3 Ways To Shorten Your CV Without Losing Its Value

By Sera Kazungu

The competitive nature of today’s job market has forced job seekers to re-evaluate every step that they take on their journey to finding that dream job. You may decide to change professions, change your references or even change your recommendations.

The most important document that you need to check is your CV. This is because it is what introduces you to a potential employer. To get a call for an interview, a recruiter has to first be impressed by what is presents in your document.

It is rare to find employers going through long CVs. This is because they receive many CVs every day and they are always pressed for time.

The maximum length of a CV should be 3 pages, according to Melody Mwendwa, a Professional CV writer and career advisor at Corporate Staffing Services. Anything beyond that, qualifies as being too long.

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Below are the ways to shorten your CV without reducing its value to employers.

How To Summarize The CV

1. Remove all irrelevant sections
The most important sections in your CV include profile, work experience, education, Others And referees. If you find that you have an extra section, it is time for you to erase it because it adds no value whatsoever to your CV.

You also have to make sure that the sections are filled in only with information that is relevant to the type of job that you are looking for.

2. Remove all ‘stale’ skills
Does your CV contain skills that you acquired over 4 years ago? These are an unnecessary addition to your CV. The job market trends keep changing and it is highly unlikely that you will use any of your past skills.

Employers want to see how you have kept up with the trends, so you have to make sure that you only put in the current skills that you have acquired. This will greatly help you reduce the length of your CV and will ensure that it is current and professional.

3. Avoid repetition.
It is important to ensure that you do not repeat any information you put on the CV. For example, When you write, a skill that you have, it is not necessary to write it again, even though you have acquired it in a different company.

Focus on building up your CV to be more marketable, as opposed to trying to stress or exaggerate the skills that you have.

Do the listed points refer to you? Then it is time for you to review your CV to improve your chances of getting called for an interview.

Sera is a Communication Officer at Career Point Kenya. If you have any career related queries, contact sera@careerpointkenya.co.ke

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