As a mid-level or senior-level professional, when you declutter your CV, it helps you position yourself to be the most suited candidate for interview invites and eventually, landing the job. To declutter your CV, you must ensure all unwanted details are cut off. Afterwards, you pay more attention to relevant information on your career, skills and job experience, which the hiring manager needs in order to make a decision over whether to hire you or not.
Unclogging your CV ensures you have yourself a tailor-made CV designed to get you closer to your next job. This is where we take a closer look at how you can declutter your CV.
The first step to declutter your CV is to identify and be specific about your career path. Your several years of experience, which, by default, looks very chunky with several pages, may not appear impressive to the hiring manager. Also, they are probably not relevant to your career goal.
When you have a multitude of career experiences that are not narrowed down to a specific industry or specialisation, some hiring managers tend to assume you will not stay on such a path long enough to make an impact.
In some cases, some past experience that would be important can be included only when they buffer your skills and experience to the career path, industry or job niche of your interest.
Once you identify what elements on your CV needs to stay and what needs to be taken out, the next step would be to make actual edits. In other words, this is the part where you edit your CV. The internet today is not short of CV templates and graphically designed CV but you must bear in mind that most job applications are now vetted by ATS (Applicant Tracking System) even for select applications on Jobberman.
This means that for your application to get through to the hiring manager for a chance at interview invite, you must ensure your edits and CV design is simple, clear and focuses on content.
When you proofread your CV, ensure you think like an employer because some details that are important to selecting an entry-level candidate like internships, extra-curricular activities etc might not be necessary.
Show your hiring manager what you have done, what you can do and the skills you need to do it. Ensure that your skills are updated, speak the language of the employer and that of the industry your seek to apply for.
A final step might be to take one final yet critical look at your CV to ensure it brands you better for the job you want.