Should I try to show my personality on my CV?

Last week, I read a comment on Linkedin from a lady wanting to know whether she should show her personality on her CV so I thought I'd write a little about this in my blog this week.

A CV is a sales document. It's sole purpose is to get you an interview. You should always therefore, look at the job ad which you are applying to and tailor your skills and achievements to what is on the advert as best as you can. This is what a recruiter will judge your application on. The Linkedin lady added that that she wanted to show she was "out of the box". I assumed by this she meant that she wanted to show she was different from the other candidates and wanted to do this by getting her personality across. I strongly recommend that you do not do this at the CV stage. There is a strong danger that you will write something which will put the recruiter off or, even worse, depending on what you write, you could come across as slightly odd.  The interview is the time for your personality to come across. 

If you write a CV with bullet points showing that you have some or all of the skills the job is looking for, the chances of getting an interview will be high.

Have a good week.

Jeanette