Strengths in a CV: what is an asset and what strengths should be distinguished in a CV?
Your strengths on your CV must be visible immediately. The recruiter wants to have them at hand to quickly decide whether it is worth inviting you for an interview. So – if you highlight your strengths properly, your CV will simply be more effective.
You don’t know where and how to highlight your strengths in your CV? Read this article, adapt your document to our tips, and your application will turn a blush. You will see examples of strengths for your CV and learn where to enter them in your application to immediately attract the attention of the recruiter.
What are the strengths and features of your CV do you absolutely need to emphasize?
Wondering how to write a resume that will be effective? Employers browse dozens of documents every day. If you want to get a job, your CV needs more than the average application. How to stand out? Here’s a little cheat sheet to help you decide which strengths on your CV to highlight.
The biggest advantages of a CV that employers appreciate: Make sure that each of these sections is in your document.
Positive personality traits on your CV can also be your strength. Some of them are valuable regardless of your profession, so it is worth mentioning them especially when you are writing your first CV or changing the industry.
What character traits should you include in your CV?
Here are the positive qualities of an employee that employers pay attention to:
- commitment and own initiative
- professionalism
- creativity
- willingness to learn and openness to new experiences
- independence and responsibility
- teamwork skills
- flexibility and adaptability
- resistance to stress
- good organization of work
- ability to work under the influence of time.
Of course, never lie on your CV. Employers know well what recruitment questions to ask to expose a dishonest candidate. Just think about your strengths and how to describe them in your CV.
Matched work experience
In a classic CV, Experience is one of the key elements (next to personal data, skills, and the CV clause). The point is for the recruiter to see that you have experience in performing the duties that they will require of you in the future. The advantage of your document will therefore be a well-structured Experience section, rich in information about your qualifications and employment history.
If you send a CV that is not a response for one specific advertisement, but it was created as a universal application for several companies, you can be rejected at the very beginning of the recruitment Therefore, make sure that your CV and cover letter relate to the needs of a specific employer and include keywords from the job offer you are applying for.
Professional achievements
In your CV, it is worth adding professional achievements in the section where you describe your experience. Just below your job list, list any success that is related to your previous job. If you can describe this information with numbers and percentages, it would be perfect.
If it fits the nature of your work, you can present your professional achievements, for example, using a graph. LaTeX – an editor for creating a CV will give you such a possibility. However, remember not to overdo it with the number of graphic elements.
If you are writing your CV without experience, list your achievements in studies or internships, or just something that you have achieved in a relationship as part of extracurricular activities or extracurricular activities. Each success that fits the image of your candidacy and increases its attractiveness is a real asset for a recruiter in a CV.
Our advice: mention one or two of your key achievements in the body of your CV email. Thanks to this, the employer is more likely to open your document.
Soft and hard skills
Research shows that that the importance of soft skills in CVs has recently increased – 80% of employers believe that they are necessary to be successful. This means that it is worthwhile to work more carefully on the Skills section of your CV so that the document immediately highlights your strengths. Curriculum vitae, in which skills are primarily emphasized, is the so-called Functional CV. What exactly do you need to do?
First, it’s a good idea to put this section at the top of your CV, just below the Job Summary. The point is for the recruiter to notice it immediately by reviewing your curriculum vitae. You must also take care of the proper form of the skill record, which in this case is a list.
To properly distinguish soft skills, divide the entire section into two groups – as presented in the sample CV below. First, you list the most important specialist skills necessary to work in a given position, and then you add your character traits and interpersonal skills to this list.
Skills and qualities that employers pay attention to
Specialist skills:
- knowledge of online marketing
- editing of texts, including press articles
- the ability to search for interesting topics
- handling of editor programs
Soft skills:
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- good organization of work
- independence
Punctuality:
- personal culture
- interpersonal skills
Recruiters appreciate features such as creativity, ability to cooperate, ability to adapt to new situations, and time management. If you have any of these skills, it can become one of the strengths of your CV.
Courses and training in CV
Information that you have diplomas on your account completing additional courses or vocational training will surely appeal to the recruiter. It will show your interests in your CV and will prove that you are learning and working on your career.
Courses and training can be included in the Education section of your CV, but if you want them to really get attention, make a separate space for them. Remember that information about courses will enrich your document only if the diplomas are valid and related to the position you are applying for.
Use the ready-made CV template to fill out online, where you will find all the necessary sections and highlight your strengths more easily in your CV.
Adequate foreign language knowledge
A well-described language level on your CV will allow you to emphasize your language skills. Remember to include in your CV both a verbal description and a symbolic mark corresponding to a given level, type B1, B2, C1.
What else can you do to make your strengths on your CV immediately visible?
Here are a few more tips. They will help you not only highlight your strengths in your CV but also ensure a professional look of the document, even if you decide to write a fairly simple CV.
Add to CV Professional summary – you will gain an advantage
The professional summary in the CV is a short section in which you describe the highlights of your candidacy. It is like a well-written film review, after which you immediately buy tickets for the next screening. In this section, you can put your most important strengths and highlight them in bold.
A professional summary is rarely found in Polish application documents, so you will definitely stand out by adding it to your CV. By writing a few sentences about who you are, what you have achieved, and why you should be hired, you will encourage the recruiter to read your CV.
To write a good summary resume professional, you must be concise. 4-5 sentences and no more than 50 words are enough. It is also worth highlighting the most important information in bold font because then your description will gain another advantage, which is legibility.
A professional summary that describes the greatest advantages of the candidacy – template
I am a journalist with 6 years of work experience in the daily press and monthly magazines. I have two awards granted by the voivodeship authorities for reports on environmental pollution in the region. I am ready to use all my skills and experience to create a widely read reportage column in your magazine.
Take care of your CV, which will emphasize your strengths
The strengths in your CV are not only specific data about your candidacy. The appearance of your curriculum vitae also matters. But what should a CV look like to make the recruiter interested immediately?
If you don’t know whether a standard CV in Word or a creative CV will be better, we are here to help you with this question.
Research shows that if the employer had unlimited time to browse the application, the appearance or template of the curriculum vitae would in no way affect the evaluation of the document. But we all know that such conditions are rare.
The truth is that an average recruiter spends 7.4 seconds reading one CV. During this time, documents that somehow stand out have the best chance. Do you want your CV to be so impressive?
You can use the CV creator because it will allow you to create a very professional document, free from common mistakes in the CV and perfectly formatted. If you choose a decent document that meets the recruiter’s expectations, you can be sure that your CV will gain one more advantage – it will be a professional appearance, very important in a modern CV.
o CV format and selection of the appropriate font for the CV. Choose a font that will present the content of your CV in both legible and interesting ways. It’s not worth experimenting with fonts – you should choose one that is considered safe and not very controversial.
Add references from previous employers to your CV
References in your CV can become your real big advantage in recruitment. We’ll explain why in a moment. First, however, you need to know that references are best added to your CV in the form of contacts with previous employers and colleagues. These can be phone numbers or e-mail addresses.
Just remember to ask the chosen person first for permission to give you a reference. Otherwise, this advantage can turn into a big disadvantage if the angry former employer is surprised by a recruiter from another company with a question about your qualifications – especially when he does not want or time to talk about them.
So why can references become an asset on a CV? They convince the recruiter that you have nothing to hide and that you are sure of a good opinion about yourself, which can be confirmed by previous employers.