How Can Design Skills and Online Tools Make You Stand Out?

About Natalia

Natalia Veretenyk is the Lead Product Designer at KPMG as well as one of our teachers on the UX/UI Design Course. Follow her on LinkedIn to get more insights on user experience. She has written this blog to teach you how to use your design skills to express yourself.

How to Write a CV

First and foremost, it’s important to understand that there are no strict rules when it comes to crafting a CV. Simply, it should serve as a summary of your personal and professional attributes, showcasing why you’re the perfect fit for a particular job. It provides a summary of your personal and professional attributes that proves why you’re the right candidate for a job.

Employers Want to Know

• Who you are
• What you have done
• Why they should hire you
• Employers might ask for an online form, CV, cover letter, video intro, and reference.

Don’t forget about your digital footprint. Additionally, it’s important to note that approximately 90% of recruiters will check your social media presence to learn more about you. With a service such as deseat.me you can clean up your online presence.

Who You Are

A CV is a summary of your personal and professional attributes that proves why you’re the right candidate for a job. But first, take a moment to reflect on what you want from your new role.

First: define what your dream job looks like and what kind of company you want to work for.

Second: identify the skills you have to offer.

Your Strengths

Discussing your strengths can be one of the most difficult parts of the job interview. Therefore, think about what your top 3 strengths would be. Here are some keywords to consider using: enthusiastic, self-motivated, analytical, dependable, dynamic, enjoy helping people, focused.

Highlight your greatest professional accomplishments. If you are new to an industry, take a personal achievement at university or a volunteering role that can demonstrate your great communication or problem-solving skills.

Describe what you did in your previous roles, what you achieved, and how these experiences relate to the position you’re seeking. Additionally, you can include other experiences like volunteer work, certifications, and hobbies. Organise your previous experiences into a story and tell your professional journey.

Build a CV

While there are no official rules for CV formatting, there are key elements that should be included:

1. Contact Information:  This section should contain your name, address, phone number, and email.
2. Opening summary: Comprising 2 or 3 sentences, your opening summary should provide a brief description of who you are and what you can offer. It’s an opportunity to market yourself and infuse a touch of personality.
3. Work experience: Highlight your most notable professional achievements in this section. Follow this structure: company, job title, dates, key projects & results, and include any relevant volunteer work, with the most recent experiences at the top.
4. Education/achievements: List your academic and professional qualifications in this section, adhering to this structure: qualification, dates, grades, and key projects/research, with the most recent qualifications at the top.
5. Key skills: Answer the question, “What are you great at?” and directly link your response to the requirements of the new role. Be prepared to elaborate on your skills and provide examples during an interview.

Keywords for skills to integrate into your CV include HTML/CSS, community management, graphic design, complex logistics, stock management, and more.

Three Main CV Principles:

• Clear and simple layout
• No more than two sides of A4
• Tell employers what they want to hear

Best practices:

• Use a modern font that’s easy to read and avoid Comic Sans.
• Stick to one font throughout.
• Use a large font size for headings.
• Do not use coloured fonts or paper.
• Go easy on the bold italics and underlining.
• Check for spelling errors and typos.
• Add the most relevant and recent information.
• Share the CV in PDF format.

Did you know that on average 118 people apply for a given job and only 20% of applicants get to the interview stage?

Write a Cover Letter

1. Starting strong. For example, Hi, Hello, Dear
2. Introduction: who are you and what are you interested in, what role you are applying for, and where you heard about the vacancy.
3. Summarise yourself: what is important to you, what you are good at, and what you enjoy. Alternative ways to sell yourself are “my values are…”, “I pride myself…”, “I have proven myself to be”
4. Problem vs. solution. Based on your experience, give examples of the solution for challenges in the role.
5. Relevant achievements: certificates, volunteer experience, achievements, languages, skills, hobbies, and interests (if relevant to the job), link to your website.
6. Sign off your letter with a clear next step, for example “I look forward to hearing from you” or “Please let me know if you would like any more information”.

How long should your letter be? Keep it to one page, from four to six paragraphs, and add only the most relevant and recent information. There’s no magic number but likely around 300 words. It depends on the job and the level of detail they need.