Your CV is a very important document; with it rest your hopes and dreams
for the future - that next step up the career ladder, a better position, more
money, new challenges, etc. Your CV therefore has to represent the best you have
to offer if you do not want to miss out on that job you saw which was 'perfect'
for you.
A point to remember here is that recruitment Agencies tend to use good
quality scanning software and pick up and search for buzzwords and key skills,
make sure you use these points in your CV.
These days employers often receive a lot of CVs for each advertised
position - jobs advertised in national papers can often attract hundreds of
applicants. So your CV has to be just that little bit special to stand out if
you want to obtain interviews. The good news (for you) is that most people do
not know how to write a CV and only spend a short time preparing a CV. Writing
professional CVs is a skill, which these people have not learnt.
Of course your CV can continue to work in your favour even after it has
obtained an interview for you. It can help you at an interview by carefully
focusing the interviewer's mind on your good points and on your achievements.
Once you have left the interview it will continue to work in your favour as the
interviewer will probably reread it before making a decision, either on who
should be invited to the second interview stage or who the job should be offered
to.
When it comes to salary negotiations a well written CV can help. If your
CV conveys your full worth you are likely to get a higher salary offer than you
might have done with a poorer CV. So do not skimp on the time you spend on
writing a CV as it will probably be a false economy.
