Tailor your CV

One of the things to do when applying for a job is to consider the application from the recruiters perspective. They’ll have a brief from a client which will say they’re looking for a “Sales Manager” for instance, and then they’ll list the “essential skills” followed by some “nice to haves”.

When applying for a job you need to look at your CV as a flexible document that you can tailor for specific applications. For this example, in the Profile you would call yourself a “Sales Manager” and then make sure your Key Skills is a fit for the essentials. That way the recruiter is ticking off the fact that you fit what they’re looking for as they read through the Profile and Key Skills. The “nice to haves” can then either be in the Profile or they can be in a short covering letter.

If you don’t have a Profile and a Key Skills section, you may need to re-evaluate your CV!

Most recruiters are relatively inexperienced as staff turnover is high in the recruitment industry and you have to make it easy for them to spot the good candidates!