Guest post from Chris Slay, CEO of international recruitment organisation Skills Provision.
For most employers, the employment history section of your CV is the most important one. For each job role they want to fill, the employer will have certain requirements that a candidate must possess together with an additional list of criteria which would be desirable. Your aim must be to make it immediately clear that you can meet these criteria.
To do this, you must take time to carefully read through the job details to understand exactly what the employer wants and then make a list of the criteria. As you prepare your CV, keep checking your CV against that list.
Make sure you tailor your CV to the job you are applying for
Never submit a “one size fits all CV”; make sure that you tailor your CV for the job you are applying for.
Leave no gaps
You do need to mention the jobs that you have previously held because if there appears to be a gap in your employment history the employer will wonder why. Start with the dates of your employment, the name of your employer and the position you held.
Emphasise “relevant” employment history
If you currently hold or have recently held a position like the one you are applying for, then this is the one that is most relevant and must be the one you provide solid details about.
Keep checking the job details and match your skills to those requirements. For example, if the job requires experience of managing sales people you should clearly state, “I managed a team of 10 sales agents and was responsible for …”
This is a new type of role for me
If you are applying for a new type of role, look at the requirements of the new job and match each criterion with the relevant parts of various roles from your previous employment. For example, if the new job requires both managing people and being responsible for financial reporting, but you did these in two separate roles, make it clear what you did in each role on your CV and how it relates to the role you are applying for.
No previous experience?
Everybody needs to start somewhere, but even if this is your first job you can still match your life and study skills to the job criteria. For example, if the new job requires an understating of a particular software system, you can emphasise the fact that you studied and used this particular software at university, or that you used the software as part of your role as a student coordinator.
Would I hire me?
Finally, before you submit your application, take a last critical look at what you are submitting from the employer’s point of view, and see whether you are just what they are looking for based on the job details (you can always ask someone else to help too). If the answer is not a resounding yes, then you need to do a bit more work on that particular application!
