Forget fancy formatting courtesy of an online template, a snazzy intro or even crafting your CV with keywords from the job description safely embedded to get past pesky ATS (applicant tracking systems).
In fact, 98.4% of Fortune 500 companies are now using an ATS to filter applicants and if your CV is missing key results, chances are you won’t get past the first stage of screening and won’t get shortlisted for interviews.
In a nutshell, employers and hiring managers don’t want to see what you do day-to-day. They want to know what you have achieved in your current role and what kind of results you can bring to their organisation.
5 inspiring jobs to apply for
- Commercial Lead (FinTech), LoanTube, Hammersmith
- Equity Capital Markets Lawyer, IDEX Consulting Ltd, United Kingdom
- Operational Finance Analyst, Metro, Birmingham
- Senior Product Manager – FinTech, Finitas, City Of London
- Private Equity Associate, BJRC Recruiting, London Area
Review your current CV
If you’ve never thought about quantifying your results and achievements, the first thing to do is look at your current role and identify what your KPIs are (if they haven’t already been outlined or you’ve never had a performance review with your manager).
Key results tend to revolve around money and time, for example, how much money you’ve made or saved the business and how much time you’ve saved by streamlining processes or introducing new technologies or tools to speed up your workflow and make your team more productive and efficient.
Figures and percentages are the best way to present this kind of data.
Conduct an audit
Next up, you’ll need to audit or remove any statements that are task-based as opposed to results-focussed.
This means removing statements that tell the person reading your CV what you do or have done on a daily basis without tying it to a result or achievement.
For example, replace a statement such as “designed software applications” with “created software applications that increased performance optimisation by 70%”.
Or instead of saying “led a team of 12 people”, highlight your success in a leadership role with “oversaw a team of 12 people and successfully implemented a delegation structure that increased productivity by 25%” instead.
Create a killer intro
So many of us create a professional summary at the beginning of our CVs but are you creating it with the person reviewing your CV in mind?
You might be experienced and skilled but how can you demonstrate this in one line? By highlighting the main results you have achieved in your career to date, you should be able to draw the person reading your CV in, right from the very start of your professional summary.
As such, you should limit this information to between two to five sentences and focus on the value you have brought to the companies you’ve worked for to date.
You should also use action verbs, for example, ‘created’, ‘developed’, ‘established’ and ‘designed’.
Get AI to help
While it’s not advised to ask your generative AI tool of choice to create your CV from scratch, you can use AI to fine-tune your CV and hone in on what you might be missing.
A good way to do this is to copy the main body of your CV into the AI tool, along with the job description of the job you’re applying for and ask it to pretend to be a HR professional or hiring manager and critique your CV, making sure it is results-focussed.
You should also remove any personal information from your CV, such as your name, where you live or where you went to school or university, to remove any potential for bias. Check the settings and ensure you toggle off the option to train the model on your data.
Your AI tool of choice should be able to give you constructive advice on where your CV is lacking results, and offer you insights into where you need to add more results.
But make sure you put your own personal spin on the AI-generated suggestions so your CV doesn’t raise any red flags or sound too formal. Your CV should be a reflection of who you are, not the AI tools you’re using.
Seeking a new challenge? Check out the Tech Funding News Job Board to find your next opportunity
This article is part of a partnership with Amply. For partnering opportunities, contact akansha@techfundingnews.com or sales@techfundingnews.com.
The post The No. 1 thing employers want to see on your CV appeared first on Tech Funding News.