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You see or hear of a vacancy or job opportunity and think it would be a great idea to submit your resume. But does your CV stack up? How well do you know your resume? And how does it compare among the other hundreds, if not thousands, of CV’s competing for attention?

Your resume is your first opportunity to impress your prospective employer and this initial impact will determine whether you make it through to the next stage or not. Yet, while running individual or group career sessions, I’m surprised to see how little attention or importance is placed on a resume.

Competition is fierce and if you ignore some of the following essential points, then you run the risk of missing out on some great opportunities.

The Do’s and Don’ts

When a prospective employer begins to review the countless resumes received, they spend as little as 20 to 30 seconds reviewing each CV and if they don’t see what they’re looking for almost immediately, then they move on to the next resume. So…..

Keep it Professional

There is nothing worse when reviewing resumes than coming across those which ignore obvious professional mistakes. It is very important to keep your CV always looking professional and this includes avoiding the use of slang anywhere in its content. Using a photo of yourself is not essential or something I would recommend and including one of you sipping a cocktail while sitting by the pool, is even less recommended.

Clear & Easy to Read

Employers always highlight how difficult it can be to read some resumes and their immediate response is to drop those resumes into the ‘no’ pile. Submitting your CV with spelling mistakes, bad grammar, the overuse of various types of fonts along with including multiple tables and columns, will only encourage your prospective employer to avoid you at all cost.

Make sure you’re Consistent

Knowing what content to include in your CV is critical and while you always need to focus your attention on a positions’ essential criteria, the layout you choose to deliver your message will also have an impact on your likelihood of success. Always be consistent in content and layout. Imagine a resume where every page looks different because the detail or amount of content differs and the layout is never the same between pages.

Be Honest

While I encourage you to tailor your resume to highlight those parts of your experience or qualifications in order to meet the needs of the position, be honest about your work history. Remember, only the truth and nothing but the truth because you will be found out eventually. Nothing worse when you get to the interview and your answers don’t match up with your CV. Having been involved in interviews where this has happened, it’s like watching a train wreck and it quickly becomes a very awkward moment for everyone, not least of which the highly embarrassed candidate.

Quality not Quantity

Keep your resume to a certain length and while there are differing views on the ideal length of a CV, anywhere between 3 to 6 pages, depending on years of experience, would be ideal. While it’s important to be concise, it is more important to focus on the quality of the information you include. This focus on quality will also have an impact on the length of your CV and take away the possibility of submitting your version of War & Peace.

Your resume should always be a work-in-progress and while there are many other aspects of your CV which demand special attention, like ensuring your social media profiles match up with your resume, these above-mentioned points form the basis for long term success.