When it’s time to apply for a new job,
your CV is considered as the ticket to get you that first foot in the
door and secure an interview - but what is your assurance that your CV
can be accepted for interview instead of been thrown straight in the
bin.

Updating or re-writing your CV successfully is easy once you know how.
It’s all about tailoring your skills experience etc to the job you are
applying for.
But what if you did not meet the required criteria? Well, I have put
together the essential steps that can help you get started in updating
your CV successfully and secure your first or next job

1. Make it brief
Likely, your experience would have increased since you last updated your
CV so you will be adding to it.
Nevertheless, you should keep it to two pages at most as your
prospective employers may have hundreds of CVs and want to quickly go
through them.

Making it brief means you can expand on it in an interview and it can be
a starting point for their questions.
2. Remove the unnecessary details
Outdated CV would have had information like ethnicity, religion, and primary school details which are not needed on an up to date
CV.
Generally, Jobs are giving without discrimination, so such information
is not important on a CV.
3. Keep your CV tailored to the Job
It’s quite irrelevant writing a paragraph of your long term ambitions
and career plans. This is because your previous experience or covering
letter should explain this. What you might do is to highlight certain
achievements, jobs within them, attributes which would make you the
better candidate for the job you are applying for.
4. Remove Jargon
You might wish to demonstrate your ability to write elaborately, but a
CV should be simple, concise and straight to the point.
5. Let Someone else read over it
What might make sense to you may not be clear to another, so get someone
else to read it through. It’s amazing what another pair of eyes can
pick up on.
6. Create a brand for yourself
Presently, your social media profile is as essential as your CV and
employers use this means to see more about you through various platform.

Instead of seeing this as a disadvantage, you can leverage on it and
create an awesome mini brand for yourself.

Just like any successful brand, there has to be a
consistency.


7. Format correctly
With the assumption that majority of CVs will be viewed on computer, you
should ensure that it’s formatted correctly when viewed online. Some
website don’t accept PDF format, so make sure you have your CV as a word
document too.
8. Seek Professional Help/Advice
Make absolute use of the resources around you, something which people
don’t do enough. Go to your local Job centre and speak to them about CV
improvements or you can take advantage of the internet and get connected
with a professional CV writer who can assist you to re-write your CV
and make it captivating enough to attract the attention of any reader or
employer within few seconds.
9. Take out your references
References are not required at the early stages by the majority of
employers. What you can do is to write, ‘references are available on
request’ and have them at hand.