5 tips to improve your CV today

Hello and thank you so much for participating in my TikTok Live sessions everyone. You are receiving – or viewing this post – predominantly because the awesome TikTok algorithm brought us together.

Last night I reviewed almost 90 CVs during the Live and I thought it was time to begin to consolidate some of the messages I've been giving recently.

So let us begin.

1) Using Bold Effectively

Make sure everything you've produced is formatted correctly. Last night, Erykah sent in her CV and I was raving about the formatting she'd applied to her CV. Have a look here:

I've redacted the snippet above to ensure her privacy - but can you see how she's laid things out? I really like the clever and consistent use of bold. I am also a huge fan of how she's laid out the four bullet points. I love the two/three words in bold, followed by a sentence that expands on this. It makes it really easy for me to scan the key aspects and then zero-in and read when I'm ready.

Give some thought to how you might implement an approach like this. It forces you to think of the summary words (e.g. "Customer Engagement") followed by an explanatory sentence that ends with results or outcomes (e.g. "resulting in 5 new client wins.").

2) Using active language

Implemented. Responsible for. Created. Managed. Developed.

Try and begin your experience bullets with words and phrases that indicate some degree of action and activity. It's not always possible for every single bullet so don't stress too much, but remember, you're aiming to make sure that you're giving a great account of why you're good to the hiring manager!

3) Highlight outcomes and results

Speaking out outcomes and results, try this approach with every bullet point on your CV: Tack on the words "...resulting in _______". Try and fill that in. It's a good discipline to start to try and think about what the outcome or the result of that activity was.

Now, we don't want to keep on seeing the phrase "resulting in" all over the place – try and use different language. But you get the idea? Try and talk about outcomes and results because, again, that discipline forces you to begin to think about the whole bullet point – and how best to structure it.

4) Don't just list your duties

A lot of the CVs I'm seeing during TikTok Lives tend to be heavy on duties and light on results and outcomes.

It's not easy, I know. It's quite a challenge to try and pull out the things you are DOING and you've DELIVERED rather than just the things you 'do' at the moment.

By including some active words at the beginning of the bullet point and then making sure you have some kind of outcome toward the end, you're going to begin to move toward this.

So instead of:

"Speak to customers who are unhappy with the service and give refunds"

Make it:

"Customer Satisfaction: Implemented revised registration process to reduce the number of customer complaints by 50% within 3 months."

5) Personal Statements: Don't be too passionate

Almost every CV I review on TikTok Live includes a personal statement or summary at the top. This is ok. They can sometimes be really useful for giving context to the hiring manager, so that they know immediately where to place you.

For example, "Second-year Psychology student with front of house experience..."

Can I encourage you to read through these statements though and, where possible, remove as much flowery, fictionalised language as you can. In my view, I don't think it's too helpful for you to sell yourself in the personal statement with phrases like:

• I'm passionate about the delivery of ...
• I'm a very hard worker

Or my personal all-time favourite from the TikTok Lives so far:

• I'm an extremely hard worker

The issue with these statements is that they're written by you. Some hiring managers will therefore immediately discount them. Others will just glance past and not bother reading when they see you're saying how good you are. Ideally you should show how good you are. Show in the experience. Show in the bullet points you are laying out. Demonstrate it there.

Flowery personal statements look really good when you're writing it yourself. Your friends, colleagues and relatives will all read - individually - and think it sounds great. The problem is when you, the hiring manager, have to read through 40+ CVs, every single one with paragraphs of personal statements saying they're super-passionate and ultra-hard-working. That's when the hiring manager will often skip directly to the experience section and let that do the talking for you.

Take this with a pinch of salt

In general, I think it's fair to say that there are no right and wrong answers here. Obviously bad language, spelling mistakes, formatting errors - I think it's accurate to suggest that they're not ideal at all.

Much of the time, it all down to nuance.

One hiring manager might love what you've done. Another hiring manager might misunderstand. So put your best foot forward.

Everyone has a different opinion. These are mine. So I would strongly encourage you to take what I've written here with a pinch of salt - and listen to other perspectives too, then decide how you want to put things on your CV.

Online Workshops!

I've got another private online CV Workshop taking place tomorrow evening if you'd like to come along. Tickets are £25 with a maximum of 4 attendees. Details are here.

And if you'd like to brush up your LinkedIn Profile - I've got a LinkedIn Profile Review workshop taking place on Saturday morning. Tickets are also £25 for a maximum of 6 attendees. Details are here.

Questions?

If you've any questions, feel free to comment below, email me or send me a direct message on TikTok.

Or... comment on any of my TikTok videos with your question/comment and I'll then respond as soon as I can with a video reply.

See you online soon!