Crafting a personalised CV can be instrumental in influencing a hiring manager’s decision, but understanding how to make your CV stand out can be challenging. Hiring managers review hundreds, potentially thousands, of CV in their time. They can easily read general credentials that weren’t designed for their specific job at their specific company. By sending out a generic CV, you only blend in with the crowd and increase the chances you’ll end up on the “NO” pile.
When you personalise your CV, you are showing hiring managers one of the most important things they’re looking for: the details. The irony of that is you would have a hard time finding a CV where the candidate doesn’t claim they are “detail-oriented.” Yet, the average CV does not demonstrate this. Learn how to make your CV stand out with these personal and job-specific elements.
Include job-specific keywords and phrases
When you’re figuring out how to design your CV, review the job posting carefully. The more information there is, the better for you, because now you can glean the highlights. Look for company unique phrasing such as coding experience, fast paced environment, may involve travel, etc. Use them in your CV without appearing to write bad Internet content.
Make the content relevant
Do not feel compelled to tell a hiring manager everything. In fact, everything that isn’t relevant to the specific position should be deleted. That bullet point about knowing how to use a printer? Gone. You worked a temporary job in a completely different industry? Gone. If the CV starts looking skimpy, carefully put information back.
A hiring manager would rather see a half-page packed with useful information than two pages that don’t really play a part in their objectives.
And make sure every bullet matters, starting from most important and working down. The most recent job should have the longest list, but every bullet should be relevant to the position in question, not an inventory of daily activities.
Lead with your relevant skills
On your CV, list your relevant skills to the job in question. Mention you use Microsoft Office only if it’s mentioned in the job listing. Don’t mention a generic skill because it sounds good; all things considered, who can’t use Microsoft Office? You want to highlight specific skills like analytics experience, your prowess in management or your knowledge of software development. Impress the hiring manager with a personalised CV that shows them off the bat what you bring to the table.
Keep it down-to-earth
Avoid exaggerating and definitely do not lie about your skills or experiences. If you’re only printing the reports, don’t say you’re preparing them. If you’re a solid candidate and show your potential, employers will gladly want to work with you. When you personalise your CV for each position, you give yourself an edge over those who didn’t. You also have prepared for the interview because you studied the job listing and established what the hiring manager is looking for in a candidate.
If you want to know how to make your CV stand out, remember that every CV should address the exact requirements of each hiring manager and position.
You want your CV to speak to the hiring manager specifically, not merely impressing them with your technical knowledge and experience, but clearly showing how you would be of use to their operations.
It shouldn’t merely emphasise your strengths. The CV should emphasise why those strengths matter. Most importantly, personalising your CV will give you a tremendous advantage for one major reason: The average candidate doesn’t do it.
