CV Tips - How To Revamp Your CV In 30 Minutes
Posted 16th September 2021 • Written by Andrew Fennell on forbes.com • • • • •
In the modern fast-paced work environment, we often need to get things done quickly.
Whether it’s emailing a last-minute update email to a line manager, or dropping everything to respond to a new client request; speed can often be the determining factor in our success.
The same can be true in job hunting. If a head-hunter calls you with a dream opportunity to work for an amazing employer, but they need an updated CV before the end of the day, this could be a huge challenge.
But if you focus on making only the most necessary changes, you can update your CV within 30 minutes, whilst maintaining its effectiveness in winning interviews.
Update your personal profile
The first thing you need to do is to update your personal profile to reflect your current situation, level of experience and skills. Your profile is the first thing a recruiter will see, so it needs to make a big impact and reflect the skill and experience level that you’ve progressed to since your last CV update.
As such, you should take this opportunity to add any new in-demand skills you’ve learned, any new qualifications, and update any figures around length of experience or responsibility.
Tweaking your profile should only take a few minutes, but the impact it will have on your success will be monumental.
Tweak your core skills list
One of the quickest and simplest ways to update your CV is to revamp your core skills section, a bullet pointed list of your most in-demand attributes that sits underneath your profile. If you don’t have one, I would highly recommend adding one, as they provide a powerful quick reference point for recruiters to gain a summary of your talents.
This can be quickly edited and tailored to reflect any new skills you’ve gained in your previous roles and to also highlight any skills that are going to be relevant and important in the next position you’re applying for.
Better still, if you already have a job in mind, scan through the job description and pick out any of your key skills the employer is looking for and add these to your core skills section.
Be sure to also remove any skills that you think are outdated or no longer relevant to your career goals.
Add your latest job
Your current or most recent work experience will always be the part of your CV that recruiters spend the most time reading, so it’s crucial to add your latest role and tailor the contents towards the jobs you are applying for.
Normally you would invest a lot of time at this points, but if you need to get your CV out quickly, then focus on writing content that is relevant to your target jobs only.
Write a brief outline of the role and then list a few key responsibilities, and be sure to round the job of with some quantified achievements to show employers the impact you can bring.
Strip out any irrelevant content
Old and irrelevant jobs can be shortened or removed from the CV to save space and draw focus to the newer content. This has a big effect and it’s quick and easy to do.
Scan through your CV and look out for anything that is no longer relevant or useful to your target job. As well as past positions, this might include skills, qualifications, hobbies, interests and references.
Reducing and removing older content will ensure that you keep your CV to the recommended two A4 pages, making it easier for recruiters to digest.
Add any pandemic-related personal achievements
During the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, lots of people took the time to learn new skills and achieve new goals - many of these related to their careers.
If this was something you did, then be sure to add any new hobbies, side hustles or qualifications you’ve gained, as well as any new skills or volunteer work.
This can be particularly important if you learned something new that is related to the industry you want to work in. It’s also important if you found yourself furloughed or made redundant and you want to show how you used your time effectively to progress your career. With over 90% of recruiters using social media to find staff nowadays, it's also a good idea to add these achievements to your LinkedIn profile if you have time.
Whether you find the prospect of updating your CV to be daunting or you have found a job and you need to submit a CV quickly, revamping your CV doesn’t have to be a huge task.
By making some small changes and removing any irrelevant and outdated information, you can see results quickly. Take the opportunity to think about what skills, experience and qualifications you have gained since your last job hunt and be sure to add these.
It can be these small but powerful tweaks that make all the difference to your job search.
To read the original article click here