We are living in a fast, digital age, where presentation is often considered to be unimportant and the subject gets all the attention. Does it apply to your Curriculum Vitae as well? Are the only important aspects of a CV the qualifications and experiences of the candidate? Is how the CV is actually written, designed and formatted nearly irrelevant? Let’s take a look.
A CV is More than Just a List of Qualifications
While one may debate that the qualifications and achievements are the only things on a CV that really matters, they would be wrong. Consider the fact that when you are applying for a specific job, almost every one of the candidates has the necessary qualifications already. Sure, some candidates will always have more experience, education or achievements, but what if it comes down to a few prospective candidates with similar qualifications?
If the HR must choose a handful of CVs from the bundle to send in for the final interview, which CVs do you think will get more precedence in such a scenario?
A properly formatted, well-structured and uniquely designed CV will be preferred, because when the qualifications are similar, they don’t matter anymore. It’s the attention with which the document is created that makes all the difference at that point.
Standing Out is Possible with a Clever Design
As already mentioned, the HR team sifts through many CVs before they can shortlist them, which means, you will want your CV to grab their attention.
Even before they can get around to looking at the text, grab their attention by using a subtle but uniquely different design. Use a bit of your creativity and make sure that your CV stands out from the generic formats, preferably in a subtle manner. As to how you can do that, we will get to it in the next point.
How Should You Format Your CV Then?
There are a number of extremely variable choices here, and without knowing anything about the particular post or field that you are applying for, it’s impossible to provide any valid suggestions.
That being said, though, designing the ideal CV is not a problem at all, because you can simply find the appropriate CV templates, edit them and download or print them out in just a few minutes on My Perfect CV.
Remember how we discussed the advantage of using unique designs to make your CV stand out from a bunch of others? Well that’s precisely what My Perfect CV will allow you to do. The site will guide you appropriately depending on your field so that you don’t end up choosing something that’s inappropriate for the post.
A CV is still relevant in today’s job market and always will be, because it introduces the candidate to the people who are looking to hire. And, contrary to what some may say, how your CV is written and designed does matter. It’s the first thing that will represent the candidate, and first impressions go a long way in getting the job.