Sunday 19 July 2015

GOOD, BAD AND UGLY: 6 THINGS YOU HAVE TO GET RIGHT BEFORE SENDING OUT YOUR CV

When was the last time that you looked at your CV?

Do you update it regularly? Could you just start sending your resume out straight away if something happened to your current company?

For me, keeping my CV neat and up to date is all about reminding myself what I am good at, what I achieved and what should I do next. It's nice to have something that shows me how I got to where I am now. For some of my clients' CV is something that they dislike – it reminds them that they were laid off or that they are stuck in a job that sucks. But how else can you change something about your job if not starting with your CV?

Make your CV amazing and remember to:

1. EDIT YOUR PERSONAL/CONTACT DETAILS: 

You want to mention:

- your name in BIG, bold letters
- the city where you live  (because no one is interested in your full postal address at this point and it takes way too much space anyway) 
- your phone number (please include your city or country code if you are applying to an international company – I still remember one situation, where I recruited for the same post in 3 different cities and I had to guess which prefix should I use, because some candidates didn't include their location or full phone number) 
- your email address (if your email looks anything like this: xxx_lover@sweetness.com no recruiter will EVER get back to you – get a new email if necessary)
- consider including your LinkedIn profile link (I used to love clicking through them at work and a majority of people I hired were found on LinkedIn)

2. SUMMARY/OBJECTIVE/PROFILE:

Include a short statement about which job you are applying for and what makes you a good candidate. Remember, this is not a place for your complete life story, it just has to tell the recruiter the most important things of you as a candidate. The summary should have 3 - 4  lines and it should focus on your expertise and how will it help you in your new position.

3. WORK EXPERIENCE:

This section depends on how much work experience do you have. If you are just starting your career and have 1 or 2 things to put here, then try and focus on duties and responsibilities that you had in each job. List 5 – 6 things that you did and learn while being employed. 

If you have quite a few years of experience only include the posts that have anything to do with the role that you are applying for (because no one will ask you about an internship that you had 10 years ago) and try to list the most important responsibilities and achievements for every role. Don't worry if it takes you 2 or 3 pages to fit everything. It's not physically possible to squeeze 15 years of a successful career on one page. Also – remember that the most recent jobs should be at the top of this section.

4. EDUCATION/COURSES:

If you finished any university, training or professional qualification it should be listed here. You don't have to put specific dates – writing down a year when you graduated is more than enough. If only education/qualification you have is at a high school level you can skip this section entirely and it's perfectly fine.

5. SKILLS:

This is the most important part of your CV. Here you should have a solid list of all the great things that you learnt and all the character traits that you have. 

The best approach is to divide your skills into 2 or 3 categories: language skills, soft skills, IT skills, practical skills, accounting skills, programming skills, art/design skills... You can pick and choose, but make sure that you have a few key categories listed. When you decide on what categories you wish to include, sit down and go through your day-to-day work routine and think about one thing:

What kind of tasks do you have and what skills do they require? 

For example, while mailing back and forth customers and updating them about a project you show great communication skills, organisation and customer service skills. If you have to prepare paperwork for your boss every week, you are probably great at reporting

6. YOUR INTERESTS:

Because, surprisingly, they can be great. Do you love travelling? Maybe there is a position open that requires your skills and a lot of flying. Are you into languages? Maybe you would like to take care of international customers?

If you are planning to put music and reading here - skip them, everyone lists those anyways.

OK... How does your CV look like now? Do you feel like you are a super skilled and talented person? I do hope so

Have fun!

No comments:

Post a Comment