’s are a fluid document and don’t listen to anyone you provides you with a rigid layout to follow.

An easy to read CV.

The first thing I do for clients when redesigning CV’s is to amend the format. Many clients are nearly happy to go off with the CV without even changing the content. The point is that a nice simple, well formatted CV can make a huge impact. I agree that focused content is the most important thing but making this easily read does help.

Credits

Article by Paul Mullan of Measurability.ie. Measurability offers Career Coaching to individuals (Career Direction, CV Design & Interview Coaching) and Assessment Solutions for businesses to improve their recruitment decisions.