More CV Improvement Tips from a Recruiter

When it comes to job hunting, a well formatted CV is extremely important. We realize that many job seekers struggle to get their CV format 100% right. If you’re one of those job seekers, don’t stress, we’re going to help you get one step closer to your dream job with more CV improvement tips today.

We asked Job Seekers to e-mail us their CV’s on the Job Mail Facebook page and 10 of the CV’s we received were selected and reviewed by a recruiter. This time Michelle Gouws from Centurion based recruiter Migo Recruitment Specialists was on board to help out job seekers with their CV’s . Here are the CV improvement tips that she has for all the job seekers out there.

When you’re setting up your CV, take note of the following:

• When you’re stating your career objectives, be clear about what your objectives are and make sure that the spelling and grammar is correct. Bad spelling and grammar on your CV is NOT a good thing. Run a spelling and grammar check after you’ve typed out your CV or ask a friend to read through it.

• Make sure that you add ALL relevant fields when it comes to the personal information section on your CV. Make sure that you include your date of birth, address, whether or not you’re willing to relocate (yes or no), your marital status (Single, Married or Divorced), if you have your own transport or not and a section for the languages that you read, speak, write and understand.

• When setting up your education section make sure that you include the subjects that you had in matric, your achievements and your computer knowledge. Try specifying different programs and software packages (i.e. Microsoft Office, Mozilla Firefox, Pastel) in the computer knowledge section.

• When listing your employment history, don’t just randomly state your jobs, start with your current job (or the job that you’ve had last) and work backwards through time. Establishing a timeline in this section is important.

Here are some more CV improvement tips from Michelle:

• When listing your references always include your supervisor’s name and surname and a landline number where they can be reached. Most employers / recruiters will only contact your references if there’s a landline listed.

• When listing the companies where you’ve worked make sure that you include the “duration” field and specify from when to when you worked for the company, e.g. “From July 2000 to June 2001”. Also include the “duties” field and list all the tasks that you had to do in the position you were appointed in. And don’t forget to include the “reason for leaving” field. Be honest and give this section a professional look.

• Be thorough when it comes to your employment history. Include EVERYTHING that you’ve done after you’ve matriculated, even if you were jobless and at home. Don’t leave gaps in your history. Employers want to know when you did what. Stating experience will score brownie points with potential employers and recruiters. So in short, experience = good, gaps in your employment history = bad.

There you have it, some more CV improvement tips from a recruiter.  Big Thanks to Michelle from Migo Recruitment Specialists for taking her time to review the CV’s that we sent to her.

If you’ve found these tips useful, feel free to spread the word about them on Twitter and Facebook. Sharing is caring after all.