A CV can look perfectly respectable and still get very little response. Often, the problem isn't the font, template or number of pages. The employer simply has to work too hard to find the experience that matters to them.

A good CV makes that connection quickly. It shows what you've actually done, gives evidence where it counts and makes your relevance to the vacancy clear without stretching the truth.

Start With the Vacancy, Not Your Old CV

Opening your old CV and changing the job title is tempting, especially when you're applying for several roles. The trouble is that you can end up with a document that describes your career rather than making a case for the particular job you're applying for.

Read the vacancy first. Look at the responsibilities and skills the employer keeps coming back to. Are they looking for someone who can manage projects, deal with customers, analyse information, handle technical work or lead a team?

That should influence what you put near the top of your CV and how much detail you give each role.

You rarely need a complicated structure. Contact details, a short profile, employment history, education and relevant skills will cover most applications. Add professional qualifications, memberships or other sections when they actually strengthen your case. Don't add them simply because there is room.

Stop Listing Duties and Show Your Contribution

This is where many otherwise solid CVs fall short. They read like job descriptions.

“Dealt with customers”, “managed a team” and “prepared reports” explain what the job involved, but they don't tell the employer much about what you achieved within it.

Take each significant responsibility and ask what changed because you handled it.

Perhaps you cleared a backlog, took over a difficult client account, introduced a more reliable filing system or helped train new staff. Those details give the reader something concrete to judge.

Compare “managed social media accounts” with “planned weekly content across three social platforms and improved audience engagement”. The second version gives the employer a clearer picture of the work and its outcome without resorting to inflated claims.

Use figures when you can stand behind them. Sales values, budgets, team sizes, project volumes and time saved can all provide useful context. If you don't have reliable figures, leave them out. A precise description is better than a statistic you cannot substantiate.

Tailor the CV Without Changing Your Career Story

Tailoring doesn't mean presenting yourself as a completely different candidate for every application. It means making the most relevant parts of your real experience easier to find.

Suppose a vacancy asks for stakeholder management. You may already have that experience, but it could be buried under vague wording. Working with clients, suppliers, senior colleagues or external partners can demonstrate the skill if you explain what you were actually responsible for.

This is also worth bearing in mind if you're considering whether to pay someone to write my cv. A useful CV isn't just a polished document. The real work is identifying the evidence in your background that matters to the role and presenting it clearly.

Use the employer's language sensibly

If a vacancy asks for “project management” and that genuinely describes your experience, use the term. It makes the connection easier for both recruiters and applicant tracking systems to recognise.

That doesn't mean copying the job advert line by line. Use its terminology where it accurately describes something you've actually done.

Keep ATS Software in Mind, but Write for Humans

Applicant tracking systems can help employers organise and screen applications. You don't need to build your entire CV around them, but a few sensible choices can prevent avoidable problems.

Use familiar headings, readable fonts and consistent formatting. Avoid decorative graphics, complicated text boxes and layouts that make basic information difficult to extract.

Then forget about the software for a moment and read the CV as a person would. Can you find the candidate's recent experience quickly? Are the strongest examples easy to spot? Does the page feel crowded because every detail has been given the same amount of attention?

Before sending it, open the final file and check it properly. Look at dates, page breaks, spacing, headings and contact details. Small errors are easy to miss when you've been staring at the same document for hours.

Ask yourself:

• Can I see a clear connection between this CV and the vacancy?
• Have I shown what I contributed rather than only listing duties?
• Are the important skills supported by real examples?
• Would the main points still be clear if someone skimmed the CV quickly?

Avoid Mistakes That Make Good Experience Look Weaker

Some CV problems are surprisingly basic. A typo in a job title, inconsistent employment dates or a missing digit in a phone number can make a strong application look rushed.

Other problems are less obvious. Long personal profiles often take up valuable space while saying very little. Words such as “hard-working”, “passionate” and “team player” aren't automatically wrong, but they don't prove much on their own. Your experience should do most of that work.

You also don't need to describe every task from every job.

If you have ten years of experience, giving the same amount of space to an old, unrelated position as you give to a recent role relevant to the vacancy weakens the overall CV. Older positions can often be condensed so that recent and useful experience gets the attention it deserves.

Give Your CV a Final Reality Check

Once the draft is finished, stop reading it as the person who wrote it. Read it as the employer receiving it.

They aren't trying to understand every part of your working life. They're deciding whether your background is relevant enough to justify looking more closely.

Check that the experience most closely linked to the vacancy is easy to find. Make sure your recent roles contain evidence rather than just responsibilities, and check that the skills mentioned in your profile or skills section appear elsewhere in the CV.

Also look for information that is accurate but doesn't earn its place.

A qualification from several years ago may still matter in a regulated profession, for example, while a long list of minor duties from an unrelated job may simply be taking up space.

If an essential requirement from the vacancy is missing, don't try to disguise the gap. First check whether you've overlooked relevant experience that could address it. If you genuinely don't meet the requirement, the CV shouldn't pretend that you do.

Make the Recruiter's Job Easier

The CV that gets noticed isn't necessarily the most elaborate one. More often, it's the one where the relevant information can be found without making the recruiter search for it.

Give important experience enough space. Cut detail that doesn't support the application. Use the vacancy's terminology when it accurately reflects your background. And don't turn the document into a wall of keywords simply because you're worried about ATS screening.

Finally, read the finished CV as if you knew nothing about the person behind it. After a quick skim, can you tell what they do, what they've contributed and why that experience matters for this particular role?

If you can, the CV is doing what it needs to do.