You are a student and in need of money. You send your CV off to as many companies you can think of, in hope that one of them will hire you. However, it’s pretty unlikely that your CV will match the exact requirements of every job vacancy. So although it’s time consuming, you need to spend a good couple of hours tailoring your CV to each job role you want to apply for. Yes, it is an arduous task, but it will pay off in the long run for sure. Here are some tips from Graduate Recruitment Bureau on how to tailor your CV in four quick and easy steps.

Introduction:
What skills and attributes are the company looking for in their candidate? If a job advertisement states they are looking for a ‘creative individual with good leadership skills’ use these attributes to describe yourself in your introductory paragraph. Employers only look at CVs for about 15 seconds, so grab their attention in the first few lines by showing them you are the candidate they are looking for within seconds of reading your CV.

Employment:
Don’t include every job you’ve ever had, employers are not interested in your life story. Employers like to see candidates who have had a range of work experience, but what they are really interested in seeing is if your work experience could benefit them. The work you did in a hairdressing salon when you were younger wouldn’t really be relevant to an accounting job you are applying for, but it might be of interest to employers in the retail or hospitality industries. Be selective with what you include and keep it relevant to the job you are applying for.

Hobbies/interests:
Like in your introductory paragraph, identify the required personality traits in the job advertisement and work out how your hobbies can relate to these requirements. For example, if the job ad states it is looking for someone who can work well in a team and you happen to be into playing sports, state that playing sport has enhanced your communication and team work skills as you are constantly working in a team.
Although this section has little effect on the interview selection process, employers like to get a sense of your personality through how you like to spend your time when not working.

Skills:
If you feel you have certain skills that the company would benefit from having but you haven’t had a chance to highlight these in the above sections, here is your chance.
Remember to highlight skills you have that would be important to the job role and try to provide examples of when you have used these skills.