CV Headings, Titles and Straplines
Writing a CV comes as a daunting task to most, especially if you have a lot of information to get across. Remembering that your CV is designed for one purpose – to get you that all important interview – will help immensely when you are breaking it down into sections. What’s relevant, what’s important and what showcases your skills and expertise all play their part.
You don’t have long to make a first impression. A quick glance is sometimes all you have! Highlighting specific areas of experience and achievements can be done through the use of straplines. Quantify and qualify everything.
Compelling straplines or headlines might start with:
Proven ability to…..
Extensive knowledge of…..
Increased sales by…..
Improved efficiency through…..
In essence, the interview decision lies in that first page. Using titles and headings draws the eyes the areas you want to shout about. Be ruthless in what you include, have an area of expertise section to drawn attention to key aspects, repeated, if possible from their outline of what your potential employer is looking for!
The CV you send is an extension of yourself, a sales tool and it must accurately represent the vacancy you are applying for. Never underestimate the power of keywords. They help get you noticed especially if you are applying online, which, nowadays is exactly how you will plan your next career move.
Just like you will search online to find the perfect job that best matches your skills, your CV needs to be effectively written so that this process works the other way. Headings also help immensely to focus you on the task ahead and break it down into manageable sections. Nowadays a written list of your professional experience is not enough. A personal profile will sing your praises; areas of expertise highlight your biggest attributes and mirror those which your new employer is looking for.
It doesn’t end when your CV is written, it needs a title. In general, you are allotted approximately 35 characters to accurately name your CV uploaded. Don’t waste a single one. Select your words carefully, use abbreviations if necessary to make the most of the space. The goal, at all times, is to compel employers and recruitment consultants to read more of your CV. A highly effective might include your career objective and your strongest qualification, this might be years of experience, a job related skill or an industry specific academic achievement. Don’t be tempted to go quirky or gimmicky with titles, as we have seen before – “hire me” or worse something very basic such as “John Smith Curriculum Vitae” it does not communicate anything about you and is not overly professional.
Keeping in mind the all-important Holy Grail which is the interview, anything you can do to help that decision process can only be enhanced by really getting to grips with every single compelling word written on those pages, from the title through to the career achievements.
