Top Tips for CV writing and creating a strong LinkedIn profile

Maybe you are unaware but software technology plays an increasingly important role in the recruitment process, more agencies and hiring companies are deploying the use of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and AI to expedite the hiring process and help them collate relevant CV’s from the millions of job seekers applying on line each day.  This means bots get first dibs on your CV application and decide if the words in your CV match the key words for the job description you have applied to.  If they find relevant matches then your CV is sorted and ranked prior to passing to a human being, nice eh?  So how do you beat the bots and stand out from the crowded marketplace? 

CV action – how to ensure it is ATS compliant, beats the bots and sells a compelling story about you and your capabilities

Firstly, in order for your CV to be taken seriously by a recruiter or hiring company you must review your CV objectively – when was the last time you gave it a thorough overhaul and edit?  ATS cannot scan or read abbreviations, acronyms, ampersands or words in text boxes and it can only read round bullet points.  In order for your CV not to fall at first hurdle you must ensure your CV is thoroughly ATS compliant – and as you do not know who is using ATS you must presume wherever your CV is sent, a bot could be scanning it.  Next, to create a powerful and dynamic CV you must set it out in the following way and in the following order:

Contact information – your name – this should be in larger letters than your personal contact details, make them big and bold, use colour if you really want to add a touch of creative flair.  Provide your mobile number, email address, give your home location – town and county are fine, provide the URL for your LinkedIn profile. 

Profile – this is the hook which succinctly paraphrases your years of experience, captures the market sectors you have been working in, provides relevant industry information relating to your job and concludes with the type of role and business you would love to work for.  Ultimately it leaves the reader wanting to know more about you.

Areas of expertise – this is a snapshot of your capabilities such as communication, leadership/management, commercial, creative, financial, logical.  Each section should be no more than two or three lines and to power it up you should give information on why you are an expert in these areas – do not just make a generic statement.  Generic statements do not earn you kudos in the eyes of recruiters or hiring companies.

Career history – this should be clear and concise, back up your responsibilities and actions with outcomes and values.  Focus on the last 5 years primarily.  Show results of your actions – give values and outcomes to your responsibilities.  Hiring managers and recruiters will be impressed if you can clearly demonstrate how you successfully negotiated a more lucrative price, managed a complex project, worked tirelessly to complete an assignment within budget and on time, gained traction with new listings and boosted company turnover.  Actions and outcomes will set you apart from a generic list of job responsibilities which anyone could put down.  Roles dating back 5 to 7 years should include a few key deliverables with achievements.  Roles 7 years or older can simply be set down as job title, employer, employment dates – what you were doing 7 years ago is hardly likely to be relevant to what you are applying for in the future.  If you follow this guideline you will maintain an easy to read career history section with punchy, salient and engaging information which is factual but informative and conveys very clearly just what you are capable of bringing to a hiring company.  Use active verbs and modern words to bring your CV to life and ensure it is of modern day.  Avoid Arial font this looks old school – alternatively use Calibri.  Use font size 12 which is easier to read, 11 is a bit too small. 

Key skills – this comes after career history and highlights a few of your relevant skills – if you are not sure then Google key skills for your job title and what to include in a CV and you will soon find a list of suggestions which fit your experience.

Education – unless you hold a degree, diploma or qualifications relevant to your role, if you have a decent career history then putting down GCSE’s or O’Levels is rather a waste of white space when you would be far better off expanding more on your areas of expertise which will be way more impactful to a hiring company or recruiter.

Hobbies and Interests – do include these, they humanise your CV and bring you to life as a person, they can be a great ice breaker for interviews.  However, do give a bit of context to your interests and hobbies so if you enjoy baking say why and what it means to you or if you love running, mention any charity events you have taken part in to help fund raise – this will say far more about you as a person than simply ‘running’ or ‘baking’.

2 or 3 pages long is the golden rule for CV length.  4 pages is not acceptable.

Proof read your CV – ensure it is grammatically correct, error free of typos and spelling mistakes.

Proof read your CV again, ask a friend or family member to look through it.

Now that your CV is ATS compliant, packs a punch with salient content and contains all the right key words and active verbs, you should update your LinkedIn profile if you have not already done so.  LinkedIn is a powerful tool used by agencies and hiring companies every day and it is free for you to use, it will only take a short amount of your time to update it.  If your profile is static and contains no relevant information on you then it could be bypassed.  If you are actively job seeking or would simply like to hear about potential opportunities then you must populate your LinkedIn profile with key criteria. 

Making your LinkedIn profile work for you

• Contact section – put your email address, home location and phone numbers in so you can be easily contacted about job opportunities
• About section – copy/paste your CV profile and use this in the About section
• Experience – copy/paste your CV career history so people can easily see your experience
• Skills and endorsements – ask colleagues you have worked with or any third party people you have dealt with to endorse your skills
• Recommendations – ask people to recommend you
• Turn on your job alert toggle so you get to hear about opportunities – To create a job alert: Search for a job on LinkedIn.  At the top left of the job search results page, switch the Job alert toggle to On to create a job alert for your current search criteria. Switch the toggle to Off to turn off the job alert.
• If you are part of am alumni or on a committee or chair of something then include this in activities
• Finally – let hiring companies and recruiters know you are open to hearing from them,  click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.  Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown.  Click the Privacy tab at the top of the page.  Under the Job seeking preferences section, click Change next to Let recruiters know you’re open to opportunities.

If you follow this step by step guide you will have a far stronger chance of being identified and selected.  Writing a stand-out CV is not an easy process, it requires time and consideration, you will go through a few drafting stages but the trick is to create one master document to work from, this remains static but you will add to it with each role however you never use this document to send out.  You will work from this document to select only the most relevant criteria which relates to the role you are applying for and matches the key words in the job description.  This is how you beat the bots.