Summer of Tech has organised many CV Review sessions over the years. These sessions give students a chance to receive constructive feedback from industry volunteers. This year we have six sessions, and most of them are held online on our very own event platform - which means we can help students from all over Aotearoa! We asked one of our wonderful industry volunteers and mentors, Terry Chapman, to share tips for students building their CVs. He has years of hiring experience - here are his top tips to make your CV stand out. 

1. Provide enough information - but not too much

When you are writing (or tweaking) your CV, remember that your CV gets you the interview and not the job. What this means in practice is that you don’t need to jam everything that you have ever done into your CV. Instead, the CV should provide enough information for the employer to want to put you in the ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’ interview CV pile.

2. Show personality and good presentation

Your CV needs to show enough of your personality for the employer to want to chat further with you. This should usually include a personal statement at the beginning of your CV that shows a little of your passion and personality. It will be the first thing that the potential employer reads! There are a couple of schools of thought on using a photo, colour, and infographics, depending on the generation of the employer. in short - different employers will have different preferences. Here's Terry's take - a CV with nice formatting, colour and layout speaks volumes about how you present yourself. Just like turning up to an interview in a business attire paints a different picture than turning up in jeans and a t-shirt!

3. Proofread... and proofread again

Carefully check your CV for spelling and grammar mistakes. Consider bringing a proofreader friend onboard, just to be sure. These have the potential to be interpreted as a general lack of attention to detail and care... and may land your CV in the ‘no’ pile.

4. Know the red flags

Many CVs have small ‘red flags’ that would be enough to potentially stop an employer from progressing to an interview. Here's what to avoid!

• Incongruous timelines with unexplained holes

• Removing career experience that wasn’t directly aligned with the intended future roles

• Dense layouts (Struggling to fit all your experiences onto one page? Awesome - but give them some space to breathe)

• Omission of key sections such as a personal statement, or not including references, or saying ‘references available on request'

• Odd layouts that were difficult to read, such as centre-aligned bullet points or multiple clashing colour sections on the page,

• Buzz-word bingo references (strong communicator, great stakeholder management, lists of technologies, etc.) with no supporting evidence/statements.

5. It's okay to have more than one page

If you're struggling to fit your CV onto one page, aim for two. Employers would rather read a nicely-spaced, organised, two-paged CV than an overfilled one-pager. 

6. Explain the value of your experiences

One of the most consistent issues that Terry has come across with CVs is that there are often statements that talk about the 'what' and not the 'so what'. If you are talking about an activity that you did, support that with the impact of the activity. For instance, 'Worked on a service desk' provides an employer with no real incentive to talk to a potential candidate in a pile of 20 other similar CVs. Instead “Worked on a service desk and helped implement a new process that reduced call waiting times from 10 minutes to 3 minutes” provides the employer with the ‘what’ and the ‘so what’ impact of your efforts. I recommend that you read your CV with a critical eye and ask yourself if you have sold yourself short with your experience descriptions. It will make a difference in the number of interview opportunities that your CV generates.Thank you Terry for sharing these expert tips to make your CV stand out - we hope this is useful as you career-readify your CVs! 

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