With youth unemployment levels pushing one million, you don’t need us to tell you how fiercely competitive the graduate jobs market is these days. Getting overlooked in the application process is an all too common lament from newly qualified university leavers. Record numbers of applicants each vying for the same role means your CV has to demonstrate in 15 seconds or less, how you’re not only perfectly attuned to the employer’s needs, but that you’ve got infinitely more to offer than the hundreds of other hopefuls. Sounds like a pretty tall order, doesn’t it? Not if you follow these guidelines.
There are four essential elements your CV must set out to show:
1. What position are you seeking and what are you qualified to do that will be of value to your potential employer?
2. What future results do you anticipate producing for your new employer that will set you apart from the other candidates?
3. What skills do you possess that will enable you to produce these results?
4. What successes have you achieved in the past that back up your claims?
Any professional CV writer worth their salt will tell you how important it is to analyse your chosen role and identify the potential employer’s bottom line needs. Once these have been established you need to tailor your CV accordingly. It’s not a case of simply listing your achievements and hoping for the best; it should be a strategic and highly targeted approach. Simply but effectively, your CV needs to demonstrate how you, your skills and your history are perfectly matched to the requirements of the role. It’s important to focus on your ‘differentiating factors’; emphasising your unique characteristics and why, out of all the applicants, you deserve to make the final grade. From thereon in your CV becomes your very own finely-tuned marketing tool, clearly demonstrating how you stand out head and shoulders from the crowd. What’s more, having a clear picture of your achievements is invaluable at interview. It enables you to clearly articulate your past successes and how you believe you can add value to your future employer.
Professional Graduate CV Writing from City CV
At City CV our professional CV writers have extensive graduate CV writing experience. We help our clients to identify past achievements even when their work experience is limited. We deliver results and consistently exceed expectations.