7 Ways to Condense Your CV Without Losing Value

Did you know that recruiters spend an average of seconds on your CV to determine whether you are the right fit for a particular job? 

Your CV is one of the most important documents you will create in your career. It is essentially your first impression to potential employers, laying out your experience, education, and qualifications.

While you want your resume to accurately represent your background and skills, employers want conciseness as well.

With that in mind, it’s important to condense your CV down to an optimal length without losing any of the valuable information an employer needs to see.

Let us look at 7 effective ways to condense your resume and win that interview.

1. Use bullet points effectively.

When describing your experience and responsibilities in each role, utilize bullet points cautiously. Keep each bullet concise at around 8-10 words max.

Use powerful action verbs to emphasize your impact and contributions. Avoid the temptation to add full sentences and unnecessary details here.

For example, instead of “I was responsible for managing a team of 5 employees and overseeing daily operations,” say “Managed team of 5, overseeing daily operations.”

2. Highlight keywords prominently.

Take a close look at typical job descriptions and identify the top 5-7 keywords and skills employers are looking for in your desired role or industry.

Feature these keywords prominently in your modern CV – in your professional profile summary section, and each role description whenever applicable.

For example, if applying for project management roles, be sure “project management” is one of the first few words in your summary and is called out clearly in relevant experience listings.

This makes it easy for automated applicant tracking systems to pick up on your qualifications.

3. Combine less impressive roles.

If you have several short-term roles or contract positions that aren’t very impressive on their own, you can combine a few into a single header.

For example, rather than listing 3 roles held for less than 6 months each under separate headers, combine them under a header like “Additional Consulting & Freelance Experience 2017-2018.”

Again, this eliminates clutter and allows your more substantial experiences to shine.

4. Remove unnecessary headers.

In a case where you have extensive experience spanning multiple decades, you likely don’t need separate headers for each decade of your career history.

Simply list your experience in reverse chronological order without the unnecessary header separations. This removes clutter and gets straight to the point of your relevant qualifications.

5. Quantify your achievements.

Employers are less impressed by generic descriptions of your responsibilities. Instead, choose 1-2 measurable achievements from each role that prove your impact.

For instance, say something like “Increased sales by 15% within 6 months through the implementation of new marketing strategies” rather than simply “Responsible for sales and marketing activities.”

Quantifying your achievements helps you stand out from other candidates with similar titles.

6. Remove non-essentials from education.

Simply list the name of the institution, degree, and year. Try not to add your GPA unless it is exceptionally high.

Employers are usually more interested in what you learn and how you’ve applied it. Similarly, there’s no need to include the names of courses you took or primary school details- just focus on the overall qualification gained.

7. Prune unnecessary personal details.

There’s rarely a need to include personal details like your date of birth, height, marital status, etc. on a modern l CV.

These details don’t impact your ability to do the job and take up valuable space. Similarly, unless necessary for the role (such as childcare), remove non-essential things like nationality, religion, or personal interests/hobbies.

Keep it 100% focused on your education, experience, and qualifications for the role because personal details can lead to discrimination

Conclusion

With the strategies of highlighting keywords, quantifying achievements, and pruning non-essentials, every word on the page is now working hard to sell your credentials.

While conciseness is important, avoid compromising quality or leaving out any directly relevant experiences. The goal isn’t to artificially condense your background – it’s to edit it down to the most impactful information in the strongest presentation possible.

Are you having trouble achieving an engaging yet concise CV that still shows all your value to potential employers? Take the time to invest in our Professional CV Writing Services to get a concise but impactful document.