So you’ve come to the end of your higher education qualification and you’re starting to think about kick starting your career. How can you make sure your CV is fit for the employment market? Here are the top tips from the Platinum Education Services team!
Professional experience comes first
Situate your listings of professional work experience towards the top of your CV. Your experience from the workplace (regardless of whether you’ve held in paid or voluntary positions) will be the first thing that potential employers want to know more about.
Put the emphasis on your skills
Within your outline for each professional position, emphasis your transferable skills. Where possible, match your skills and achievements from each role to the desirable qualities listed in the vacancy you’re applying for.
Even if you’ve not had much (or any) professional experience before, you can still list your education with an emphasis on these employability skills. For example, within your qualification you will have demonstrated attention to detail, time management, and been result-driven.
Tailor your CV to the vacancy
Where possible, spend extra time adapting your CV specifically for each vacancy you’re applying for. Read and understand the desirable qualities and skills each employer is looking for, and use your experience and education to indicate that you possess these skills. If you have room, you could even add a “profile” sentence at the top of your CV, outlining your main skills and your career ambitions.
Remember, your CV should be no longer that 1-2 pages in length in size 11 or 12 font. Make sure that you still keep everything you write on your CV brief and concise, using bullet points or lists where needed to make your information easier to digest.
If you’re writing your CV from scratch or are submitting a CV for an academic course, take a look at our past blog post about CV writing.
For more information on preparing your CV for the employment market, get in touch with the Platinum Education Services team today.