Published on August 1st, 2017 | by Guest

Tip for Job Seekers: Optimize Your CV to Impress HR

We all know that looking for a new job is a demanding task. Other than properly updating your CV, you also have to get into the monotonous activity of sending out emails to potential employers and networking with your friends and colleagues to make a better case for you. There are a zillion tricks when it comes to making your job hunt more effective, but the key is to optimize your CV to a point that it impresses the hell out of the HR manager.

The layout and style of the modern CV are very different from the older versions. While some people still follow the old 4-page version, citing magic of the detailed approach, today’s HR managers focus on a few main points to decide if the candidate will be the right pick or not. According to human resources reports, more than 80% of CVs are not read past the first page. Hence, it is important to be both catchy and precise in your CV writing approach.

Taking all the recent trends into consideration, we have created few simple tips for you to follow while you sit down to compose your CV. Your next big job heavily depends on the quality and presentation of your resume and today we are going to learn how.

What Does an HR See When Going Through a CV?

According to Mashable, there are eight main things that HR managers look for when going through a CV. Out of these, the crucial ones are as follows –

Most recent role – What and where was your last job? How did you perform in that role? Did you win any awards or contribute at the operations level? Is this role relevant to the one that you are applying now? These are the questions the HR manager will ask while he begins considering your candidature. It is, thus, a good idea to put this on the first half of your first page

Along with this, overall experience also matters substantially. For example, you will not have a chance at a senior-level job if your combined experience is less than 3 years

HR managers also tend to look at the progression of the candidate. Is it an upward slope line? Was there a gap between two jobs? (Your best bet is to describe what happened during the gap). Have you ever checked on a jobs circular website for more info?

Overall structure – HR managers do not care about education, nor do they regard (too) personal details highly. The marks of a well-laid out CV is that it uses a simple font, no fancy formatting or styling, and simple language. (Synergy is, somehow, a word that HR people hate like the plague)

Company recognition – It is not the best way to refine a list of candidates, but one that is still in practice. The history of employers is more important than your roles there

Optimize Your CV

There’s no point in even expecting a callback from a potential employer if you inadvertently missed a typo in the opening sentence of your CV. There’s a 100% chance that the email you sent to the HR was instantly moved to trash.

To avoid such scenarios, follow the rules of the CV-editing game:

Use simple vocabulary and do not make any grammatical/punctuation mistakes
The content should be fragmented. HR managers do not have time to read essays
Keep your resume to a maximum of 2 pages. Omit sections like education, personal details, objective, etc.
Always write in the third person and stick to a single tense.
Include URLs of your portfolio, LinkedIn profile, blog, etc.

SEO in the Resume

We will just say it out loud: the trick that modern HR managers (who are always running behind their schedule because of all the corporate events they have to manage) use the “Find” or “Search” command when going through a CV. They just press Ctrl+F on their keyboard, type in the keywords they want to see, and then read the associated statements.

To appeal to this approach by HR folks, you can do some SEO for your resume. The idea is to add relevant keywords in your content and create sentences based on them. Just look at the job description of the position you are applying for, find the top keywords used in it, and use them sparingly in your CV.

This is an easy way to get into the shortlist of candidates, after which it’s all up to your personality and presentation.

We hope the above-listed tips will aid in your attempt to land the job of your dreams. Resume writing is a painful business, but with these tips, it will be an easier ride. Learn to describe your achievements and aspirations in a precise manner and you will succeed in impressing every HR manager in the world.

About the Author:

Samantha Anderson is Educator and blogger. She loves teaching and is an open-minded person that always looks for additional ways to self-growth. She applies her educational experience to writing study tips for students on her blog and writing research papers for writing service WriteMyPaper.Today

Tags: CV, hr, impress, job, seekers, tips