When it comes to writing CVs, guidance is changing in light of wider trends in the job market and recruitment processes.

The internet has made it easier for applicants to find suitable openings and submit applications, but then harder for recruiters to handle the volumes. Increasingly, they are using so-called Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) to help with the filtering.

According to various UK research, recruiters receive an average of 250 applications per post, spending only seven seconds on each CV and rejecting most for reasons outside of the applicant’s competency. For example, 76% of CVs are rejected because of an unprofessional email address!

While listing past jobs and education in reverse chronological order still stands, the ABCD of the modern CV is now ‘Achievements’, ‘Brevity’, ‘Clarity’ and ‘Directness’.

Achievements
Recruiters will glaze over if you tell them you are ‘knowledgeable’, ‘hard-working’ or ‘highly-skilled’. They want to know what you tangibly achieved at each job. This means listing cost and time savings, customers won, service-levels hit and projects delivered. List times you were personally recognised too.

Brevity
The total length of a CV is still usually two pages, but shorter is better and there is no space for waste. The words ‘Curriculum Vitae’ should not appear at the start as it’s wasteful. Your profile should be a 3-5 line paragraph that summarises your suitability for the job role. Only include jobs from the last ten years. List a maximum of your top five achievements per job and use bullet points.

Clarity
Your document must show it is going to be easy to read from the first glance. This means using a clean font like Arial or Calibri and a font size of at least 11pt. Demarcate sections with white-spacing and headers, and retain a border. Check you are writing in plain English by using software such as Grammarly.

Directness
Everything you write should be directly addressing the job advert. To pass ATS screeners, or bored and irritable recruiters, this extends to using the same language and phraseology as used in the job specification. Hit the nail squarely on the head of what is sought.

Remember that the job of the CV is not to get the job, but to get the chance of an interview. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who is going to get perhaps a hundred CVs and who sees their job as filtering out 80-90 before lunch.