What would make us the best recruitment agency in Tunbridge Wells / Kent for candidates? A CV-writing guide? It’s your lucky day………………… Keep reading........................

CV’s are your personal marketing tool!

In the hiring process, CV shortlisting is a crucial early stage. In today’s market, where ‘core business’ job adverts can easily receive over 100 applicants per one, ensuring your CV stands out is hugely important in securing yourself an interview.

Therefore, we are bringing to you a short step-by-step guide on writing a commercially-appropriate, well written, accurate CV suited best to job vacancies in the Kent area.

' FORMATTING YOUR CV’

Why is it that the formatting of your CV is our first key point?

In a world where hiring managers have less time than ever before, skimming CVs is one of the easiest ways to regain some precious time…

On average, hiring managers spend 15 seconds looking at a CV. Formatting such as font, style and spacing is the first thing they will notice.

So, how can you optimise yours?

• Keep the font professional - our favourites are… Tahoma, Calibri, Calibre Light, Arial, Helvetica, Avenir.
• Font sizing, keep it from 10-12…
• Spacing… Your whole CV should fit on 1-3 pages, for more junior hires this should be 1, for the most senior, 3.
• Big blocks of text are never easy to read - the goal is to find the balance between key, useful information and ‘too much’.
• Order of text - use your intuition! For more junior candidates or those professions where your qualifications are particularly highly valued, these should be closer to the top- as this is where fastest meets the eye.

P ersonal Profile

Next, a personal profile... 

Do:

• Include one! Keep it in full sentences/bullet points;
• Focus on your skills, strengths and competencies (in a work-based context!);
• Tell us about your ambitions, goals and key desires moving forward in an opportunity…

Don’t:

• Let it take up more than 6 lines (at the maximum!);
• Over-personalise it - keep it formal and focused on yourself professionally;
• Be afraid to be specific!- The more specific the better!

Ultimately, personal profiles are key as they are the main opportunity that a hiring manager/recruiter will have to identify your more intangible and unquantifiable skills and desires outside of your professional experiences.

Key Skills Sections

Key Skills: Should you include one?

Our Answer: Your Choice! In some cases, yes, in others, your decision!

In some industries, where specific nuanced skills are valued highly (software developers or or sales people or senior accounts/finance professionals for example) it is a good idea. Similarly, if you work within a project led industry such as graphic design, architecture or building surveying, an idea of your projects is certainly handy to include. However, if you are just repeating your personal profile or generalising with phrases such as ‘good customer service’ or ‘excellent administrator’ this is not adding any value to your job search…

Equally, if your key skills are taking up space that pushes your CV over the nearest page this is something to avoid/edit out!

Career Experience

• Write this in reverse chronological order ie recent experience at the top;
• List the dates of employment and include short, concise explanations for career gaps;
• Bullet point your key responsibilities and achievements (don’t use full sentences, is our preference!);
• Focus on relevant roles to your industry / role applying for.

Education and Qualifications

• Again, reverse chronological order is preferable;
• Any modules or grades which are notably high scoring, or directly relevant, should be identified specifically;
• Don’t be afraid to use bold text to demonstrate Grade, Qualification Type or Academic Institution;
• Focus on the most relevant!- Whilst it is great that you might have done a vocational course, if you are applying for an accounts role, it is adding no value… Use your intuition to select only the relevant, value-adding qualifications that you have achieved, relative to the role you seek.

Hobbies and Interests

• Include! For most roles, and interviews, hobbies and interests represent excellent talking points and if for example you are applying for a financial services job in Tunbridge Wells, your interest/hobby in keeping up-to-date with finance-related news and current affairs is only beneficial! Similarly if you are applying to work in FMCG, a passion/interest in a relevant product industry will be hugely useful!

Personal Details

For recruiters and hiring managers there is nothing quite like a CV with no details on it. Being a local recruiter, a key part of our duty to clients is delivering the best available LOCAL candidates. So those without a location, and sometimes even no phone number or email address (yes, that does really happen), are really problematic.

Whether you put them with your name at the top, in the header, footer or end of document, please don’t forget to include your personal details!

Conclusions

Overall, CVs represent an opportunity. On every job search, CV’s offer the chance to differentiate yourself in the minds of the hiring manager / recruiter and ultimately to better your chances of securing the right role for you. Writing CV’s can be difficult especially considering that different roles require nuanced changes, and different readers will have slightly different expectations… However, follow this guide, and use our free consultative help, and you will be sure to be best placed to secure your dream job in our local area (Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Kings Hill, Orpington, Maidstone, Crowborough)…!

To arrange a *free* consultation as part of support on your current job search, contact us on the office telephone lines: Tunbridge Wells 01892 540054, Sevenoaks 01732 746604, Kings Hill 01732 920630. Alternatively send us your CV here.