How to Write a Clear CV or Résumé

Understanding the employer’s needs

There are many factors that can affect your chances of getting hired, recruitment personnel have a broad range of styles, biases and approaches in how they select candidates for a position and so advice cannot be universal, there is no absolute right approach to applying for a job (although there are many absolute wrong approaches). Ultimately, the clincher might be that you share an interest with the person reviewing applications or that they simply reviewed your application before other equally valid applicants and decided they liked you.

Accuracy and presentation

The most important step is to ensure that your resume is absolutely free from typos, grammatical errors, and reads logically. Admittedly, I have some bias in this regard, but sincerely consider having a professional resume proofreading service review your resume, as an outside perspective can often help root out basic errors and inconsistencies that could negatively affect your application.

Tailoring your application

The second step is to reflect the specific candidate requirements listed in the job specification. Many people might consider this of primary importance, but modern Human Resource departments have an unfortunate habit of listing skills beyond the remit of the job being advertised in an effort to pre-emptively weed out lower-calibre applicants in a manner that is ultimately self-defeating for them. Overqualified applicants may feel stymied in a lower position and look around for better roles in other companies, leading to high turnover, good-fit candidates can be put off by extraneous requirements that they do not match, and people who specialise in areas added for the sake of padding out the role requirements and are less capable in the job’s key roles either struggle in the position upon getting the job or realise that the job is unsuitable at interview, which wastes both their time and that of the company.

That said, another habit by over-stretched Human Resources departments is to search applications for certain key phrases clipped directly from the job spec such as ‘team player’ or ‘good attention to detail’. Woe betide the unlucky applicant who describes themselves as ‘excellent at collaboration’ or ‘meticulous’. This is an extremely divisive issue as some recruiters get annoyed at (and immediately reject) applicants who just copy and paste chunks of the job spec, whereas others reject those who do not.

The only reasonable solution I have found is to try to anticipate the key search phrases recruiters will use from the job spec and try and weave them naturalistically into your application essay; again, the most reliable way of doing this is to get a native speaker of the language in the country to double-check the contents of your essay, such as the good folk employed by a resume proofreading service or a reliable friend.