1. Place your degree at the top of your CV.
This is essential for recent graduates and but still a good idea for all. I look at many different CVs every day. I often have to scroll down to make sure the applicant speaks German and has qualifications in the language. An employer shouldn’t have to do this. Also, placing your degree with pride at the top looks impressive and sets the tone for the rest of your CV.
2. Leave out gap year bar jobs/babysitting/volunteer jobs if possible.
Although these are great personal experiences, the vast majority of recruiters and companies don’t read these bits. I was reading a CV recently for a German graduate who had done an internship in recruitment (great!) but this was lost on their CV. It was buried in the middle of a list of various café jobs. Most graduates have done bar work/ travelling etc, but only a tiny percentage have worked in a recruitment or a sales environment. If you have this experience, let it really shine on your CV. This is what will make you in the minority!
3. As well as making sure the CV is easy to read,
why not put it on a ‘funky’, colourful template. Use purple, yellow or whatever colour you fancy! Your CV is a reflection of you and your personality. I’d recommend trying Canva.com – they have some great templates. (Using a professional template usually makes it easy to read) I’m personally a fan of photos on the CV as well, to have my take on that old debate. An eye-catching CV makes you look creative and forward thinking. From my experience, a slightly out of the box CV often gets an interview and distract from a lack of experience.
4. Think about what is important to the reader
– as said in point 2. If you’re interested in sales, why should a company believe you can sell? If you think like I did, that having and talking about the language degree is enough to get a language job– it isn’t. Your skills and real office-based experience are the things that are enticing to employers. When you are describing your language degree on your CV, go into a lot more detail on the language side rather than the cultural module side. This is what companies look for most.
5. Describe relevant areas in detail and scrimp more on the rest.
A CV should be two pages max. Trying to describe everything you have done in the same amount of detail can take the wow factor away and dilute the message. If you have a great degree and lots of personal skills, but little work experience, describe your skills and degree in more detail. If you have bags of work, travel and extracurricular experience, focus on the key experience that will sell! Bullet point the rest.