My top 5 CV hacks - The Mid-Career Edition

If you are planning to make a change in your career or you are struggling to get traction with the CV you have, here are my top 5 CV hacks that might just re-fresh your thinking when it comes to building, updating or tweaking your CV.

1. Put time and effort into your professional summary for every application

Load it with keywords that align it with the job description of the role you are applying for. Use it to describe yourself as the perfect candidate for them – reflect their language, values and aims.

Finish with a sentence to describe your career aspirations that align fully with the organisation and the role.

2. Insert a Core Skills section

This goes directly below your Summary and is perfect for covering off even more of the all-important keywords. If you don’t have it already, this is a quick-win.

Make sure you are reflecting the language used in the job description and change the order of skills for each application based on the order they appear.

Don’t waste space on bullet points, do this:

3.  Consider using a Skills-based CV

I’m a huge fan of this CV structure and here’s why:

·        You can spotlight all your key achievements on Page 1

·        It allows you to group your achievements under relevant headings

·        It’s super easy to tweak, edit and re-order to tailor to a specific job

·        It works especially well if you are making a career pivot or have had a break in your career

4.  Don’t  include everything you have ever done

It’s tempting to want to try and include everything you have done in your whole career in your CV, but it is vital to put yourself in the hiring manager’s shoes. Think about what is important to them – they specifically want to know what skills, strengths and expertise you have to do the job they are trying to fill.

When you list your career history, remember space is of a premium on your CV, there is no requirement to go back further than 10 – 15 years unless roles beyond this point are notable or relevant.

5. This one’s a bit controversial – remove dates!

Obviously, I don’t mean all dates, but there are a few reference points on your CV where it is not relevant.

• In the education section, just state your qualification details (you don’t need to state them on LinkedIn either)

• Any other accreditation or professional qualifications do not require a date either

For example:

• As mentioned above, you don’t need to include your whole career history dating back to when you graduated

• Instead of stating ‘Financial Services professional with 20 years of experience’  try ‘ ‘Financial Services professional with extensive experience in ….’. Amplify strengths, experience and skills rather than length of service.

Bonus Hack!

Here’s one more for luck! Remember AI is your friend. Whilst I am not advocating you ask AI to write your whole CV from scratch, it can be a brilliant partner to help you with phrasing, impact and keywords.  If you are interested in exploring this more, I have written a Beginners Guide to AI to Land Your Dream Role, which you can download here for FREE.

If you’ve found these hacks useful, why not come along to my free live masterclass on How to Create a Brilliant CV. I run these several times a year and you can find out the next date here.