4 steps to spring clean your CV

Jobsearch, Jobseekers / 13 April 2022

Life changes, often at a rapid pace, and so do you. The career goals you had a year ago may not be the ones you want to work towards today. You gain more experience at work, learn new things, and develop fresh perspective on where you want your life to go. All this change means that your CV may not be as up-to-date as you think. Don’t worry though. There’s no need to rip up your existing CV and completely start again. You can do that, of course, but often all that is needed is a good old dust and polish.

By the way, spring cleaning your CV isn’t only a great idea when you’re on the search for a new job. It can also be useful when you’ve just started in a role, been promoted, or completed a training course.

If you’re not sure where to start, here are four easy and actionable steps you can take to spring clean your CV today.

Has your career plan changed?

Are you still interested in landing the same job or following the same career path as the last time you updated your CV, or has your career plan changed? For instance:

Have you decided to jump into a new industry?
Have you levelled up, either through promotion, experience, or qualification and want a more senior position?
Have your home responsibilities changed so that you now want to step sideways instead of looking for a more senior role?

If your career plan has changed, it stands to reason that your CV must change too. An ideal place to mention your new career aspiration is in your CV personal statement but you may also want to rejig your CV to suit your new plan.

What first impression do you want to give?

Your CV will often form an employer’s first impression of who you are as a candidate and prospective employee. It therefore makes sense that it should represent you in the right and most relevant light.

It’s common practice to alter your CV to suit each job you apply for. However, your CV should be representative of who you are as a whole person too, for instance:

Does your CV demonstrate your leadership skills?
Is your path from beginner to a worker with more experience and skills clear?
Does your CV showcase your value as an employee?

It isn’t just the wording that can create that impression. What about the layout of your CV? Is it suitable for the type of role you’re interested in?

Look at your CV as a whole as well as its parts to decide whether it genuinely portrays who you are as a candidate.

Are you using the right keywords in your CV?

No matter how well constructed your CV is, recruiters and employers may only look over it for a few seconds before deciding whether it goes on the yes or no pile. Worse still, they may use an applicant tracking system (ATS) and remove the human element altogether in the initial screening. In either scenario, give your CV the best chance of heading to the yes pile by using the right keywords.

A keyword is a word or phrase that stands out in a search, whether that is a search of your CV or a Google search online. So how do you work out which keywords to use in your CV?

Go back to the job advert and description. What skills and job requirements are listed that you could truthfully and word-for-word include in your CV?

For more information on how keywords can be useful, read How to make your CV searchable.

What’s changed and is there anything to add to your CV?

You might be surprised by how much has changed since you last updated your CV. It might be:

qualifications you’ve achieved
training courses you’ve attended
jobs and work experience you haven’t listed on your CV
relevant interests you’ve taken up
your career plan and what you want from a job
a house move

If it’s relevant to your job search, add it to your CV. Don’t forget to reflect those changes in your personal statement too.

If you find that by adding jobs, your CV goes beyond the one or two page limit, knock off your first few roles or reduce the earliest roles down to just the job title, employer, location, and dates you worked there. Alternatively, if the early roles are most relevant, keep those as they are and shorten the jobs that aren’t relevant instead.

Do keep personal details up-to-date, such as your address, phone number, and email address. Make it easy for the employer to contact you.

Final Thoughts

Spring cleaning your CV doesn’t have to be a long, complicated process. At its heart is the question, ‘Is my CV relevant?’. That means relevant to your current career path, relevant to who you are as a candidate, and relevant to the employers you want to attract.

Using the above four steps, you can not only update your CV but also improve your chances of landing your ideal job.