5 ways to make your CV shine

Posted on Thursday March 13 2014 by RIG Healthcare
Tags: Locum Advice

At Rig Healthcare, we specialise in placing medical professionals on a locum and permanent basis. We work to help our candidates every step of the way, from applying and interviews, to giving help and advice on finance and accommodation.

We work closely with each individual, analysing your specific skills and qualifications and making sure your CV is the best reflection of yourself. However, there are some starting points that everyone can do when applying for jobs.

1. Language

Avoid long sentences - use bullet points to keep your points snappy.
Describe your career so far in past tense (“led a team of medical interns…”), but for your current skillset use the present tense (“demonstrates strong leadership skills on a daily basis…”)

2. Presentation

Keep it clean and simple - your layout and structure is very important in making sure the reader doesn’t get lost in a sea of text.
Keep font consistent - for the body of the text use size 10-12 and a maximum size of 16 for titles.
Highlight major achievements – break text up into small, bite-sized chunks and draw attention to qualifications that you feel are most relevant to the job role.
List a formal email address – one common faux par that is regularly seen is inappropriate email addresses.
ilovetoparty@address.co.uk will not be seen as relevant and may give your potential employers a negative impression.

3. Content

Your personal statement is your biggest opportunity to prove why you will be best candidate for this job, so make sure you keep the content as relevant as possible. Write a concise summary of your personal, professional skills and ambitions, and link back to why you will be suitable for this job role. Avoid listing too much of your personal information, as well as false hobbies such as ‘listening to the radio’ or ‘watching television’.

4. References

Include names and contact details of recent references, and ensure your referees know you’ve listed them on your CV so that they can be prepared when they are contacted. If possible, it would be more beneficial to list someone you have worked with in a similar environment to the one you are looking to go into than someone you know on a personal level.

5. Proof Read

Finally, and most importantly, proof read your work.

A simple grammatical or spelling mistake on your CV could cost you the job, so make sure you’ve checked and re-checked both spelling and grammar, but also layout and that your CV ‘flows’.

Our specialist consultants can be your fresh pair of eyes to assist you in your hunt for medical jobs, contact one of our recruitment team to discuss your requirements.