Sell yourself with confidence.
Use your CV to make a positive first impression on the employer who will be reading it. It needs to contain the right information about you in relation to the vacancy, and it needs to communicate to the recruiter in the right way. Include any pieces of information which prove you are the right person for the job highlight specific examples of your skills, experience and academic background to alert the reader to your employability.

Keep it concise.
Recruiters can often be faced with mountains of CVs, so they don't want to be faced with a rambling, overly long document. Remember that your CV is only the first step in the job hunt it's a way of getting your foot in the door. Once you get to interview stage you can go into further detail. As far as your CV is concerned, keep it punchy and stick to the job of selling your abilities. Your CV should ideally be no longer than two sides of A4 paper.

Tailor your CV.
Take time to tailor your CV to each individual role for which you are applying. No matter how similar two roles might be, each recruiter will be looking for different things in your CV, so you must make sure it speaks their language.

Research the company or simply use the job ad to gauge what they're looking for in a potential employee and link your skills and experience to the requirements of the role.

Don't leave gaps.
By leaving gaps in your CV, you are inviting the recruiter to guess what you might have been up to for those periods of time. Instead of allowing them to make their own assumptions, give details of what you were doing. Even if you spent time out of employment travelling, for example - think about what you were doing during that time and pick out aspects which might be used to highlight your suitability. These might include so-called 'soft skills' such as communication, self-management, teamwork or project management.

To avoid leaving gaps, update your CV regularly whether or not you are thinking of applying for jobs. By doing this, you will avoid the need to think back to points in your career which happened a long time ago.

Ensure it's free of errors!
One of the easiest ways for recruiters to weed out 'weaker' CVs is to scan them for errors. By failing to check your CV for basic spelling and grammatical mistakes, you are setting yourself up for a fall at the first fence. For starters, you should always re-read your CV once you have put it together to make sure it is effective and suitable for the role. Root out any errors using your PC's spell checker or even get a friend to cast their eye over it and give you their opinion.