How to write a CV that gets noticed
After you’ve decided which internships or graduate roles you’re going to apply for, the next step is to make sure your CV is up to date and up to scratch. With graduate recruiters now reviewing up to thousands of applications and CVs, it’s important to make sure yours is as clear and concise as possible so you have the best chance of moving to the next stage.
Make the recruiters' job as easy as possible
The best tip for writing a CV that gets noticed, it to make the recruiters' job as easy as possible. This means reading and following all instructions during the application, including which documents to include and in what format.
If there are no instructions on which format to submit your CV in, a PDF is the safest option!
Proofread!
Regardless of what industry you are going into writing skills are always required and your CV is your first opportunity to display these. It’s important to make sure that your CV is well written and is free of any grammatical or spelling mistakes. The best way to do this is to have a friend or family member proofread your CV for you to pick up any mistakes or any important pieces of information that may be missing.
Be clear and concise
As mentioned above graduate recruiters are looking at a lot of CVs so it's important that your CV is clear, concise and well structured so that they are able to find the information they’re looking for as quickly as possible! You should aim for your CV to be ideally one page, max two.
Here is our advice on how to structure your CV:
The heading should include your name, email, phone number and LinkedIn
This personal statement is a chance to articulate your career goal of gaining a graduate role.
You may choose to include your NCEA (or alternative qualification) results. It is essential to include your degree (majors and minors). Include institution, start and graduation date, GPA, any relevant academic awards.
For example, Bachelor of Engineering (Hons), University of Canterbury. GPA 7
For a graduate role, we understand that relevant work experience will be limited, if at all. For this section, we recommend you include any work experience including part-time jobs, volunteer work, internships, temporary/contract work. You do not need to include all work experience, instead, we suggest you focus on those most relevant to the role you are applying for.
The layout of each job role should go -
If you are having trouble writing the summary you may want to consider: an overview of the role, tasks undertaken, describe what you accomplished or learnt.
Additionally:
Be honest
Your CV is a summary of you – your qualifications, background and experiences. It’s important to be honest so that the company is seeing an honest reflection of who you are and whether you’d be a good fit for the role and the company.