The greatest CV tips - How to use keywords that will ensure you get noticed and shortlisted
For those applying to cabin crew roles at Emirates, Etihad and Qatar, using CV / resume keywords will help you get your CV / Resume noticed by the airline recruiters and land you the job of your dreams.
By including essential keywords and phrases in your CV / resume will increase your chances significantly whether your CV gets scanned through Emirates, Etihad or Qatar’s online recruitment portal or being looked at by the recruiters themselves at the open day events.
At the Open Day recruitment event, you may only have one or two recruiters but did you know that 1 recruiter is able to scan 500 CVs in just 45 minutes! Shocking isn’t it? They spend no more than 5 to 7 seconds per CV and that is how long it takes to know if you make it to the next round or get sent home after having been there for just under 45 minutes. Want your name to get called for the next round? Then read on.
What are these CV keywords and why are they so important? If blended well with your own skills and experience, then you are a good fit for their international cabin crew team. Now, before you start, don’t go listing keywords on your CV just under the Skills you have. That gets detected straight away and goes in the bin. You ought to write creatively and blend the airline’s keywords with your own skills and achievements. This is where you will score well whether it goes through ATS (Applicant Tracking System) or the recruiters’ eyes.
If you intend to apply for say all three airlines, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar, then adjust the CV and your cover letter to reflect the company’s core values and reputation. The lazy way of sending one general CV to all three or more airlines will not work in today’s world. If you suffer from the syndrome where your CV is often not selected via the online application or frequently fail the CV drop, then the main and only reason is your CV is not optimised for keywords specific to the airline you are applying to.
Keywords are truly the company’s language so if your CV with your skills blend in well with their corporate image, you will go in their “accept pile”, and get to the next round. Yes, it is as simple as that. The challenging bit is blending your skills with their keywords. Ensure your CV’s keywords and your experience are also formatted to reflect Emirates if that is the airline you wish to apply to.
Always go to the company’s website and the cabin crew page where the vacancy is advertised to establish just what these keywords are. You should also include keywords from their core values by looking at their CEO’s mission statement. Look at the profile of the senior directors within Emirates, Etihad and Qatar too, and pay particular attention to see how they describe their roles, themselves and the company. Aside from just their corporate webpage, do spend and invest time looking at the company’s Linked-in pages and see how their senior and top employees describe themselves here plus the ethos of the organisation.
By planning your CV this way, you can be rest assured that your CV will be in the Top 5% of all the CVs presented at the open day. We know only too well that out of say 1,00 people that attended the open day, less than 50 make the final interview! You can be in that Top 50 if you follow the tips I have given on this page.
Remember to use as many keywords as possible and blend them creatively into all of your CV. As I said earlier, putting all the keywords under a summary section titled Competencies or Skills is just blatant copying and it will get thrown out by the ATS scan and also manually by the recruiter. Learn to write creatively and you will be rewarded.
TIP 1: The keywords must flow seamlessly throughout your CV. This is where you get awarded the highest score!
TIP 2: To include synonyms of the words and sprinkle synonyms all throughout your 1 or 2 page CV. Synonyms are multiple versions of the main keyword that shows you are creative and able to think outside the box. The ATS scan and recruiter look specifically for these things when looking at your CV.
TIP 3: Mix the keywords up and put it everywhere on your CV. It’s called keyword sprinkling and the algorithm will award a higher score of sprinkling of keywords than having them altogether in the top section of career summary/objective or under skills.
TIP 4: NEVER EVER USE ONE CV FOR ALL AIRLINES. When applying to Emirates, Etihad and Qatar, your cabin crew CV should look quite different from each other due to the creative keyword blending and also the core value components from their top directors that reflect their corporate ethos. Have you heard some applicants say I got shortlisted by one but not the other two? This is often the reason for failure.
TIP 5: When writing cover letters, use all the three tips above too!
Conclusion:
The keywords must always flow seamlessly throughout your whole resume. But beware of keyword stuffing and putting keywords in invisible ink i.e. using same colour as the borders in the hope that the ATSmachine will not detect it, they will, and you may even be blackmarked!
Finally, we can help you write your CV for Emirates, Etihad or Qatar.
Use keywords in your CV for Emirates, Etihad and Qatar and your success is just steps away!