Although the economic recovery is helping to reinvigorate the UK job market once more, you’ll still face stiff competition for any potential jobs you wish to apply for. In order to stand out from the crowd it’s important that your CV leaps off the pile or pops out from the employer’s monitor as soon as they first glance at it. Take a look at these three simple techniques for helping your CV pop...

One-page wonder

With hundreds of applicants to process, most employers like to get the job done as quickly as possible. It usually won’t take more than a glance for the HR department to decide whether your CV makes the ‘maybe’ pile or is filed under ‘B’ for bin. Excessively long CVs are simply too time-consuming to be read, so try your best to keep it to one page or two at the very most.

Relevance

Your CV may sell your abilities and attributes perfectly, but unless it’s relevant to the post at hand you’re unlikely to impress your would-be employer. Lose any extraneous detail and keep it focussed – does a potential employer really want to hear about your life-affirming trip to Malaysia, or would you be better off using the same space to expand on your suitability for the role?

Formatting

It may seem like a fairly unimportant aspect of your CV, but trust us when we say that formatting can make all the difference. If your CV is a sea of awkwardly structured text with paragraphs and bullet points vying with one another for attention, it doesn’t give a very good impression of your suitability as a candidate. Keep the formatting simple and clean so that your CV looks good and is easy to read.

These three tips can help your CV pop before the employer has even read the first sentence. Keep an eye on the Renovo blog for more CV tips and career advice!