Hello! And happy #WorldHelloDay! In honour of this holiday, we thought we’d help you make a lasting impression with any potential future employer by saying hello properly with the perfect CV.

Think of your CV as an atlas, a roadmap of your skills, experience and just as importantly, your personality.

After all, Curriculum Vitae literally translated is “direction of life”. #WeLoveFacts

When applying for that dream job, your CV is your first impression – so it needs to stand out.

A well-written CV will be something that paints a picture of you, detailing your achievements and future aspirations to get you that all-important interview.

Here’re some basic factors to consider:

• You have 10 seconds to impress the reader, sell yourself using positive language that emphasizes your key skills

• Demonstrate experience and achievements.

• Short snappy sentences are easy to read and grab attention – bullet points.

• Here’s an inside tip – our recruitment consultants have to write a very concise report about you when putting you forward for a role. What would you like them to include?

• Include information that is consistent with the role you are applying for. If this role is for a graphic designer, you don’t need to mention that you worked in a pub ten years ago.

• Remove the personalisation such as “I”, “my”, “our” and “we” and write like a journalist in your approach.

Think about what strengths you need to emphasize. If you’re suffering the life hangover that is just finishing university, you might want to highlight your knowledge and education. If you’re looking to change career, it might be the transferable skills you’ve amassed over the years?

Opening Statement

The employer probably isn’t bothered about where you live, how old you are or what school you went to. What they do care about is how well suited you are to the job you’re applying for. Try to create a brief sketch of yourself that positions you at the right level so that they know straight away you’re a relevant candidate for the job.

Your History

Here’s where the roadmap comes into play. You’re looking to build a story of your career in which the strongest, most recent experience has priority and the rest of the story goes back in time without repeating the minor roles over and over.

Do you want tips? Happy to oblige:

• Dates and employment should be easily found and consistent.

• Lead with achievements, use active verbs and positive language.

• Follow up all claims with proven examples be quantitative as well as qualitative.

• Include awards or recognition received for work well done, together with professional memberships and relevant training.

• Ensure every line sells you at your best.

• Prioritise relevant content.

• Take ownership and use words such as determined, implemented, created, devised, coordinated and conceived.

• Include figures like the number of staff you managed or budget size and achievements against targets or budgets.

• Focus on what you have to offer the employer rather than listing what you have done.

You’re awesome, aren’t you? Well, that’s what your CV should demonstrate so it might not be a good idea to mention things that you’re not so good at. They could count against you when the employer might not have considered them anyway!

Other Content

The really, really important stuff to demonstrate is how perfect you are for the role. But what about the business? Most companies won’t hire candidates that won’t fit in with their teams or culture, no matter how well they could do the job.

Consider including a short section on your hobbies and interests and make your CV interesting to look at with some simple graphics content. Let the employer see who you are, not just what you can do.

Good luck!