Want To Grab The Employer’s Attention With Your CV? Follow These Tips

You’ve ever heard the phrase “first impression
matters?” It is also applicable to your CV.
Whatever job sector you are targeting; as an
intern, or the regular professional jobs, or even
as a teacher with a local school, your CV should
speak volumes for you. This means that the
look of your CV would determine if an
employer would dial your number or not – in
most cases though.
There is no perfect way to write a CV, but there
are methods to make it stand out as attractive.
I have interviewed countless job seekers, and I
have seen mistakes peculiar to them all.
If you don’t have reliable connections or
networks to help you get a job with ease, you
should focus on this article – to optimize your
CV. Here are the 10 ways below.
Employ a Professional Format while Writing
Your CV
The only mental idea every prospective
employer creates about you is what your CV
says about you. This means that you are being
judged by what potential employers see on
paper. If you want them to see you as a hirable
professional, then your CV should look
professional.
Here are some few ways to go about that;
- Stick to Arial or the New Time Romans Format.
- Don’t highlight any part of your resume with
colours and other fonts
- Use only font sizes of 11 or a maximum of 12.
Your Objective should answer the “What do
I have to Offer Question”
Always have this at the back of your mind.
Using a copy and pasted objective that was
drafted from a sample on a CV writing website
is a CV killer. Hiring managers have seen such a
couple of time, and they know exactly where
you got it from. To create a wonderful objective,
you should know the company needs and how
you can be able to solve them – when you
write it down. The moment you can attract the
hiring officer’s attention, you are just a step
closer from getting the job.
Give Attention to Your Educational
Qualifications
Since it has been proven that the average
maximum time to hold the attention of any
hiring officer is 7 seconds, you should make the
most out of it.
No one would want to swim in an ocean of
information, just to see your educational
qualification. It is one of the most important
things in your CV. What you studied, any
educational qualification that gives you an edge,
and achievements you recorded should be paid
attention to.
For those without work experience, you should
focus more on optimizing this section, this
section should be placed either at the top or
centre of your CV – since it is where catches the
recruiters’ attention the most.
List out valuable work experiences
Aside from your educational qualification, work
experience can also be said to be the most
important aspect of your CV. You should include
any previous job you’ve handled in the past,
your accomplishments on the job, and how it
affected your previous firm positively.
Hint: This should be written in number and
percentage form.
E.g. I succeeded in setting up 2 control panels
that helped reduce the downtime in production
by 90%.
You are free to use bold fonts to highlight your
achievements, but it should be done with
caution.
Highlight your Skills
There should be a specific section designed to
list out the skills you have in your possession.
The fact is that recruiters don’t always need the
regular skills being listed out by almost every
job-seeker.
Skills like;
- Attention to detail
- Analytic Reasoning, etc. should be minimally
used.
- Just be sure to include skills that make you
stand out, and also relevant to the job you are
applying for.
Include Testimonials
I know a whole lot of job seekers won’t
swallow this without a fight. The truth is who
will believe all the numbers and percentages
that you have outlined, without any form of
proof? The best way to solidify your claim is to
provide evidence from either a former boss or
someone you have worked with before. If you
can’t provide a testimonial, your CV might still
look good all the same.
Create a Proper Sequence on Your CV
Since you have finally listed out the qualities
that portray you as the best candidate, it is now
important to make sure that your details follow
a standard sequence.
After the Skill set summary (Objectives), you
should follow it up with your educational
qualifications, your work experience, core
competencies, Seminars attended and Research
works done.
Recheck for Grammatical Errors
Nothing kills a CV more than grammatical
errors. How can you have good eyes for details,
and you can’t detect simple grammatical errors?
Be careful not to forget that your CV is an
extension of you. Any rushed work without
proofreading will not tell a good story about
you. Endeavor to read out your write-up aloud
and correct necessary errors.
Maintain a Great Online Profile
Most employers do a background check on
several employees to be hired – in most cases,
top level jobs. It is necessary you maintain an
online profile that is in line with your career
objectives. Nothing incriminating should be seen
of your online profiles – most especially
LinkedIn.
Keep Your CV updated
Every new skilled acquired; every knowledge
got, should be recorded properly and updated
on your CV. This would help make your CV
more attractive and up to date.
Aside from making your CV more attractive,
you should also make sure that you tailor your
CV specifically for the intended job role. Your
CV is your professional personality on paper. It
should be able to speak volumes for you.
If you can’t brand yourself on paper, make sure
you hand it over to professionals to help you. As
long as you get the job, who will care about
how much was paid for the help in branding
you?
Till we meet next time, happy job hunting and
wish you the best.

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