How To Write A Perfect CV In Simple English Ep 806
13:26 Share

Save on Cox Internet when you add Cox Mobile and get fiber-powered internet at home and unbeatable 5G reliability on the go. So whether you're playing a game at home or attending one live, you can do more without spending more. Learn how to save at cox.com slash internet. Cox Internet is connected to the premises via coaxial cable. Cox Mobile runs on the network with unbeatable 5G reliability as measured by UCLA LLC in the U.S. to age 2023. Results may vary, not endorsement. Other restrictions apply.

Go further with the American Express Business Gold Card. Earn three times membership rewards points on flights and prepaid hotels when you book through amxtravel.com. Whether your destination is a business conference or a client meeting, your purchases will help you earn more points for future trips. Experience more on your travels with Amex Business Gold. Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com slash business dash gold. Amex Business Gold Card. Built for business by American Express.

Hi there and welcome to this podcast from Adept English. Do you have a CV or resume? In the UK, we tend to say CV, but in the rest of the English-speaking world, they tend to use the word resume instead.

Have you used your CV to apply for a job in the last couple of years? And when you apply for a job using your CV, do you imagine a human being reading it? In many countries, when you apply for a job, the first I...

traveling over your CV these days is much more likely to belong to an AI or artificial intelligence software. That's more likely to be what decides whether or not you go through to have a job interview. So have you updated your CV to reflect?

that idea that it will be AI perusing your CV and deciding whether you go through to the next part of the process. Let's have a look at this today and also at what the tips are. What's the advice from the experts about how to change your CV, your resume to give your job application a better chance of being processed?

and getting through the AI to the next stage. Adept English, helping you learn English, but also helping you with the skills you need for life, doing our best to keep you informed. Perhaps on the back of this podcast, you may enjoy greater success when you come to look for a job, not only because of your improved English, but also because you heard some useful tips in this podcast.

Hello, I'm Hilary and you're listening to Adept English. We will help you to speak English fluently. All you have to do is listen. So start listening now and find out how it works.

And don't forget, if you want to improve your English with some structured learning or English conversation, our new Activate Your Listening course will really help you. Different voices as well as mine and conversations with a written transcript and with vocabulary explanations, just like the podcast. Why not polish your English conversation skills still more? It's

It's on our website at adeptenglish.com. One of the things I hear when talking to certain people who are looking for work in the UK in 2025, they're often being told that their lack of success when applying for a job is down to the fact that the first reading of their CV is being done by artificial intelligence, by AI software. Now, success in applying for a job

has always been what we call in English a bit hit and miss. It's slightly random, slightly haphazard. That's H-A-P-H-A-Z-A-R-D, haphazard. And that's because there's a human element to the processing of your CV. Some CVs are immediately binned for what you might think are crazy reasons.

People doing the recruiting may have likes and dislikes, which you can't predict. We've all heard stories in the past, I'm sure, of job applications and CVs being binned because they're in blue ink, not black, or because they're typed rather than handwritten, or handwritten rather than typed. You

cannot always predict what's going to impress certain people. So sometimes you're lucky and sometimes you're unlucky. It's a bit like the job interview itself. Sometimes the interviewer just likes you and sometimes they don't. And there are trends with CVs. What used to be OK isn't anymore. So I think most of us accept the whole process is somewhat subjective. It

subject to opinion. It's influenced by the particular opinions and views of the person or company advertising the job. But this idea of AI software looking over your CV is pretty new. And the idea that the AI software is

They bin your application, your CV, before the recruitment manager even gets to see it. That feels a bit crazy, doesn't it? Fortunately, we're not quite at the stage where the AI does the interview as well, but I'm sure that's a matter of time.

So I saw an article published last week in the Telegraph newspaper. It had the title, At 62, I was mortified that I couldn't get a job. Here's how I wrote the perfect CV. This was dated 17th of March 2025, so very recent.

And it had the subheading, whether you're 55 or 25, applying for a job has become a challenge and rather baffling. That's B-A-F-F-L-I-N-G. So what can you do to compete? In a sense, this was a good news story because the outcome for the writer, Liz Hoggard, was that she became more successful as a result.

So this article was written by British freelance writer, journalist in other words, Liz Hoggard. She talks also about how her age, 62 years old, may affect some of her job applications. But the point that she makes in her subheading, people of all ages are baffled.

Baffled means confused by the process of applying for a job. When Liz Hoggard's CV and her job applications were not bringing much success, she spoke first of all to a friend who is a recruiter.

one of the people who receives CVs and places people in jobs. This friend advised, first of all, there is too much I in it, meaning that Liz Hoggard had put a lot about herself

on her CV. Well, you might think it's her CV. Why not? But the wise advice from the recruiter was that those interviewing people for a job, they want it to be more about them, not about you, meaning that you need to tailor

that means specially fit, your CV to what a prospective employer is asking for. Fair enough, that sounds good advice. Liz Hoggard tried again, still not much more success. So she talked to someone else she knew who'd paid a lot of money to have her CV optimised and for the same treatment on her LinkedIn profile. A

Apparently what is needed, certain keywords must be included, which reflect how the job was advertised. The example she gives, if the job talks about value, growth,

insight, engagement, and you don't mention these particular words on your CV, then your CV will be rejected immediately by the AI. Well, that's useful to know. The person Liz Hoggard's friend spoke to, the person able to give advice to people wanting to improve their CV, was called in the article the CV whisperer.

We're accustomed in English to hearing that word whisperer, w-h-i-s-p-e-r-e-r,

Used to mean someone with expertise in a particular thing that seems so amazing in the way that it achieves results that it must be magical. So, you may have heard of horse whisperers, dog whisperers. To whisper means to talk very quietly like this in someone's ear, which is perhaps what horse whisperers do. So, the expression CV whisperer enters our vocabulary.

And it means someone who works magic with your CV. No, I hadn't come across that phrase either. Liz Hoggard's friend in the recruitment agency told her, optimising your CV helps you get through the AI robots. And

And the employers are increasingly using Applicant Tracking Software or ATS to help manage the recruitment process, particularly where there are a lot of applicants. Applicants means people going for a particular job. So if you want to go through to a job interview and be successful in the recruitment process, your CV must get past the AI software. What

What tips and pieces of advice did Liz Hoggard receive? Well, first of all, that your CV must be in a digital format that the AI software can read. Your CV must be in the right type of file, that means. If it isn't,

The recruiter or the employer aren't going to come back to you and tell you that. They'll just move on to the next CV. Very useful to know then. You don't want to fall at the first hurdle, as we say in English. That's an English idiom from the world of horse racing.

Other advice is to have on your CV the exact words which are used as the title of the job you're applying to. If your CV doesn't contain these words, it may well not get through the AI process and include an introductory statement about you. In some ways, the more colourful, the better.

It's the highlights only. And it's really important to include what's known as an elevator pitch. If you don't know this phrase in English, an elevator pitch is US English. The idea that you may only have the same time as it takes to travel in an elevator

to put your idea to an important person. You've got to do it quickly, in other words. So what's important on your CV? A quick summary towards the top of the things you're able to do, your skills and talents. This is so that the AI can see immediately whether what you're bringing is

suits the job. And what was the advice for Liz Hoggard on being a 62-year-old job applicant? Well, it was suggested, first of all, that she only include on her CV what she's done in the last 10 to 15 years. It probably builds on what she's done before anyway, and more than that would make the CV longer than two pages.

So it's a rule for any CV, no more than two sides, two pages. And of course, there is ageism in the world. That's A-G-E-I-S-M. Ageism is the prejudice against someone because of their age, which could be either old or young. And probably if you're older, the grades and the exam qualifications that you achieved when you were 16 years old may no longer be relevant.

But your degree, if you have one, is always relevant. The modern CV that impresses AI software emphasises all the things you can do which fit the job description. It's so much more about what you can do for us. And very much like your CV, your LinkedIn profile is important too. And if you're using it to help your job application process, that too needs to reflect keywords.

that appear in the job adverts you want to apply to. What is also made clear in the article by Liz Hoggard, it's really important to write the actual content of your CV yourself. Don't be tempted to use AI for this. Don't use chat GPT or something similar. Even if the AI doesn't spot it,

the human recruiter who will eventually be reading your CV, hopefully, they will see it. Liz Hoggard's friend, the recruiter said, if you use AI, we can spot it a mile off and you don't want that. So it's a different set of rules for the job applicants, it seems. Liz Hoggard doesn't tell us much about whether her change of approach was successful, but she does tell us that she arrived at the perfect CV.

and that her friend who paid the CV Whisperer has since won lots of new contracts, lots of new work. So it seems that this approach can bring success and really make a difference. I've also included...

as a link in the transcript, information from a well-known UK recruiter, a recruitment company called How to Beat an Applicant Tracking System. Let us know whether this is useful and whether you have any experience of this. We always like to hear from you. Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.