Employers and recruiters rely heavily on CVs to decide between candidates, so you need a professional CV to grab attention. However, this can still leave an employer in a difficult spot if they have too many acceptable candidates left. 

If an employer has 30 potential candidates, they need to reduce them to a more manageable 6-10. They can achieve this by looking for additional intelligence.  This is where LinkedIn comes into its own.  Recruiters will look for two major things when researching you on LinkedIn:

• Confirmation that the details contained in your CV are accurate
• Additional facts that will build their confidence in you

Therefore, you should introduce sufficient information from your CV on to LinkedIn to ensure they can achieve the first goal. However, be sure to find concrete achievements or extras to insert in your profile that could set you apart from others. 

You can always add a fact-based testimonial from a contact who is more senior than you (to carry more weight), or just elaborate on some of the most relevant experience in the CV.  Whatever it is, read it in conjunction with your CV to see what the overall impression would be.

If you are among the 201,000 people a month in the UK searching Google for the term “CV template” you know you will face a bewildering array of example CVs from which to choose.  Truly, the number of templates astounds. 

For those new or out of practice in CV writing, you are likely to be confused and will simply opt for the prettiest one or give up and buy a template from a professional CV company in the hope this will be current and respectable.

There is nothing wrong with CV templates – if you know how to use them.  For a classy design that helps you overcome your Word shortcomings, then a template is fine to use.  However, it is just the starting point, not the end point. 

Using a template is no different to an artist buying her canvass and sketching her masterpiece.  The painting is still to come, and that requires planning, penmanship and an appreciation of your audience.

So whenever you use a CV template, don’t take it as a given.  Think about it and how to adapt it to sell your unique experience and skills.  Consider the headings you will use, the sections to put first, and how to make your strengths stand out.  Don’t trust a template to market you effectively; only you can do that.

In a week which has seen some of the highest avalanche risks of the winter in the Highlands, one avalanche survivor told his story to BBC Scotland.

"I heard a noise like a train. I thought that sounds like an avalanche. And then it happened."

Kyle Wood, from Nottingham, was climbing on Aonach Mor near Ben Nevis on Saturday.

He was with two friends, Karl Halliday and Nick Ward.

They had been at a meet with about 30 members of the UKClimbing web forum, staying near Roybridge north of Fort William.

The weather, and avalanche, forecasts had been dreadful - too dangerous to venture out, he says.

But finally it looked like a decent day.

Getting dark

"The wind had been scouring western slopes and dumping snow on east facing slopes, so we knew there was a high risk of avalanches there", the 29-year-old explains.

So the group planned a route which should have been safe. They set off to climb Western Rib.

"But as the day got on we hadn't reached the top, and the weather was deteriorating."

"So we abseilled into an adjacent gully, and climbed down around 200m until we got to some flattish ground."

"We stopped to sort out some kit, get the head-torches out because it was getting dark, and find the sandwiches."

But while they were rummaging in Kyle's ruck-sack, they were hit by an avalanche.

Kyle and his friends were experienced winter climbers

"I felt a push of snow from behind me. So I put my hands back to brace myself."

"But it kept on coming. And then everything I was sitting on started to move."

"We ended up cart-wheeling over each other, turning upside down."

All three men had been carrying a pair of ice axes, which they put down on the snow when they stopped.

Avalanche training teaches people to swim through the snow, to try to stay upright, and remain as close to the surface as possible.

And Kyle said he ended up doing a "ridiculous comedy breast stroke" through the snow as he was engulfed.

The three men came to rest "for a second" - then they were hit by a second avalanche.

"I was focussing completely on staying alive. It never even crossed my mind that I might be about to die."

"But when it finally stopped, we were all above the snow with our heads and arms clear."

"We shouted to each other, to make sure everyone was alright. We had to dig ourselves out."

"Then there was a real sense of we could have just died."

But the group soon realised they had lost their only map - and compass.

They had been in Kyle's rucksack, which had been swept away by the snow.

"So there we were on a mountain. In a storm. At night. With no map, and no compass."

They realised they had to get down as quickly and safely as they could.

Team work

"We were aware it was still a dangerous place, and there could be more avalanches."

"We were on flat ground, but with heavily loaded snow slopes above us on both sides."

"And there was snow a metre-deep lying everywhere. So to move at all you were digging a trench."

"We were absolutely shattered, disorientated, and scared."

Kyle admits there were times he almost wanted to give up.

"It's a cliche, about just wanting to lie down and go to sleep. But we kept each other going," he says.

"If it wasn't for the other two guys, I wouldn't have made it."

"We were in a situation that was spiralling, and could get worse. But with real team work, we pulled it together and got ourselves out of it."

"That's the spirit of team work - and of mountaineering."

Just before the avalanche they had texted friends to say they were heading for home.

As they walked down, they got an intermittent signal on one mobile phone.

"But we didn't want to say we'd been in an avalanche. So we told them we'd had one or two issues on the descent, which were delaying us," says Kyle.

At about 0100 GMT, the group found a marker post on a forest road, which told them they were 2km from the Nevis Range car park.

"It was the most incredible thing to see. Because we could have been just walking round in circles."

Then they started to hear car horns from a group of friends who'd come out to find them after getting the text messages.

"They'd been waiting for us. They'd been there about four hours."

"They'd got towels, and a change of clothes for us."

"That was a real emotional moment."

Looking back, Kyle insists he and his friends had been sensible, and checked the forecasts before venturing out.

They were all reasonably experienced at winter climbing, he says, and they were well equipped.

But he concedes they didn't fully appreciate how bad things were getting when the weather changed.

And, he says, there are lessons to be learned about how to distribute and carry equipment.

He says he plans to get more winter training, and some formal avalanche training.

But he told the BBC the experience would "never" put him off going climbing again.

"It'll make me a lot more safety conscious. But I'm still going to go out and enjoy the hills," he says.