How graduates can make their CVs shine

Although a lot of the sweeping generalisations may about students are untrue, it’s probably fair to say that not many undergraduates put a lot of thought into their CV.

With so much going on at university it’s easy to put the hunt for some of the ideal graduate jobs on the back burner. The first year is spent making the most of student life and meeting new people, in second year the real knuckling under begins and by the time third year rolls around it’s all about ensuring you work as hard as possible to get the best possible degree.

This means a significant proportion of students are left facing the real world without a clear idea of what they want, and even those with a career plan may struggle because they don’t know how to achieve their aims.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to a successful graduate job hunt is the CV, with many graduates unsure about what sort of information they should include in it. Indeed, many see the document itself as unimportant when in reality a good CV is crucial if you want to get an interview.

For graduates searching for jobs, the difficulty is demonstrating they have enough experience to fill a role, but often this is not as hard as they think. Throughout the course of university life they will have picked up the people skills employers crave, but graduates often don’t realise this and miss off crucial information because they wrongly believe it to be irrelevant.

Enjoyment may be the main reason students end up running a society or captaining a sports team, but after graduation the experience gathered through such extra-curricular activities can be used to make a CV stand out in an increasingly competitive job market.

By understanding what employers are looking for and ensuring all relevant information is prominently featured on their CV graduates can expect to get more interviews – a vital first step to landing that job.