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By Joan Igamba

Applying for jobs always requires a proper presentation of your skills and experience.

In order to get the job, you need to convince the employer of your skills, since you will be competing with thousands of candidates for the same job.

This is where your CV comes to your rescue.

But how do you impress a potential employer with just your CV? Here are 6 strategies that according to our professional CV writers, always work.

1. Be clear and concise

Don’t use 10 words when 3 words would have been fine. Don’t fill your CV with big words because they sound impressive.

Employers want to know the facts about you and they don’t want to go through a lot of ‘CV speak’ to get to those facts. Use simple language and you will have a head start compared to the candidates who use jargon.

2. Drop the clichés

Just because you have seen the phrase “results-oriented professional who thinks outside the box” used in another CV does not mean you have to copy it word for word.

Avoid these commonly used words as it will not help your CV stand out from the pile.

3. Stick to the facts

Your potential employer is probably looking for candidates who meet certain hiring criteria. For example someone with 10 years of experience or someone who has a history of working in telecommunications companies.

Whatever criteria used will be based on facts so it is best that you stick to facts in order for the employer to shortlist your CV.

Use numbers to explain the facts even further.

Remember that personality traits are important but they can’t really be judged as fact from a CV. It is best to stick to hard skills.

4. Improve your CV’s readability

We all skim more than we read, so to reward that reading style: Write short paragraphs of three or four lines at most.

Also, add white space between paragraphs and use headings and subheads to segment and introduce information.

This CV format will make it easier for the employer to find important information and keywords throughout your CV.

5. Focus on Your Impact

Do not list job responsibilities instead use the space to show how you made an impact in each of your jobs.

Do not say that your job required you to handle filing for the whole department. Say that you cleared a backlog of 8 months filing in just 2 weeks and then developed a system to keep things running smoothly.

That’s the kind of information that makes an employer want to meet you.

6. Write a personal profile that summarizes your accomplishment

While writing your CV make sure at the top of it sits a summary that describes you in a few lines. Use impressive facts here.

Tell them how many years of experience you have. Summarize three of your best accomplishments. List the high-profile companies you’ve worked for.

In other words, select whatever facts are most impressive about you and use the CV summary to highlight them.

The Final Word,

Impressing employers isn’t easy – but it’s possible if you follow these 6 pointers. If you’d like more help with your CV, you can contact a professional CV writer here and you will get a FREE CV review and help with writing your CV in order to impress employers.