How To Prepare Your CV For A Job Board
If you aren’t familiar with a job board, then they are this decade’s version of the ‘circling job notices in newspapers’. Employers seeking out prospective employees will post their vacancies on various job boards. There are large ones like CV-Library that deal with all types of employment. Then there are the specialist ones, where you can find the niche jobs that might just suit your field.
Some job boards will simply be a ‘vacancy only’ job board, whereby the recruiter will post the job advert which you have to apply to, whilst others require you to submit your CV to their database, which potential recruiters then scour, seeking their ideal candidate.
Either way, they can be a goldmine that simply needs prospecting. So, to get the most out of them, we have put together our list of top tips for how to prepare your CV for a job board.
Search Engine Optimise (SEO) your CV
If you’re submitting your CV to a database of thousands of CVs, the chances of a recruiter with your dream job finding yours, without you first optimising it, is akin to them looking for a needle in a haystack.
Your CV needs to be easily findable by recruiters searching the database. To do this, search through jobs in the field you are interested in working, looking at old and new job adverts for similar jobs that appeal to you.
Pull out the keywords and key phrases from these job adverts and liberally scatter them throughout your CV. This will make sure your CV is pulled to the top of the search results.
If you know that your ideal job has a certain job title, then use that throughout your CV. If your current job title or previous job titles were obscure and specific to the company you worked in, try and figure out the universal equivalent and use that in your CV instead as recruiters are likely to search by that term for their ideal candidates.
Make your personal profile stand out
Your personal profile (the paragraph at the top of your CV) should be striking and impactful. You want the recruiters to read it and realise they have found exactly who they were looking for.
Make sure it includes:
- Who you are.
- What you do.
- What you are looking for in this current job.
- What you would bring to the party, should you get hired.
Keep it short and punchy. Make sure it is only four or five sentences long, no more. You’re giving the recruiters a taster of you. You want to pique their interest, make them want to read the rest of your CV and find out more about you and ideally invite you to interview.
Don’t just tell them why you want the job, tell them why they want to hire you – make it easy for them to select you.
We always say, ensure you tailor your CV to each job you are applying for, but in the case where you are submitting your CV to a database of CVs, you can’t. So, because your CV for these databases has to be generic, you have to approach the personal statement section a little differently.
You don’t know what jobs it could lead you to, nor who will be looking at it, so make sure your personal statement clearly states the areas of work that you would be interested in working in, and in particular the types of jobs in those areas.
“Because your CV for these databases has to be generic, you have to approach the personal statement section a little differently. ”
Regularly update your CV
Don’t assume once you submit your CV that you can sit back on your laurels and wait for the job offers to come rolling in. You have to ensure it is constantly updated. The reason for this? Recruiters don’t know who is or isn’t still looking for work. They don’t want to waste their time on a potential applicant who found work last month but hasn’t taken down their CV yet.
So, the majority of the time recruiters will filter out CVs by when they were submitted to the site. By updating yours regularly, this refreshes it constantly, keeping you where you need to be, at the top of the pile.
Finally, remember that job boards are just one way to find a job, don’t forget to keep networking and utilising alternative job hunting methods.
Article written by: CV-Library - the UK’s leading independent job board.
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