CV Tip: For whom are you writing your CV? Consider your audience!

Sobhan Mohmand, Career Expert          28 Aug 2019

You cannot just dive into the deep waters of writing CVs without some background knowledge of your target audience.

Yes, CVs also have a particular target audience: prospective employers.

We have previously stated that your CV is a sales brochure and that you are the ‘product’. Given that your CV is considered to be a marketing tool, you can now start thinking about some effective marketing strategies to sell the product.

CV: Marketing Strategy

In marketing a target audience profile (TAP) is used to find out more about a particular target/customer audience. To save you time and effort, we have done a general TAP of prospective employers. Our findings are as follows:

• Age group: 30 – 45
• Gender: Male (2/3), Female (1/3)
• Occupation: Manager, Human Resources Officer
• Education level: Minimum a BSc degree (2:1)
• Income level: £32,000 – £55,000.

The above statistics clearly outline that prospective employers are well-educated, serious and extremely busy people who do not have time for tedious and lengthy CVs.

Does your CV grab the attention of the employers?

Besides looking at the profile of prospective employers, you should also consider the following facts;

1. Nowadays, a single job advertisement attracts dozens if not hundreds of applications.
2. On average, a recruiter will only look at a CV for about 20 to 30 seconds.

Your CV needs to stand out above the other CVs. Your CV needs to grab the attention of the recruiter and ‘force’ them to arrange an interview for you.

To achieve this goal; put yourself in the shoes of an employer for a moment.

Image that you are sitting at a desk; you are tired and in front of you is a huge pile of CVs consisting of multiple pages. What would you want to see on a brilliant CV? What would you think would discredit a CV completely? Take a moment to make some educated guesses and then compare it with the following lists:

What prospective employers want to see on your CV:

• Good and clear layout
• Well-ordered, logical and easy to read
• Responding to the specific needs of the advertisement
• Extensive and relevant work experience
• Good education and qualifications

What prospective employers do NOT want to see on your CV:

• Very little experience
• Poor layout (headings, structure, font, etc.)
• Inappropriate CV length
• Spelling/Grammar mistakes
• Little or no qualifications

So, if you want to take someone’s advice, then take it from employers and recruiters because they will be the ones reading your CV.