Plenty of websites will tell you what the current trends for writing a CV are. But you want your CV to look good and leave a fine impression with potential employers, so here are five tips to help you write a better CV than everyone else.
Keep it short
When a job opening comes up, potential employers are flooded with applications. Many CVs don't even get read and are tossed without a thought. CVs that are too long to read are amongst the first to be passed up, so keep your CV short and concise.
Structure it properly and make sure your CV is easy and fast to read. Choose to put things that are memorable on your resume, such as accomplishments or experience that makes you stand out.
Be wise with your words and use text that's catchy but stay with relevant terms appropriate for the position you're applying for.
Work Backwards
The first thing that should be on the list of your work experience and job history is the most recent position you held. Potential employers don't care what you did twenty years ago - they want fresh blood and new energy in their company.
Pertinent and recent is what they'll watch for, to determine if you're suitable for the job.
Tell the Truth
We all want to present ourselves in the best light and impress potential employers. Lying or glossing over black spots on your CV isn't the way to go about doing so. If you try to cover up areas in your work history, most likely they'll be discovered later on down the line, costing you a potential job.
Look at the positive sides of less-than-desirable work history. If you were unemployed for a period, what did you do in that time? What did you learn? What did you occupy your time with? Put a spin on things and present your history in its best light.
Just The Facts
A CV isn't the place to wax poetic or to gush on about an achievement. A CV is basically a list of facts about why you're qualified for an open position in a business or company.
You want to be creative about the power words you choose to describe yourself, not about the type of fiction you can come up with to boost your appeal.
A Cover Letter?
Yes! Include a cover letter with your CV. A cover letter tells your employer your motivation for the job and presents the rationale behind your application.
A cover letter is the first thing your potential employer will see, and it introduces you more formally to the business you'd like to work for. Consider it your first 'meeting' and have your cover letter include a strong statement of your accomplishments towards the end.
Can you see how these simple steps can make all the difference to your CV? And with a success here, new doors; MORE doors, will be much more open to you.
As an active practitioner, I've seen many inexperienced article marketers submitting a large number of articles, thinking that they will see success just because of the sheer number of articles submitted. They are in for a rude shock. Because there is such a thing as a right way, and a wrong way, of implementing article marketing. Let's spend a little time to talk about the consequences of article marketing when done wrong.
First, when implemented incorrectly, article marketing is simply a waste of time. Time, being everyone's most valuable resource, once wasted cannot be recouped. Time of the Internet business owner is even more valuable, since the same time slot can be alloted to other important tasks such as product creation, research, supporting customers and so on. So if the Internet business owner wants to go into article marketing, he wants to make sure that he does it right so his time is not wasted.
When done incorrectly, many things can happen. Article submissions will be rejected by the article directories. Or if approved, nobody reads the title. And if someone reads the title, they don't follow through. And even if they follow through to the end of the article, they don't click on the links in the author resource box. And if they don't click, we know we've lost the visitor. So what's the point of submitting so many articles if we can't get an interested prospect to click through to our site? Article marketing then becomes a waste of time, effort, energy and resources.
Surely, it is beyond the scope of this article to tackle all these mistakes at once. So let's just zoom in on one, and talk about writing great article titles.
When writing article titles, choose a title that is unique. That means choosing a title that is specific, and not too general. For example, instead of choosing a title like "Grow Green Apples", choose a more specific title like "How to Grow Green Apples Even if You Are a Complete Dummy." There are a few things that go into choosing a great title. Let's break them down one by one.
First, an article title that is too general will most likely be chosen by someone else, and submitted into the article directories. Most article directories automatically reject duplicate article titles. So the submission can't even go through. If you're using article submission services, it would have been a wasted effort.
Secondly, if your article title is too general, chances are it'll be competing with millions of other search results in the search engines. This will hurt your chances of getting your articles to rank well in the search engines. Your goal, at the end of the day, is to acquire targeted visitors. So it's certainly alright to keep your article title specific, even though there are generally less searches for specific keywords. But remember, the more targeted your visitors are, the more likely you're going to convert them into customers.
Finally, an interesting article title will beat a general title any time. Being more specific, it naturally attracts more eyeballs and attention. So instead of seeing something like "How to write", visitors now see something like "Seven Amazing Tips on How to Improve Your Writing."
The key is to get the visitors to read the articles once they found them. Once that is accomplished, you have half the battle won.
Both Martin Haworth & Gen Wright are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Martin Haworth has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Interview Questions and Team Building. (c) 2007 "How To Land Your Dream Job". You can have the job of your dreams. It takes application, attention and the information you need to get you there, young or old. There's all you need at Martin Haworth's website,. Martin Haworth's top article generates over 3350000 views. Bookmark Martin Haworth to your Favourites.
Gen Wright has sinced written about articles on various topics from Terrier Dogs, Acne Treatment and Lose Weight. Darren Chow is a full time article marketer. His latest project is a Article Distribution Service where bloggers can promote their own blogs by submitting articles. Gen Wright's top article generates over 1220000 views. Bookmark Gen Wright to your Favourites.