Say Farewell, Adios, Ciao to CV Writing The Old Way

If there's one thing in short supply today, it's time... especially when it comes to job searching and hiring. Large recruiters and agencies receive thousands of CVs a week, so they're understandably put off when they have to wade through and decode resumes created with clunky old formats that use antiquated CV writing techniques.

While the rules about honest and compelling CV writing still apply in the digital world, the art of getting your CV noticed has moved away from eye-dazzling CV formats, special effects, and adjective-laden text.

What are these?

CV Writing Do's and Don'ts

First, let's look at some examples of what to avoid in CV writing, culled from the pet peeves of recruiters and agencies. They say even a great candidate can bomb with an unimpressive CV, while a mediocre job seeker might get that important first interview based on a perfect CV. Following are typical characteristics of a weak CV, examples of which flood recruiters inboxes every day:

  • Bad spelling, fancy colours and fonts, cutesy graphics, excessive capital letters, exclamation points, and italics.
  • Use of boring CV templates and boxed text.
  • Jobs listed in chronological order (putting current position last).
  • Vague, repetitive, or subjective statements unsubstantiated by facts.
  • Reaching back too far into the past with irrelevant details, especially personal ones.
  • Starting with educational qualifications, especially from more than 5 years ago.
  • Omitting essential information such as dates, location details, and work achievements!
  • Exaggerating or fabricating information.

So what comprises an excellent CV example that wows employers? The use of benefit-led 'sales' language. In other words, a candidate should make a strong case for his or her potential benefit as a hire to the company, rather than simply listing job experience and training.

For instance, a CV example of weak writing would be:

"I managed real-estate publications for four years."

Instead, a more powerful CV example of strong writing might be:

"Managed a series of real estate trade publications, doubling the number of markets covered in four years and increasing ad revenues by 65%."

When evaluating how to get the most out of your CV, make sure to describe each contribution you made to a company in concrete benefits. This will help prospective employers see how you might bring an advantage to their organisation.

Be Heard Above the Herd

With these CV examples and CV writing tips in mind, you should be able to create an effective, honest, and powerful CV. Now how do you go the extra distance to get that CV in front of the right person?

Nothing sells faster and to more people simultaneously than the Internet, and job seekers have recognised the benefits of posting their CVs online. Today, nearly all top recruiters and agencies have digitised the massive numbers of CVs they receive to make them easily searchable. Many top recruiters have converted to iProfile-compatible databases so they can seamlessly import CV data, often halving the time it takes to build a hotlist of likely job candidates.

Once you have applied your new CV writing skills to create a persuasive CV, you can upload the data to your free iProfile. Or you can create your iProfile directly online, from scratch.

Once your iProfile is uploaded, you can customise it for different jobs. You can easily register your online CV with agencies by logging into your iProfile from their websites. The online iProfile is yours for life, and managing and resending new data is a simple process as you advance in your career.

Updating important information such as work experience, recent training, address changes, salary expectations and location preferences can all be done instantly. The new information is immediately available to recruiters without any duplication of time or effort on their part.

Using this universal system makes CV writing easier and less prone to being misunderstood so you're less likely to be contacted for unsuitable positions and more likely to get interviews for jobs that are right up your alley (especially since iProfile-compatible agencies are proven to be better at matching jobs to candidates). An online CV is also far less apt to get lost in an agency's backlog of paper CVs.

So say goodbye to CV writing the old way. By using these new techniques for reaching a much larger audience with more thorough, current information, your CV writing efforts are more likely to be rewarded faster and with better results.

If you'd like to see how creating an iProfile makes CV writing a breeze, why not click here to try out iProfile for free.