Revealing The 3 Best Ways To Balance Out Your CV

By Roseann Ng’ang’a
The CV is the main document that the recruiter looks at to determine if you are the right fit for the job.
When writing your CV, you may get carried away and include as much information as you can in a bid to impress the recruiter.
In the end, you end up with more than five pages and you start wondering what you should remove and what you should retain from your CV document.
So where do you strike the balance as you write your CV? These 5 pointers are guaranteed to help you balance out your CV and increase your chances of getting that interview.
1. Include the relevant work experience only
Remember the sole objective of writing your CV is to sell you to your prospective employer.
As you write be sure to keep in mind the position you are applying for.
Ensure that you only include work experience that relates to the position you are working for.
For example, if you are applying for a sales and marketing job and you had in your early career days worked as a waitress, including being a waitress in your CV will not add much value to your CV as compared to highlighting when you held a sales representative job.
As you write your work experience ensure that you use a chronological order showing the dates of employment, institution worked for and the job responsibilities that you were assigned.
Highlight on the achievements that can prove that you will be an asset to the company you are applying at.
2. Customize your CV using the keywords
A recruiter has no time to read through your CV word for word.
What actually happens is, they take about less than a minute to quickly scheme through your CV.
So how do you ensure that you do not miss out on what the recruiter is looking out for?
The key is to ensure that your CV is not too generic and ensure that you tailor it to fit the position that you are applying for.
Go back to the job description and figure out which of the required skills and experience set do you possess. This will help you figure out the keywords.
As you write your CV make use of this keywords to tweak your resume to fit the position you are applying for.
A MUST READ >>> What Does Customizing Your CV Mean & What Are The Benefits?
Good keywords not only highlight your experience and skillset but also the job description in the posting.
3. Check your formatting
In a bid to make your CV pleasing to look at have you ever been tempted to use different page colours and extreme subheading font sizes?
Your CV should always show uniformity in formatting.
your spacing should be consistent and the margins evened out.
Stick to the basics: white page, readable font, and black coloured text.
Ideally, your font size should be no larger than 12. To be on the safe side stick to fonts such as Times New Roman, Calibri, Arial Georgia or Helvetica
It is important to note that the length of your CV varies according to your years of experience.
QUICKLY SEE >>> The Perfect Length for Your CV
Remember your CV should not exceed three pages.
It is a very competitive world in the job market and you have to maximize your CV if you want to land your dream job.
Roseann Ngángá works as a Communication’s Assistant at Corporate Staffing Services – a Human Resource Firm that offers FREE CV registration and recruitment services.