As if our rant on building a good CV wasn't enough in our last article titled: Why No Employer Will Invite You For Interviews, we are here again with a step further into preparing a suitable CV.
Now, note the following points. It includes the Dos and Don'ts of CV building.
We have all agreed that a CV is the first step towards getting a job in today’s competitive world. First impression counts and is made even before you meet the interviewer. The core purpose of your CV is to get you the interview. To do this, you need:
1. Firstly, work on its structure: Is it professionally built? Does it have suitable headings to help recruiters spot the information they are looking for?
2. Secondly, what’s the content, sentence structure, language & grammar used? Do they highlight achievements and all?.
If you’re starting from scratch, use our CV Builder to get a clean, professional CV.
And if you already have a CV but you’re not sure if it’s doing the job? Use our CV Matcher Tool. Just paste the job description, upload your CV, and boom it tells you what’s missing and how to make your CV match the role better than 90% of applicants.
We have highlighted a few points below which can be customised based on individual requirements.
Name: (Do not title your CV ‘Curriculum Vitae’ or ‘CV’)
Personal profile: Use 2 or 3 sentences. Sentence 1 explains your experience, Sentence 2 explains the skills you offer, and Sentence 3 explains what kind of role you are looking for.
Key Skills: Use (2-3) bullet points & explain how you used that skill
Key Achievements/Noteworthy Credits: Use (2-3) bullet points, explain your contribution to the role you are currently in.
Work Experience – for each job, highlight:
• Company name/job/title/dates
• Insert a subheading ‘Work Synopsis’ and use 4-5 bullet points to explain the key responsibilities
• Insert a subheading ‘Noteworthy Credits’ and use 2-3 bullet points to highlight your key achievements
• In case there are various roles within the same organisation, condense the points you make for your least relevant jobs
Education & Qualifications: Latest qualification first & a summary of old results.
References: It’s a good practice to state references up-front and gives an impression that you can back up what you have stated.
If you have little or no work experience, you should move the education section before your work experience. If you are trying to change careers, you should put more points in the key achievements and key skills section and reduce the focus on your work experience.
Ensure your CV holds enough information to spark interest without it becoming a literary masterpiece! Around 3-4 pages CV is ideal. Be positive and take full advantage of all your skills and experience. Make sure your CV is achievement-oriented. An employer will reject your CV if the structure is poor.
If you still have questions or need clarification on anything you're not clear about, please you can call us on 08121633133 or email services@myjobmag.com
Best of luck!!!
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