Today I put myself in the shoes of a prospective applicant looking for a CV Template. I got 21,200,000 responses, many claiming to be the best and the only one that will get you that job!
Of course as we know, a CV does not get you a job. It gets you an interview, you get the job.
But the style of your CV is important as it showcases your skills and experience. So how do you cut through the jungle of results to find the right CV template for you?
There is no one template that is perfect but there are some things you should bear in mind.
White Space
Make sure there is enough space in the template for you to write what you need to. That may sound obvious but sometimes the focus of the CV template is more on the patterns, colours, sidebars and banners than on the content space. As a recruiter we are keen to learn about your skills and experience, not your colour preferences.
Look at Me!
If a template shouts Look at Me! then you want to seriously consider its appropriateness for you as an HR professional. In general the HR community does not tend to warm to gimmicks and unnecessary graphics. These all detract from the written content and do not get you an interview. Remember too, graphs and the like are not searchable content.
Headings and Titles
Make sure these are clear and logical in the template. Recruiters don’t have time to make sense of a scatter gun approach. So make sure when you select a template that the heading sequence is logical and easily understandable.
Grey or Coloured Templates
Colour has its place and particularly on a computer screen, however, remember that your resume will probably be printed and coloured backgrounds or light grey font does not print well.
