Your CV aims to present you in the best light possible, and in the current job market, you can’t risk an outdated document that shows irrelevant or old details to a hiring manager.
Contrary to popular beliefs, a CV is a work-in-progress, requiring regular updates throughout as you progress in your career. The best time to revise this document is when you get a new job; however, other instances exist that make this revision necessary.
This article reveals the five ways to tell if you need a new, updated CV, allowing you to convey your value whenever the need arises accurately.
Consider Using a Resumé Builder
Your CV consists of several documents that convey your value in the corporate world, and a core part of these items is a resumé. While this paper helps summarize the factors that make you employable, doing a resumé for the first time is tricky and time-consuming.
For this reason, it’s best to use a resumé builder like resumebuilderpro.com, which is an effective tool that guides you through putting together a resumé.
Resumé Builder Pro comes with over 4000 resumé templates that you can customize to include all your relevant information. This factor saves you time and energy as you don’t need to develop the document from scratch or worry about elements like font, headings, style, etc.
1. It Contains All Previous Jobs
Assess your current CV to see if it details all the positions you’ve ever occupied, even the part-time job you had in high school. Essentially, if it contains jobs that have no relevance to the role you wish to settle in a new establishment, the document needs revision.
This factor is crucial as recruiters have little patience and don’t have the time to sift through a large body of outdated information to understand your value relating to the task at hand.
For example, stating that you worked in a printing press for a job in programming is irrelevant information that might irritate the hiring manager. Only include the most recent information regarding your experience in business and leave out unrelated jobs.
2. New Accomplishments
The perfect CV includes all noteworthy accomplishments throughout your career, allowing employers to grasp your efficacy. For this reason, it’s best to constantly update your document with your latest achievements to convey your value fully.
Perhaps you embarked on a particular project for your company, directly boosted the business’s social media following by 50%, or raised their SEO and got a lot of traffic. In these cases, ensure to document significant feats as they demonstrate your efficacy in a position and desire for growth.
Also, if you have numbers relating to your accomplishments, include them as hiring managers move numbers and statistics as long as they are good.
3. Change in Career
Multiple factors can compel a change in careers, such as better opportunities, disinterest, environmental factors, passion, and anything of the sort. In such a scenario, it’s best to change your CV entirely and input relevant information into this new career path.
Remember that your CV is the primary tool for getting your foot in the door to meet the hiring manager in person. Therefore, we recommend going through your experiences and skills, outlining the ones that satisfy the job requirements and are sufficient to compel the reader to invite you for an interview.
If your current CV could work in your new career option, for example, you switched from copywriting to content writing, you can tweak your recent document and remove parts that don’t convey the necessary elements of a good writer.
4. Missing Social Media Information
Unlike decades ago, employers now search for candidates online, making it necessary to include details linking to your social media account. Failing to have this information can reduce the employer’s interest in you or may come across as you hiding information deliberately.
For this reason, it’s best to include details linking to your social media account for easy access from the employer. Also, ensure that your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are updated to look professional and do not contain any bigoted or incriminating information.
Simply writing your social media name isn’t helpful as thousands of individuals exist online that possess that name, so save your employer the hassle and offer a link to your account.
*Note: Include an updated email if your old email address no longer works.
5. No Response to Applications
Suppose you feel your CV doesn’t need updating as it meets the requirements listed in this article; in that case, look at your previous job applications and how much success you received.
In other words, have you been sending out your CV for months with no establishment responding with their desire to hire you? There’s a possibility that the fault isn’t your cover letter or experience but your CV.
Consider reviewing the document and give it a thorough makeover before sending it out to companies with hopes of getting hired. It could be the one factor that brings you employment this year.
Bonus: is your CV straightforward?
Adding unnecessary elements like unique fonts, wordy content, a profile picture, or any other distracting feature can make your CV longer than two pages. In this case, don’t waffle; use bullet points to break long sentences into precise lines.
Focus on crucial job content, expressing what you did and what positive feedbacks accompanied the actions. Ensure to make the most of bold fonts and headings to make vital information as recruiters focus on the following parts:
● Name
● Current title/company
● Previous title/company
● Current title/company start/end dates
● Previous title/company start/end dates
Avoid jargon and complicated terms as what makes sense to you may not be understandable to the reader. The aim is communication, and making them furrow their eyebrows to read your document is not a happy scenario.
Conclusion
These factors presented should give you a strong sense of what should and shouldn’t be in your resumé and CV. After making the necessary changes, check for mistakes as they are unforgivable and will cost you the position.
The job market is competitive; therefore, it’s best to maximize your chances with a resumé builder like Resumé Builder Pro, guiding you to make the best choices possible. Once complete, check for grammatical errors with Grammarly to avoid getting rejected for something so obvious.