According to a quantitative eye-tracking study conducted by recruitment firm The Ladders,   recruiters spend on average just six seconds skimming through your CV and that’s why it’s so important to ensure your CV pops… and quickly.

While the objective is to stand out from the hundreds of other people vying for the same position, there’s some information contained in your CV that’s unnecessary and just taking up space.

Nadine Rochat, founder of Red Cat Recruitment Agency, says that you’re wasting your time and that of a recruiter’s by listing things like the subjects or modules that made up your degree, schooling or other education.

Here are a few things you can tweak and ditch altogether to make your CV more attractive to recruiters.

Ditch distracting designs and photos 

Contrary to popular belief, adding a picture onto your CV doesn’t enhance it, but in fact, this is one of the quickest ways to get it put aside.

“There’s no information on a picture that an employer can potentially use – unless it’s in a discriminatory way – to make an assessment of your suitability. What information are you going to extract from that photo that’s going to help you make a decision on my capability?” argues Phiona Martin, a career coach.

The same applies to a designed CV, unless you are a designer applying for a design job, you have no business submitting a designed CV. It’s distracting and off-putting to recruiters.

Remove your address

If your address is on your CV, take it out.

It might seem innocent enough, but it could very well prejudice you. Employers might be reluctant to consider a candidate if they are not local, even if you are willing to relocate.

Change the font

Keep the font on your CV simple and clean. Using common fonts like Times New Roman, Helvetica or Arial might appear boring, but at least your CV will be more readable and less likely to get chucked out for being over the top.

Remove awards you received in the previous decade

While you want to highlight your accomplishments, you really shouldn’t be listing awards that you received at school. As a rule of thumb, your list should only go as far back as 10 years. If you’re listing awards you received further back, it can make it look like you haven’t received any recognition at all since – painting you in a bad light.

Unless the award is truly spectacular, and you feel it will make a real impact on a potential employer’s perception of you, rather leave it out.

Shorten your bullet points

As amazing as you think you are, the truth of the matter is that recruiters don’t have time to go through pages and pages of your strengths and weaknesses.

Try keep it to a maximum of seven condensed bullet points.

Source: destinyconnect

Industry: Recruitment news