Have you ever applied for a position at a company where you can literally see yourself walking down the corridors, sitting at your desk and being a part of the team? A job that is 'made for you'? You have all the right skills and experience and still you hear nothing from them. Why is that?
The first impression a potential employer or recruitment consultant will have of you is your CV. This will not only give them an overview of your experience but also show how much effort you will put into your work. Your CV is what sells you to a potential new employer before meeting them face to face. A badly composed CV will not only exclude you from the interview process, but will also tarnish your name in the industry.
Here are a few simple guidelines to follow that will ensure that your potential employer and recruitment consultant take you seriously so that you can improve your chances of securing that all important interview for your dream job.
Steps to take
To achieve this you firstly have to make your CV easy to read. Time is valuable and most of the time the reason why people recruit is to make their own work load lighter. Keep it simple, punchy and to the point.
Start your CV with personal information such as your name, surname, ID number, sex and contact details. Names and ages of children you may have are not important. If you are not a citizen of the country, state what visa and work permit you have and when it will expire. An indication of where you live, languages, if you have a valid driver's licence, a car and dependants.
Employment history is the most important part of your CV as it indicates whether or not you have the experience required for the position applied for. Begin with the most recent position. State the name of the company, industry, position's title, duration of employment and reason for leaving the position. If there were periods that you were unemployed, indicate how you occupied yourself during that time.
Responsibilities are the daily, weekly, monthly and annual tasks of the position. Keep it concise and preferably in bullet points. Indicate if you have managed people and how many people were reporting to you. If you had targets, indicate what your targets were and what you achieved per month over the past six months. Rather indicate more responsibilities than not enough; the point you may decide to exclude may be exactly what they're looking for. State your achievements! Companies want to employ achievers and your CV is the best tool to brag about yourself, use it.
Give a clear breakdown of your education and qualifications. List the educational institutions you attended, the qualifications achieved together with the subjects and the year in which you qualified. If you did not complete the course, indicate to which level you completed it and reason for not completing.
Your CV should reflect who you are. Introduce your own individual style, but there are a few don'ts with regards to this. Keep the format easy to read and use a black font. The content of the CV is more important than the graphics you use. There is a common myth that a CV should only be two pages long. Only keep it to two pages if they ask for it, but rather put more useful information into your CV than losing out on an interview because you did not include all the relevant information in your CV.
Most importantly, be honest! You will lose the interview or the position if the potential employer or recruitment consultant believes you have not been honest in your CV.
Once you have applied for a position, follow up with a phone call. This will show that you are serious about the position
If applying for a position via e-mail, keep the introduction formal and to the point. Address your e-mail to the correct person. If you're not sure who the correct person is, call the company to verify the spelling of the name, surname and title. Keep your e-mail to a brief summary of your experience, the value you feel you can add to the company and that you are interested in attending an interview.
Advice
If you are unsure about your CV, contact a recruitment agency. Says Karin Jooste - marketing recruitment consultant at RecruitMI: “We want to make sure that you find your dream job. We are here to assist and advise you through the recruitment process. Be honest, and include as much relevant information as possible.”
In summary, your CV is a reflection of the person you are. Make it stand out from the rest. Keep it professional, relevant, informative and give the potential employer an understanding of what you do on a day-to-day basis, as well as what you're capable of doing. This will give them a good understanding of what they would have to train you on and what skills you already have.
By following these steps and being true to yourself, you'll only have success in nailing that dream job!
RecruitMI
RecruitIT Solutions
RecruitFin
58 Thembi Place
Calderwood Road
Lonehill
(011) 465 3360
Office hours: Mon-Fri 8am - 5pm
Karin@recruitmi.co.za
Lisa@recruitit.co.za
Ryan@recruitfin.co.za
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