As a recruitment company that will review thousands of CVs throughout the year, we know exactly what will make your job application stand out from others. If you’re looking for a new job and need a guide to help you produce a fantastic CV, then take a look at the tips we’ve listed below!

Every great CV needs to have an impactful statement about yourself. This can be a summary of your key skills and accomplishments, which will let the recruiter know exactly who you are. You really want to make a great impression here, so we’ve provided an example of how you may write this:

It is easy to just send out your CV to any job application in hopes that the recruiter will contact you. However, to make sure you increase your chances of being successful, we would recommend that you adapt your CV depending on the role you’re applying for.

For example, if a particular role you’re applying for states: “Customer service experience essential” - it is important that this is highlighted in your CV. Make sure the requirements listed by the employer are included here so your skills match their expectations.

Your CV must be formatted well. If it is too busy and has little structure, this can be a big hindrance to your overall application as it does not give off a positive reflection, even if you are fully qualified for the role.

We would recommend a free CV building tool such as Canva that allows you to populate your information into a great selection of different, professional designs. Google Docs also provide CV templates that we would recommend taking a look at. You want to ensure your application can look the best it can be! These helpful templates will enable you to structure your skills, experience, awards etc. effectively.

It is easy to list out your current responsibilities, but what do these achieve?

It is important that instead of listing something along the lines of ‘packing parcels’, you could adapt this to ‘carefully preparing hundreds of goods for transit to achieve business targets’, for example, adapting it in this way demonstrates that your work impacts the business positively.

Job seekers can underestimate their achievements very easily, but we suggest you use this tip in your future applications as it demonstrates that you recognise your worth within the company.

Many recruiters all too often will read the words ‘hard-working’ ‘passionate’ etc. Although these words may represent you very well, they can become a bit of a cliché as they are very overused. 

Here at Planwell Recruitment, we would suggest that it may be worth taking a different approach to how you would describe yourself. If you are hard-working and want to showcase this in your CV, use a Thesaurus to find alternate adjectives for this. If you are using this word, it is then important to back it up with an example. Without an example, these are essentially empty promises which will not appeal to recruiters.

Where you think outside events that are not directly related to the role may not be worth including within your CV, you are wrong.

Many recruiters will be curious to see any achievements outside of work, showing a great work/life balance. 

Whether you have completed online courses, have run charity events, play sport, run a side business etc. This will all help to make you appear much more interesting, in comparison to those who may not include information like this. It also demonstrated that your hard work doesn’t stop outside of work.

Reading over your CV to make sure spelling and grammar are all correct is vital. A simple spelling mistake can easily prevent your application from being considered for an interview, and this happens all too often.

We would recommend using the free Grammarly tool which will flag up any spelling or grammar issues found within your CV. 

Also, be careful with American spellings. Make sure if you’re using a spell checker, that it is set to English (UK).

We hope that these tips will help you land your next dream job role! Here at Planwell Recruitment, we have job roles available within London, Essex, and parts of Kent for warehouse, manufacturing and office roles. View our full list of vacancies on our website here and apply with us today!