As you prepare to leave college and head into the world of work, you’ll have one thing on your mind: landing that dream job! Those first months after graduating can be a disheartening time. You may anticipate suffering knock-back after knock-back as you gradually acclimatize to the idea that you’re going to have to settle for less until you have a bit more experience. But you can improve your chances of getting a great position, or at least a nice leaping point, by sprucing up your CV in ways that we know make recruiters pay attention.

List your achievements and experience in reverse-chronological order, so as to grab their attention quickly – many recruiters will look at a résumé for less than ten seconds before moving on if they’re not interested. If you’re graduating for the first time, you might not have much experience to share yet – but you can convey what skills you have learnt in a succinct list of bullet points under your jobs, qualifications and extracurricular activities. Tailor these to each specific job to which you apply: go through their list of requirements, and see how you can promote personal examples under your own job or course descriptions. You may need to think laterally!

You can also make an impact by including a short but unique cover letter. This is your chance to get an edge over the 45% of applicants who won’t bother, and to address the hiring manager by name – a detail which you will of course research in advance, to show what a hot property you are.

For 18 simple tips on how to tweak your CV to perfection, check out this new infographic – it’s full of ways to make that résumé stand out, even if you don’t yet have the experience you feel you need.

****Big thanks to our friends at NeoMam Studios for the graphic!!****