You’ve spent hours writing your CV, searching for potential jobs and filing out every job applicant that you can, however, you never seem to get an interview. According to a survey conducted by StandOut CV, job seekers in the UK must apply for an average of 27 jobs before receiving an interview. In a job market this competitive, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
Searching for a job can feel like a full-time job in itself. You spend so much time trying to perfect your CV, that it can be incredibly frustrating when you don’t hear back from anyone, or worse, when you get the rejected email. So, what can you do to stop this from happening? If you’ve been applying for jobs for a while now and haven’t heard anything, it might be time to change your strategy. Keep on reading to find out what you can do to finally start landing those interviews.
Format, Format, Format
You might not want to believe this, but format is so important to helping your CV stand out from the crowd. A recruiter won’t read your CV word for word. In most cases they will normally skim read most of them, and this whole process will only take about 10 seconds. Therefore, the format of your CV is crucial. If it doesn’t look good or doesn’t have the ability to catch the eye of the recruiter, then they won’t even bother reading it.
To start with you need to make sure that you have a simple layout (like the ones that you can find right here).You need to make sure that the layout that you pick complements your content and you should avoid inserting images, graphics and shapes. You should make sure that your contact information is easily visible (at the top) and that it is also correct as well. Then insert a skills and qualification section, followed by your work experience. Try and fit all of these sections on the first page, so that the recruiter will be able to see everything when they first look at your CV.
Tailor Your CV
The first rule of writing a CV is making sure that you tailor it to the job that you are applying for. This is a lot easier than it sounds, but it does mean that you will have to spend a moment or two adapting your CV every time you apply for a job. The easiest way to tailor your job, is to adapt the job title at the top of your CV to specifically reflect the job that you are applying for. This will help the recruiter see the connection and be more likely to give you a call for an interview.
Relevance is also key at this point. For example, if you are applying for a finance role, then the person looking at your CV won’t be interested in your skills as a barista. You should remove any irrelevant work experience and instead focus on shining a light on the experience that will help you land the job. Obviously, if you don’t have much work experience, or have just left school/college, then you should put all the work experience that you have, since you won’t have very much. However, you should try and make it sound like any skills that you might have will still be beneficial for the role that you are applying for.
The Art of Selling
Before you click ‘submit’, you need to ask yourself if you have focused on the right things on your CV. Are all your points relevant? The point of a CV is to sell yourself and your skills so that you can get an interview. If you are not doing this, then the chances of you getting an interview are pretty slim. You need to change this, so focus on demonstrating your achievements (rather than just putting them in a bullet point list).
You need to show them what you have done and how you have done it. Don’t just focus on what you might do, instead shine a light on what you can offer them if they hire you. You need to show them that you can benefit them and that you would be an asset to the company. Just because the job market is very competitive does not mean that you won’t get an interview. If you take on these tips, you are more likely to succeed and once you get that interview you need to make sure that you impress. Not just by the skills that you have, but how you can benefit the company. But you can impress them by making sure that you look the part as well. Check out this article here for what is the perfect interview outfit.
How many job applications did you have to make before getting an interview? Let us know in the comments.
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