How to make your CV a knock Out!

By Mitchell Adam Ltd

It’s round one. You’re up against some serious competition. We want a clean fight; no underhand tactics. So, what can give you the competitive edge? Laying down a knock out CV.

If you haven’t read the title, you may be slightly confused by the introduction; the Carl Froch vs George Groves fight is still playing on my mind; what a knockout! But winning a fight billed as the biggest in British boxing history could be seen as similar to securing yourself a fantastic position with the company of your dreams! It can certainly be argued that full time work hasn’t been the easiest to find over the last decade, so we want to help you win the fight for your future! (And you may even be so overjoyed you propose to your girlfriend/ boyfriend like Froch… but don’t let this put you off reading further!)

Below are a few tips from the Mitchell Adam team to help get your CV fighting fit! * cue ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and rocky montage*

Right, to get your CV to pack a punch there are certain things you need to include:

• Bullet Points – A bulky paragraph can make your CV hard to read. But by condensing all that information into a handful of bullet points, making it precise and to the point, could give you the edge over your opponents!
• Company Bio – We don’t need anything too lengthy, but a few sentences about your previous employer (just outlining the sector and explaining briefly what they do) can really help you stand out!
• Clear Employment Start and End Dates – We want to know how long you lasted each round; so putting 2005 doesn’t really give us a clear indication of how long you were at your previous places of work; add the month and year to your dates.
• Achievements – List your achievements! If you’ve set up a new system – list it! If you’ve organised a charity event and raised thousands – list it! List anything that you have done that has benefitted the company.
• Contact Details – this may sound a little obvious, but you do get people who fail to put a contact number/email on their CV.

And, on the other (gloved) hand, there are those things that shouldn’t appear in the ring (the ring being your CV; which you would have probably already guessed by now!)

• Poor Spelling and Grammar – There is nothing more disappointing than a CV with great content that’s strewn with spelling mistakes. And if the position has received a high quantity of applicants, your CV will be KO before the fight has even begun! So make sure you use spell check! Even get someone to read your CV for you before submitting it. We can all make mistakes, but a second set of eyes can help prevent them going unnoticed. Also, make sure your language is set to English UK and not USA – this can lead to mistakes you would usually correct being missed.
• Inconsistent Formatting – Be sure to use the same font throughout your CV. Your CV is an extension of yourself and is the first thing an employer will see that represents you. If your CV is messy and inconsistent it’s very off-putting.
• ‘Little White Lies’ – Underhand tactics, such as lying about responsibilities or length of time spent at a position, may seem like a quick fix and benefit, but when you get found out you may find you loose more than you bargained for; You may even loose your title!
• Irrelevant Work History – If you’re applying for a position within finance, unless it’s the last position you’ve held or it holds some relevance to the job you’re applying for, we don’t need an in-depth break down of each task you preformed as a waitress. It’s fine to list all the jobs you’ve had, but don’t waste valuable reading time on unrelated jobs; save it for the important parts, where you want to hold the attention of the employer and highlight how relevant your work history is to your next position!

So there you have it… We hope our tips will help you reach the finals and knock out your opponents! We’d like to wish everyone good luck on their dream job search!

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net