Even some of the most successful and popular personalities need to have their CV updated. This CV came from a Mr S. Claus who has clearly gained a lot of experience during his (very) long career – but still his CV is still letting him down so let’s have a brief look at where he could make an improvement!
Take a look at Santa’s CV
Layout
The first big mistake here is that Mr Claus has chosen to use a coloured background and include a cartoon picture! We advise that you keep your CV neutral and at all costs avoid including images especially cartoons! A simple white background free of images looks professional and less cluttered.
He has structured his CV well with clearly defined sections and good use of an easy to read font and text size. However by keeping his CV to just one page he has limited the amount of information he could provide. Most employers will expect to see a CV no longer than 2 pages long so there’s more room available for Mr Claus to use.
Personal Profile
The opening statement is quite strong and communicates his strengths and experience succinctly (we’d advise your profile statement is no longer than 5 lines). However, we’d also advise he avoids using statements like ‘a supernatural knowledge of a key market sector’ – however accurate it might be! Recruiters are not impressed by any applicant who makes apparently outlandish claims in their CV.
Employment
A bit thin on the ground here Mr Claus! What were you doing all that time? It can be hard to bring out the various dimensions of your employment history but it’s what a recruiter will expect to see. We’d also advise that you always reflect past employment in a positive light – Mr Claus may have had a hard time at the Council of Nicaea but does a recruiter really need to know that?
Education/Qualifications
This is another key section of your C V so getting it right is vital. Mr Claus’ section looks thin and generic – we suggest:
- List your qualifications in order of the most recent and most relevant.
- Include the following details: date, title of the qualification, place of study, and grade achieved.
- Include any qualifications you are currently working for but make it clear that you have not completed them yet.
Hobbies
Well Mr Claus clearly has quite a good life but we’d ask if even needs to include this in his CV. For experienced candidates the inclusion of hobbies is not always necessary as their career histories should be enough to ensure they reach the interview stage. However, for school leavers or those with little experience in an industry the hobbies section is a useful way of communicating passion for the industry they seek to work in.
So plenty Mr Claus could do to improve his CV, but secretly we hope he stays in his current job….he’s too good at what he’s been doing for all these years and we hope he never applies for another job!
If you want to give yourself the present of a new job winning CV then get in touch with our team of expert CV writers today.