Spending quality time making your CV top notch is well worth the time if you’re serious about getting a job. In this economy, job hunting is incredibly competitive—more so than ever—so having a CV that stands about above other applicants can mean the difference between employment right away, and job searching for weeks and months down the road.

Making a high quality CV that will impress the job recruiter isn’t rocket science. It just takes investing the necessary time to make your resume as thorough, professional, consistent, and appropriate as possible. Pay attention to detail. When you are applying to many jobs at once, you may start to lose your focus, but resist that temptation. Triple check your CV once you have written it, and even set it aside for a day then come back with ‘fresh eyes’ to see if you missed anything obvious before.

Yes, format matters, but content matters more. Don’t spend all of your time making your CV look good without making sure you look even better. Highlight your professional accomplishments, and make sure to give details. Saying “I succeeded” and “I accomplished xxx specific goal” are very different things, and the latter is by far more impressive. And finally, get help if you need it. Have a friend or a professional help you make your CV perfect. Your job hunt will have a much better chance of success if you do. A great place to create a professional-looking CV is at webCV. You can use the Wizard to create, step-by-step, a complete online resume. Alternatively, upload your existing resume in Word / PDF format, and let their state-of-the-art parsing technology do the hard work for you.

Job hunting is, arguably, both an art and a science. Many people struggle to develop their CV, or Curriculum Vitae, and often reduce their chances of securing their ideal position because the CV they send the recruiter does not represent them well. Having a CV that speaks well for you is essential. In staffing, first impressions count, and with so many layoffs, you are competing with a lot of people for that potential job. Your resume has to look excellent, or you will be job hunting for much longer than you’d like.

Put together a CV that looks professional. This means it should physically look clean, organized, and well planned out. It should also make you look professional by highlighting your strengths, accomplishments, and personal achievements. Do not put anything negative on your CV. Give detailed, yet concise, points that fully describe what you were able to do at your last jobs. You have probably been told to use “action verbs,” and this is important. If your CV says “assisted team members with planning and coordinating to successfully launch event on time,” then “team helper” won’t sound as good.

Also, keep in mind the position you’re applying for. Tailor your resume to showcase the experiences and skills that are most relevant to the position it’s going for. Don’t ever lie and pretend you have experience that you don’t, but do make sure that your CV helps you put your best foot forward.