As exam season is underway and graduates will soon be preparing to kickstart a career in their chosen field, exploring the job market can be an extremely daunting and disheartening period.
With the current market being as competitive as ever, typical entry-level roles appear to now be reserved for candidates with years of experience as companies place unreasonable demands and expectations on those leaving university or college.
With that in mind, this article will provide some key tips that will help your CV document stand out among your fellow peers and hopefully steer you in line to land your first graduate job.
Make an Initial Impact
The professional profile section is your first chance to make an impact on a recruiter. As they will read an extensive amount of CV documents, your first section needs to make sure they read on!
Firstly, the range of key skills you will have acquired during your academic studies should be clearly displayed, but this section also offers the chance to detail your interest and experience in your specific industry so far, such as your expertise across social media platforms and understanding of latest digital trends for a career in the marketing sector for example.
Most importantly, make sure it doesn’t read like a Personal Statement! It shouldn’t be an entire description of your life so far. Keep it concise and to the point. No long paragraphs. Between four and six lines, written in third person, is what I recommend.
Expand on your Academic Endeavours
With your career experience likely to be limited, detailing the areas you are most proud of within your academic studies offers a chance to outline the projects and activities you completed. Those projects will not only showcase your project management, critical thinking, time management, and collaborative skills, but they act as a point of reference within a potential interview setting, where you can expand on the more precise details of your role across each project. Although it might seem redundant to list the modules you completed, it is an important aspect to letting the employer know you at least have some experience/awareness in relevant industry topics.
Career Experience
It goes without saying that any employment experience you have gathered so far is vital to include. There is a certain way I would go about it, however. Keeping your key achievements and responsibilities in a bullet point format is preferable as opposed to providing a paragraph of your duties. 4/5 for each is recommended, with a focus on emphasising those transferable skills you can bring to your chosen profession.
Technical Skills
As the use of technology has an ever-expanding impact on the way companies function, detailing your proficiency across a range of platforms can be crucial, especially in certain sectors within the digital space. Whether that be full competency across all Microsoft Office platforms with an advanced understanding of the various Excel intricacies for data-focused roles or growing expertise within a range of programming languages relevant to the field of software engineering.
This extends to showing your commitment to learning new skills by completing a range of online courses, like the range that LinkedIn offer. Although you won’t be expected to be of an expert level in those technologies, demonstrating that you have taken the time to gather some proficiency can be decisive.
Volunteer Work & Extracurricular Activities
If your employment to date is limited, it is vital to place a greater focus on your voluntary work and extra-curricular activities. Whether that be the activities during your Duke of Edinburgh Award or your sporting endeavours, these activities present the opportunity to showcase your commitment and dedication outside of solely academic study. They also present an opportunity to potentially connect with a recruiter on an aligned topic that could just be the key thing that secures an interview. Keep it short and sweet though. Expanding on how you led a local football team to a regional trophy over ten years ago might not be so relevant!
General Tips
More broadly, and while your lack of experience might make you feel like you need to overcompensate through extensive levels of detail, I would nearly always say that a graduate document should stay within one page, unless there is a unique situation where your experience is vast.
Simplicity is equally key. Make your CV easy to navigate and read. Avoid extravagant formats, fonts, and colours. Keep it clean, appealing, and accessible.
Finally, standing out to a recruiter is taking that extra time to show you are distinctly interested in that role and company. While more time consuming, showing that you have gone beyond simply attaching your CV will put you instantly ahead of many of those competing for the same role.
This can primarily be done in two ways. In your CV document, it is important to read through the job advert and pick up the key skills you feel the employer are looking for. With that in mind, you should make sure your place a greater emphasis on those, with the Professional Profile and Key Skills sections the best place to do so.
Secondly, attaching a cover letter or accompanying message demonstrating your suitability, as well as your aspirations and the chance for progression within that company adds that all important personal element.
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