Effectively State Your Experience On Your CV
August 25th, 2010 |If you are job hunting there is no better place to start looking than at Tesco Jobs.
You have a blank space in your CV and it needs to be filled with your past and present working responsibilities.Speaking to someone face to face and telling them what you have done and what you currently do is so much easier than thoroughly but concisely writing them all down in order to impress potential employers.To get started, you must first consider what type of a job you are seeking.Your qualifications, achievements, past experience and career objectives all have a role to play when convincing a potential employer that you are the best person for the job they have to offer. Therefore you need to include as much detail as possible whilst bearing in mind the skills and requirements involved in the job you are applying for.
Whilst stating your past and present working responsibilities, try to emphasise those experiences which relate to the requirements of the job you are applying for.Using key words to describe your experience and responsibilities is very important. If you have a copy of the job advertisement or specification, look at what responsibilities or skills are involved and compare these to your own working experience. Then look at specific terms in the specification which directly relate to the experience you have.Try not to repeat the same words throughout this area of your CV. It is difficult not to start every sentence with ‘Responsible for…’. Look at other words such as developed or managed. Using alternative words to describe your responsibilities emphasise exactly what your role was and this is the kind of clear detail recruiters are looking for.
It is wise to choose your words carefully, you do not want to sound as if you were responsible for an entire project if you were only communicating the project to co-workers.
Normally the first job that you list on your CV, is your current job, so be sure to use the present tense when listing the responsibilities of that position, since you still maintain that position.
Having a wide range of experience can be a great thing but it can also be very difficult to summarise in a CV without hiding away the most relevant responsibilities with all of the other responsibilities you have undertaken. Therefore it is advisable to think about detailing the most specific and relevant responsibilities in relation to the job you are applying for. For example, if you are looking for a job that requires managing a team of people, focus on your development and participation in group projects instead of focusing on solitary activities such as office organization.
When considering the format of these details, don’t be afraid of using bullet pointed lists. Recruiters can then see at a glance what experience you have rather than reading through lengthy descriptions. Seldom do employers read the entire curriculum vitae, they normally scan and look for key words, hence it is extremely important to ensure that your resume does not overwhelm them or is poorly put together. Finally, a poorly formatted CV will get you nowhere. Employers may feel that a poorly spelt or formatted CV could be a reflection of your work. Spell checking on your computer is very useful but it is also recommended that you read through several times yourself and, if you can, get someone else to read through just in case you have missed anything.
