# Recruiter Reveals CV (Resume) Writing Formula - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies

Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/recruiter-reveals-cv-resume-writing-formula/

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# Recruiter Reveals CV (Resume) Writing Formula

 Updated August 2026

 Tom Wiztek · Marketing and Recruitment Specialist

 Beginner · 49 min

 Ten pages of before/after CV screenshots plus a bullet-point rewrite formula, delivered in under an hour.

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 This course promises a "recruiter's formula" for CV writing, and it mostly delivers on the narrow, practical end of that promise rather than anything resembling a comprehensive career strategy course. Tom Wiztek, who frames himself as a recruiter reviewing hundreds of CVs, spends the bulk of the runtime doing exactly that: pointing at real CV screenshots and marking up what is wrong with them. It is closer to a formatting audit than a writing course, and it is honest about that emphasis from the very first lesson, which lays out the three-part structure of design, content, and templates.

 The strongest material is the mistakes lesson, which runs through ten specific formatting failures using actual CV examples: too many fonts in a single document, dates placed on the wrong side of the page, company logos that add nothing, fancy borders, and paragraphs disguised as bullet points. Each mistake is tied to a visible example rather than stated abstractly, which makes the advice concrete and easy to apply immediately. The photo-inclusion guidance is a genuinely useful regional detail many generic CV guides skip: include a photo in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, but never in the US, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, where it can get an application disqualified.

 The content section is thinner but has one strong idea. The instructor teaches a two-step method for turning duty-based bullet points into achievement-based ones: switch from continuous tense to past tense, then layer in the STAR framework (situation, task, action, result) to add specificity and numbers. Five before-and-after examples walk through this transformation, turning a vague line like "prepared email campaigns" into "collaborated with sales and marketing departments to optimize email campaigns and achieved a 50% growth in monthly turnover." This is the one technique in the course that could meaningfully change how a CV reads, and it justifies sitting through the rest.

 Past that, the course thins out fast. The Word tutorial on positioning a profile picture is a five-minute software walkthrough that has nothing to do with writing or strategy. The power words lesson is just a pointer to a downloadable PDF rather than taught content. The templates lesson hands over two fill-in-the-blank files with light narration, useful as a starting point but not something that required video instruction.

## Where it comes up short

 The course never addresses applicant tracking systems, keyword matching, or how CVs are actually filtered before a human sees them, which is a significant gap for a course pitched around getting more interview callbacks. There is also no cover letter guidance, no LinkedIn tie-in, and no discussion of tailoring a CV to a specific job posting. The advice is generically sound but skews toward entry-to-mid-level corporate roles, without acknowledging how creative fields, academia, or executive-level applications differ.

 At 49 minutes across nine lessons, this is a tight, low-commitment watch rather than a deep course, and it is priced in ambition accordingly. It works best as a checklist to run an existing CV against, not as a from-scratch writing system.

 The standout

 The STAR-based bullet point reframing exercise, which shows five real duty statements rewritten into achievement statements with numbers.

## What you will learn

- · How to spot and fix the ten most common CV formatting errors (fonts, colors, alignment, dates, borders)
- · How to structure the seven main CV sections, including the photo-inclusion rule by country
- · How to rewrite duty-based bullet points into achievement-based ones using the STAR method
- · How to insert and wrap a profile picture in Word without breaking the layout
- · A bank of 100+ action verbs to open bullet points with
- · Which buzzwords and generic phrases to strip out of a CV entirely

 Best for: Early-to-mid career job seekers with a messy or dated CV who want fast, concrete formatting and wording fixes.

 Skip it if: Senior executives, career changers, or anyone needing guidance on ATS optimization, cover letters, or LinkedIn strategy.

 Helpful Examples Clarity of Instruction Organization of Lessons Actionable Steps

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