Preparing your CV

What makes the perfect CV?

By Natasha Stidder

If there is a “perfect CV”, it remains a closely guarded secret, known only to a handful of “the chosen”.

In reality, of course, there is no ideal: a candidate’s beauty lies purely in the eye of the beholder. What works for one company might not work for another, so there is little chance that job-seekers can expect their CVs to hit the mark every time.

But to give themselves the best chance, they must understand the requirements of the person who will receive the CV, and decide how they want the recipient and their business to use it.

First, a CV must be tailored to reflect the company and job being applied for. A duplicated CV sent to numerous employers and recruitment consultants is easy to spot and put to one side. In an interview, a candidate should aim to convince an employer that their business is the only business worth working for. This must also be true of a CV – usually a candidate’s first introduction to the company.

Rebecca Clake, adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, believes the importance of research should never be underestimated: “You need to understand what a company is looking for,” she explains. “Investigate what current challenges it is facing, or use it as an opportunity to call HR or someone else in the business and get additional information. The more intelligence you’ve got about the role you’re applying for, the better.”

Changing the tone of a CV to reflect the language used by the company is also important. Candidates must show how they will easily fit into the culture of the company. A stuffy, formal CV is unlikely to be well-received by a company that markets itself as a young, vibrant business.

Of course no company will take a candidate seriously if the basics are missing. Time and again recruiters say the biggest failure on CVs is poor spelling and grammar. No level is immune, from inexperienced candidates to senior executives, so it is important that a second pair of eyes checks a CV before it is sent.

With more businesses requiring applicants to fill in an online form, rather than submit a CV, candidates are also advised to write their submissions using a word processor with spelling and grammar checking facilities, before copying and pasting into the form, rather than filling it in directly.

Where a CV is accepted, the recommended length continues to be two A4-sized pages. With high demand for roles, recruiters estimate that an average of 60 seconds is often given to each initial application received. This means the CV must be succinct and relevant. Less than two pages leaves recruiters struggling to form a fair view of a candidate; more than two, and important points can be missed.

The correct structure is vital. All recent roles should be displayed, and any career breaks explained, rather than left as a dubious void. It need not be strictly chronological: placing recent, most relevant experience at the top can engage a recruiter from the outset.

“Think about what you want to highlight about where you are now, and what you have achieved in previous and current roles,” says Ms Clake. “Focusing on where you’ve achieved results is going to be more powerful.”

Candidates should, however, avoid “over-egging” a CV. Long lists of projects that a person has been involved in is not attractive and wastes space that could be made for better use.

This also applies to candidates who go too far in explaining their capabilities, as Miranda Pode, consultant for EgonZhender International, the search firm, explains: “A CV gives a benchmark of facts. I want to delve into the facts, to understand what their capabilities are. It is only at interview that I’ll want to know how they went about it. When someone tries to do that for me on a CV it doesn’t work, because competencies are the colour and flavour around facts.”

As more career experience is obtained, historical roles and educational achievements become less relevant. While it can be painful, dated experiences have to “drop off the end”, but keeping a CV fresh and relevant is a vital process.

A CV is a marketing tool, and while skills are important, a person’s personality should also be allowed to shine through. The “hobbies and interests” section is as important to a recruiter as skills. Making it memorable can be essential to ensuring a CV stands out once it reaches a recruiter’s inbox, as James Callander, chief executive of FreshMinds, the search firm, explains: “Something that is key to business is attitude, and anything that can demonstrate that your attitude goes beyond the 9-5 is really important. I am much more interested in someone who has anaesthetised an elephant or who acts in their Christmas play every year than someone who is very mundane.”

All this effort goes to waste, of course, if a CV does not reach the right people. Some candidates adopt a “spray and pray” approach, says Mr Callander, which accomplishes little. Researching the best recruiters and headhunters in a specific industry sector is much more likely to be successful. By doing this, Ms Pode explains, a candidate is also likely to develop a relationship with a recruiter that they can use throughout their career, whether it be actively thinking about the next step, or a position being suggested to them out of the blue.

For more innovative candidates, a polite email to a company’s chief executive, speculatively including their CV might be an option. Mr Callander says they should not always expect a reply, but believes the extra effort can reap rewards: “If it’s something you feel very passionate about, then senior people are always looking to employ excellent staff. If it’s a company with fewer than 200 staff and you’re really good, then there is no harm in emailing a senior person in the business and explaining why you would be good for their company.”

Research conducted by the CIPD has shown this strategy is increasingly accepted. With company HR budgets tightening, research conducted in 2011 found 25 per cent of recruiters were encouraging speculative applications.

But increased competition for jobs and frustration with the job hunt can mean candidates become tempted to “embellish” their CVs. Recruiter are not blind to this, and emphasise that the CV remains a passport to interview – at which point a candidate must be ready to answer questions, under pressure, on whatever is included in their CV. As Ms Clake warns, any exaggeration is carried out at the candidate’s own peril: “It is in your own interest to get a job that matches your skills and interests, in order for you to be a credible candidate and to be a success in that job as well.”