Get out of line. How to sell your properties in a CV so that they do not act as clichés

I’m reliable, flexible, communicative. Such words are used by many candidates in the belief that they belong to a kind of mandatory CV equipment. Requirements for these properties indeed appear in job advertisements. Should they be mentioned in the CV at all? Yes, but it has its rules.

You are writing a resume and have just reached the properties section. It should be about what you are doing and what you are like. Here is a place where established connections of the type are often mentioned: I am responsible, flexible, communicative, I can work independently and in a team. At the same time, such a list loses its significance for HR professionals, given how often they read it in their CVs.

The moment you use it, you run the risk of your resume falling into the dozens of others. You will not sell your uniqueness. Besides, you will reveal that you probably used a universal CV that you send to everyone. The HR will get a picture of your real motivation to work for his company, and it won’t be very favorable.

Why do they want it at all?

But the opposite is also true. If candidates use clichés in their CVs, companies often do not deal with them. Also advertisements, it is full of communication, reliability, or flexibility. Recruiters have the right to write requirements for such properties, but ideally, they should explain why the property is important for the position.

For example, flexibility. Under it, everyone can imagine something different. Are the services on weekends as well? Or alternating busy periods of working overtime with stages of being freer? The more specifically the requirements are explained, the more likely candidates can respond. Either decide that such an offer is not interesting for them, or with their CV in which they can prove that the advertised work is exactly for them.

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Identify what your business requires

Your features are still the same. However, the company is mainly interested in those that you will be able to apply for a given position. He will also list them in the advertisement and expect to find them in the CVs of the candidates.

“Every company has its own terminology, and the HR specialist who reads the CV looks for the main keywords that are typical of the position. It then focuses mainly on the candidate’s last job and key skills – technological, language, and the like, ” Marketing & PR Executive of the personnel agency.

Therefore, it pays to pay attention to reading the advertisement and feel free to tick in it what the employer emphasizes. Looking for an employee to fill out orders and invoices? Then it is no wonder that he demands care. The graphic designer or website creator should have a creative spirit, which is a characteristic that would seem a bit suspicious in the advertisement for the position of chief accountant.

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Be specific

Once you know which employer interests you and why let him know that you have them. (If that’s true, of course.) Are you reliable and responsible? How does it manifest itself? Also, imagine what the property is needed for given the job description.

Try to put it together and specifically demonstrate.

Example: I manage the management of projects for which I take responsibility to the end in the required time. If there are complications, I solve them immediately.

To be careful, you may want to write: I carefully review and submit the documents I am in charge of without material or grammatical errors.

Instead of the phrase that you can work alone or in a team, try to think about how you are subordinates or superiors, what kind of colleagues. What would other co-workers or acquaintances say about you? How would they describe you if HR asked them and they talked about you in a positive spirit?

How has your art worked in the past?

If you think about your qualities for a while, you will probably come up with examples from the past, when you managed to achieve something thanks to them. It is not at all out of the question to state them, but again they should correspond to the requirements in the advertisement.

“If we want to highlight some specific skills, it’s good to focus on those that are as relevant as possible for the position and thanks to which, for example, we have successfully contributed to the successful completion of a project,” adds our expert.

As an example, he cites a candidate applying for a business role. “He can emphasize his bargaining skills by mentioning a specific case where he was able to increase the turnover of his employer,” Králová explains how it is possible to prove, for example, good communication skills, which are assumed for the role of a salesman.

“So better than listing every feature that an employer can only wish for is to focus on the main ones and demonstrate them with a brief description of a specific case,” sums up Marketing & PR Executive of the personnel agency.