229 free CV templates in Microsoft Word | Page 3

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Latest CV templates:

CV for fast food jobs : Word CV template

CV for fast food jobs : Word CV template

This smart CV template is the perfect choice for café, restaurant, coffee shop & other food service roles, whether customer service or waiter/waitress. The stylish design helps your application to stand out.

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Entry level CV template in Microsoft Word

Entry level CV template in Microsoft Word

A curvy stylish entry level CV template that is great for graduates, 1st-job hunters and those early in their career (with 2-3 previous roles). Curvaceous brackets divide up your details and help to draw attention to your CV.

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CV length

The length of a CV depends on what role you are applying for.

The industry standard is two pages, which is what you should certainly be aiming for if you want to attract the attention of an employer. Any more than two pages tends to lose the attention of the reader.

Keep in mind most hiring managers like to be able to quickly scan through a CV to ascertain whether or not the candidate is right for the role. With literally hundreds of applications to read, the hiring manager has to make a quick judgement call on which CV to add to the 'shortlist' pile for a potential interview. Having three or more pages CV could mean that yours is overlooked!

If you're struggling for room, edit your content for relevancy. Don't decrease the font size to cram in more info - you want the CV to be easy to read.

For further information on the correct length of a CV, read our article 'How long should a CV be?'

How can I make my CV stand out?

With so much competition for every job, it's harder now than ever before to get your CV noticed. Everyone has a degree - everyone has work experience - so how will you make your CV stand out from the crowd? The answer is in highlighting achievements, whether these were part of a paid work position or gained in some other capacity. Achievements that prove you have skills transferable to the role you're applying for will make the best impression. Whether you've beaten your sales targets, set up a community project, coached your local football team or raised money for charity, achievements are a great way to prove you have the key soft skills that your prospective employer values the most. An easy way to showcase your achievements is to add a fancy text box into your CV layout - in this video, we show you how.

Top tip: tailor each and every CV

"You should focus on the reader’s core requirements and adjust or adapt your CV to their (and therefore) for each specific application." ~ University of Oxford

Too many people simply write a generic CV for every role they apply to. Failing to tailor your CV to each and every job role is a huge mistake that can cost you a lot of interviews. Even if you're applying to lots of positions with the same job title, you need to study the job advert carefully and adjust how you present your skills and experience. This is because each UK employer has a different set of values and requirements that they prioritise.

Let's take the position of store assistant as an example. From Aldi's recruitment pages we can see that the store values a 'muck in and do what needs to be done' attitude. They're looking for people who are 'naturally friendly, respectful and thoughtful' with a positive attitude. Great! We can give examples of how in previous roles or projects, we've demonstrated those traits.

But wait. What if we also want to apply to Sainsbury's. Can't we use the same CV? Well, from the Sainsbury's store pages, we can see that Sainsbury's values people who are united in doing the right thing for their customers. They want people who can deliver happy, positive and helpful service, and who take pride in going above and beyond what’s expected. Brilliant! So now we can create a second copy of our CV and tweak it to include examples of where we've demonstated those traits that are relevant to the role. For example, we could say in past roles we've always gone 'above and beyond', then give brief examples of when we actually did this.

It's not that Aldi doesn't want people to go above-and-beyond; or that Sainsbury's doesn't want people to muck and do what's needed. No doubt, both of those qualities are universally desirable to store assistant roles! However, focusing in on the person specification in the job advert and providing relevant examples of how you meet that specification is a powerful way to land more interviews.

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