Tips to make your CV or résumé more attractive

As a university student, you’ve probably heard by now how important it is to have a good CV or résumé. It’s basically your first impression to a potential new employer, and can make or break your chance of scoring an interview.

In the digital world, the competition for jobs are ever-increasing. More and more companies are using job search websites and online recruiters instead of more traditional forms of job advertising. such as Help Wanted ads in the newspaper and on bulletin boards.

Plus, technology has made it much easier for online recruiters to filter out résumés that don’t match their exact requirements.

Even if you e-mail an employer directly, there could be several other résumés they need to go through for the very same job.

Among the thousands of applicants, how do you make your résumé stand out? Read on for a few tips.

Turn it into a video résumé

A video resume is another way to get ahead of competition.

It’s particularly useful for performance-based work such as acting, teaching or presenting. It’s also good to show how well you speak and present yourself for jobs that involve talking to clients, communicating and selling.

However, a video résumé can be risky and can easily go down wrong if not done well. You don’t want to embarrass yourself or get rejected because of a poor quality video!

So if you’re planning to submit a video résumé, put some real effort into it. Try asking a friend who has film making experience for help. Prepare a script, practise and make several trial videos before finalising.

Ask your friends and family for feedback before you send it out and make edits accordingly. Also, keep it short – around 60 to 90 seconds.

It will be a lot of work and may take up time, but it could be well worth it in the long run!

Watch the video below for an example of a professional video résumé, as featured on 5 of the World’s Most Creative Video Resumes.

Hyperlink

It’s 2019, and your résumé is most likely going to be read on a computer.

Adding hyperlinks to your résumé can give you an edge, as employers can potentially find out more about you by browsing your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, online projects and portfolios, personal blogs, or whatever it is you feel is relevant to your professional career.

Use industry keywords

In the digital age of recruitment, many companies use a filtering system that scans your résumé for keywords.

Taking the time to tailor and tweak your résumé to add in industry keywords can help ensure your résumé doesn’t get rejected. If you’re unsure what keywords to use, read the job description carefully and pick some up from there.

But don’t overdo it! Saturating your résumé with keywords will make it look less genuine.

Be creative

An example of a creatively-designed resume that’s also clean and easily readable. Source: Shutterstock

There are ways to be creative with your résumé without it looking messy or unprofessional.

If you’ve graduated with a creative major such as graphic design or photography, this is an extra opportunity to show your skills through templates and imagery.

For other majors, you can still use some creative tricks to up your résumé game and make it easier on the eye.

Some examples use cool formats, infographics, colour blocking, themes and personal photos.

You can also add sidebars and boxes to organise your information instead of your résumé being a laundry list of achievements and previous job experience. Just make sure it still looks clean and is easily readable.

You don’t need a background in design to have a creative résumé either. Why not try résumé-building websites such as Canva and Clean CV Resume II to help you out?

Keep it short and sweet

It may be tempting to include all your skills, high school accolades, internships and more in your résumé, but it’s recommended to keep it brief – especially for fresh graduates.

Recruiters don’t have time to read every single word or browse through every page, and prefer something they can easily scan, so keep it to one page if possible.

Use bullet points instead of lengthy sentences, and keep your biodata as short as possible. There’s no need to add information that an employer isn’t required to know, such as age and marital status.

You can also tailor your information for each job you’re applying for, removing certain achievements that don’t fit, leaving you more space to embellish on the relevant ones.

If you’re still finding it hard to make it all fit, try reducing the margins and making the font smaller (but no smaller than 12 points).