Seven questions to ask about your CV

As we head into the holiday break, you’re probably thinking about relaxing in the garden or on the beach and enjoying that box of tasty Christmas chocolate! But quiet times during the holiday can be a great time to get a head start on planning for the following year.

If you are thinking about job hunting, now is the perfect time to review your CV and ensure it is up-to-date.

We’ve put together a quick checklist of the key areas to review to get your CV into shape.

Seven questions to ask when reviewing your CV

#1 Are your basic details up to date?

Your CV is often where recruiters go when they need contact details, so ensure your email address and phone number are up to date.

If you have a preferred name or preferred pronouns, include these, too, to help recruiters know how to address you.

#2 Are you adding details you don’t need?

In the past, it’s been traditional to add extra details to a CV, like your date of birth or whether you are a smoker. Those details aren’t necessary on a modern CV, though, and could, in fact, put you at a disadvantage.

Putting something like your date of birth and revealing your age on your CV can open you up to conscious or unconscious bias from the recruiter. If they feel you are too old or too young for the role you may miss out on an interview where you could have sold your potential despite your age.

#3 Do you have a summary statement?

Recruiters are potentially sifting through hundreds of CVs. So a quick summary statement at the beginning highlighting your key skills and achievements and what you can bring to the table is a good way of introducing yourself and hooking them to read further. You can expand on these details more in your cover letter.

#4 Is your previous experience section complete, up to date and relevant?

Did you write your CV before you got your current job and haven’t looked at it since, forgetting to add that job to the list? Perhaps you’ve listed each and every job you’ve ever had right from the paper round you had as a school kid?

Getting the right number and selection of roles in this section is essential, especially if you are in the middle or later stages of your career and have plenty of experience to share.

Be selective in your job history. Only go back as far as you think is relevant and consider adding more detail for some jobs than others. For some, you might only list the job title and dates you worked there, but for others, you might want to include a list of responsibilities and achievements.

If you are at the beginning of your career journey and you don’t have a lot of actual jobs to list yet, consider whether you have voluntary roles or internships that would be relevant. Or look for skills to highlight in the more general jobs you’ve had that would transfer to the career path you are looking for.

This is one area of your CV that you might tailor for different jobs so it can be handy to keep a separate file of all your jobs and what you did in each one, and then you can adapt your list as needed.

#5 Have you listed achievements and outcomes in your employment section?

Many people use the work experience section simply to list the job title, the dates they worked there and their responsibilities. But you could be missing a trick if you aren’t listing any successes you had or the impact you made.

Tangible results can show a recruiter that you can make a difference in a role. Here are some examples:

• Instead of just listing fundraising as one of your responsibilities, highlight a fundraising campaign you managed or put a dollar figure on how much you helped the organisation raise during your time there.

• Instead of listing social media management, highlight how much you grew a social channel like Facebook or LinkedIn over time.

• Instead of listing HR give some examples of HR problems you have helped to solve for your employers.

#6 Do you have additional information that rounds you out as a person?

This is a sometimes controversial section of a CV - personal skills and hobbies. Some people believe it’s unnecessary because you should be focusing on work. Others think it helps to create a more rounded picture of an applicant and gives an insight into personality. And of course, while it may endear you to a recruiter if they share your love of a hobby, it could also have the opposite effect if they don’t.

So we’d say this section is a personal choice. And perhaps limit it to hobbies or interests more relevant to the roles you are applying for.

#7 Is it formatted well?

Make the recruiter’s job easier and keep your CV simple.

Forgo all the additions like a photo or a fancy font. You might think it makes you stand out, but it can just be a barrier to the recruiter finding the information they really need.

Choose a simple font and a font size that is big enough to read comfortably but doesn’t mean your CV stretches to more than a couple of pages. If you can’t achieve that without a teeny tiny font size revisit points 2 and 3 and see if you have anything you can reduce or cut out.

Make sure the different sections are clear by bolding things like section titles or job titles within your experience or using a slightly bigger font.

Save your file in a format that the majority of people will be able to open - a PDF is a good option.

And please don’t forget to check for typos!

BONUS TIP: Some recruiters, especially larger companies, use automated processes like applicant tracking systems (ATS) to do the initial paper sift. Many ATS use keywords from the job description or a skills list to screen the CVs as they are submitted and then collate matching CVs.

So it can be helpful to look at job descriptions for the type of job you are keen to land and ensure a few common words and skills are in your CV. 

Just make sure that you don’t try and game the system too much and end up sounding like a robot yourself!

Once you’ve asked and answered these seven questions, your CV should be in good shape for your next application. Don’t forget to check out our jobs board when you are looking for your next role. Happy job hunting!