Your CV is your primary marketing tool and is often the first impression an employer will have of you.
It highlights your skills and work experience and will communicate to the hiring manager the values and competencies that you can bring to their organization thus determining whether or not you will progress to the next stage of the recruitment process.
The aim of your CV therefore, should be to persuade recruiters and hiring managers to see you as valuable and to invite you for the job interview.
Each country is unique in its requirements as far as CV writing goes and if you would like to increase your chances of job search success specific to your location, you must adapt your CV to the market in which you would like to enter.
I would like to share with you one of the salient points that we shared in our recently held Workshop. You can read about it here. We advised that there was a key factor to customizing a CV for the Dutch market that was often overlooked by job seekers and it had to do with highlighting Hobbies, leisure and volunteer activities.
Including your hobbies and leisure activities in your CV is very important but this is often overlooked by job seekers in favour of highlighting more tangible details such as job experience and education. Dutch recruiters attach great importance to hobbies, sports and leisure activities as these details give some context to your personality and gives them an idea of what you are really about. It is therefore very advisable to add these in your CV and customize them to look relevant to the job you seek.
Do not just write generic worlds such as sports, cooking or writing. It is very important that you add some context and give some detail. I was reading the career profile an HR manager in the Netherlands two days ago and I found it quite interesting that it mentioned her love for travelling, her involvement in the Theater and it also gave detailed information about her pets.
In The Netherlands it is very important that you fit in with the team. Recruiters want to know who you are, what your interests are and if indeed you are the right person to complement their team. Your hobbies are key to highlighting and supporting this.
I will add a word of caution here. If your CV says that you're a team player, it is not wise to list too many individual sports or hobbies. It would be worthwhile to mention some team sports to support your claim.
I would love to hear any thoughts or questions that you might have.
Please be sure to connect with us onLinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, with your thoughts and comments and we will be sure to respond.
Good luck with your Netherlands CV!
Tamkara Adun is an online Recruitment Consultant for Together Abroad.
You can connect with her on Linkedin or Twitter