CV Declutter – It’s Time!

It’s time for a CV declutter!

Think of a hoarder’s house, those awful cluttered homes you see on the TV shows where the experts go in and pull out all the rubbish and unnecessary items.

The stuff has accumulated for years, sometimes the hoarder just can’t seem to get rid of anything. Valuable and important items get lost under mounds of unnecessary junk, minimising their meaning and usefulness. When the experts come in, they declutter by sorting the rubbish from the treasures and leave a room that is fresh, clean and neat, All essential and necessary items can be found easily and quickly.

Out with the old

Now think of your CV

Have you been hoarding information your entire working life, resulting in a document that includes everything from your primary school leadership programme to your hobbies, personal life and jobs from thirty years ago? When you include high school sporting achievements alongside your postgraduate degree, it minimises the value of the genuine achievements.

You can’t then try and make up for that by emphasising all the reasons you think you’re great!

Potential employers don’t want to know your opinion of yourself, they want to know what you can do for their company.  Employers want to read your CV and get a very clear mental picture of exactly what you can do for them. The reader is not interested in the history of each of your positions, why you joined the company, or how you felt about each position.

Stick to the facts and save the embellishments for the interview.

From chaos to clarity

Is it time for a CV declutter?

If you are qualified for the positions you are applying for and have experience in the field, but aren’t getting calls for interviews, it may be time to take a good, honest look at your CV.

Look at what is really there, rather than what you want to read.

I hear of people sending out two hundred or more applications without getting any responses. Before it gets to that stage, please consider that there may be some issues with your CV that are turning the employers off.

Think about the job you are applying for and the sort of person they are looking for to fill the role.

Read through your CV with new eyes and answer the following:

1. Is your CV decorated with colour, images, icons and self-rating charts

2. Would you hire yourself for the advertised position?

3. Have you provided enough information about yourself and how you meet the criteria?

4. Is the CV helping to create a mental picture of what you can do for their company?

5. Have you included any unnecessary information?

6. Is your information in clear dot points that are easy to read?

7. Is your CV two to three pages long?

8. Does it look professional?

Revamp for success