Many people make the mistake of applying for jobs that they don’t know enough about. If you don’t know what companies are specifically looking for within your industry, you’re not going to be able to tailor your CV to the requirements of the industry.
One of the easiest ways of researching your targeted roles is to go through the job description. Find out what the company is looking for and tailor your CV in line with those requirements.
Identify the skills that they class as essential and desirable, including both hard and soft skills, and provide examples of times you have demonstrated these skills in your CV. This could be done by detailing your skills, achievements, responsibilities etc.
When writing your professional CV, it’s important to also conduct research on the company itself. Visit the company’s website and perform a few internet searches to acquaint yourself with their culture and history.
With this information, you will then be able to write your CV in a way that is optimised for the company.
You can go even further by writing a cover letter that is tailored to the company that you are targeting. In your cover letter, you can directly describe how you fit into the company. Show them your enthusiasm for how they operate and how you can add value to their operation.
Another way of learning more about what recruiters expect from professionals in your industry is to attend recruitment fairs or job-related events.
This will give you the chance to talk directly to recruiters, picking their brains about how you can improve your CV to optimise it for job applications.
A professionally written CV should always be based on comprehensive research. When you have successfully conducted your research into the roles and companies that you will be applying for, you will have a better idea of how you can show recruiters that you are the ideal candidate.
To see what tailored CVs look like, take a look at our CV examples and templates. We’ve prepared 14 CV examples to help you write the perfect CV.