While you’re making a list of resolutions for the New Year (and secretly admitting to yourself that you won’t stick to most of them), it is the best possible time to revamp your CV and get it out there with fresh applications!

 

 

Why now, why January?

 

The chances are, once you’re back at work after the festivities, you’ll settle back into the same old routine and won’t have the time. The opportune time to take action is today; not someday!

 

You will also probably find that the job market briefly peaks in January as recruitment budgets are renewed and other people at all different levels have the same idea as you, making career moves which in turn create fresh vacancies.

 

 

Be brutally honest with yourself

 

There is a tendency to include every single position that you’ve ever had, but be honest and be brutal – if you’re applying for a position as a trader in the city for example, will the hiring manager really care about your childhood paper round? Take some time to research the positions and potential employers you are interested in. Make sure you tailor your CV to highlight the key corresponding responsibilities/knowledge and skills that you have gained in your career to date.

 

Every CV and application you fill out should be concise and compelling. The whole reason you are writing up the CV in the first place is to make the hiring manager want to meet you. You want it to be a tease. Think of it as internet dating, or meeting someone in a café/bar. The aim is to make them interested; to make them want to come after you. Recruiters and employers are busy people; they won’t spend an overly long time scanning a pile of CVs and they won’t bother reading any waffle. Delete anything that doesn’t directly relate to the job you are seeking or which doesn’t inform the reader of something important about you and your qualities.

 

 

Make your life easier, collate your key accomplishments

 

To make the process easier in New Years to come, it is handy to start jotting down any big successes or new skills as soon as possible after the fact. This will help by providing you with an accurately dated record of you achievements over the course of the year, which is a useful tool to have at your disposal when you start to give your CV its much needed make-over.

 

Don’t be sentimental about past accomplishments. If your Duke of Edinburgh Gold certificate isn’t relevant, or if you have had ample relevant successes since, it shouldn’t make an appearance. Be judicious about what you include, because putting in something that seems irrelevant will lead the hiring manager to believe that you have ran out of relevant things to say.