Making a professional CV when you are experienced may seem easy, but it is not. Gone are the days when job seekers could put everything in their resumes. These days, it is short and concise CVs that catch the eye of recruiters. The ideal is to put everything on one page. Two pages are tolerable for senior profiles. You will find here the best tips to make your CV shorter, more relevant and modern.
Take Care of the Layout
The content of your CV remains crucial. But in order for the document to stand out from the crowd, care must be taken with its appearance. You have to do some layout work to fit all the elements without the whole being too dense. To make a professionnal CV when you have a lot of experience you want to mention, work on the columns, they allow you to multiply the reading entries. You can also play around with the fonts to save space. Prefer the Calibri over Arial because it is smaller. In terms of size, the standard has gone from 12 to 11 because we are more used to reading on small screens. You can go down to size 10 but not below because it is important to keep reading comfort. It is better to make a longer but readable CV than an illegible one.
Focus Hard-Hitting Numbers and Keywords
Many experienced candidates find it difficult to do the synthetic work necessary in describing the experiences and skills related to the position sought. Focus on numbers and keywords over long sentences. This will save you from writing long sentences. Use tools like dashes and asterisks to get straight to the point of essential elements. Four key points to remember from experience is the maximum. You should not exceed seven lines by experience, including the dates, the job title, the sector and a few keywords and figures.
Refer to External Content
Referring to outside content is a modern way to shorten a resume effectively. In the header, you can add a hyperlink to your LinkedIn account, to a personal website and / or to a blog. This allows the recruiter to pursue their investigations further if they wish. At the bottom of the page, you can also specify that a long version of your CV is available if necessary. Also tell yourself that the cover letter is a good tool to develop a point that you consider relevant for your job application.
