WRITING AND UPDATING YOUR CV IS ALWAYS HARD.

 

It takes time. You need to sit down and actually get into it before you do anything and it always takes way more time that you thought it would. I know, I've been there.

That's why I decided to help you a little bit and prepare a free social media CV template that you can use. It is already filled with all the essential bits. Practical skills you probably already have, common responsibilities in this job, platforms you are most likely to use... All the things that actually take the longest to think about when you're getting your CV together.

This template should make the whole process quicker and more bearable. Just download it, read through it, delete the unnecessary bits, fill it with your own details and enjoy!

THIS IS MY FIRST CV HERE, SO LET ME ACTUALLY QUICKLY EXPLAIN WHY I DID THIS ONE FIRST.

I kinda realised at some point that everyone is doing social media at work in some way. Marketing is super obvious, so I'll skip that one. But when I think back to the time I worked as a recruiter I was posting job adverts, doing branding, pasting my company's logo on literally everything I did. One of my friends works in retail and guess what? She has a Facebook update scheduled every week or two with a feature on her store and team that works with her. One of the guys I work with is a freelance designer and don't even get me started on the amount of social media stuff he has to do every day. It's madness!

SO WITH THIS FREE CV TEMPLATE I'M COMING TO THE RESCUE.

It already has skills, tools, work experience that you can relate to in all the right places. There's an excellent layout with social media icons. Just get in there with your info, edit like a pro and you will have your own great little CV in no time. I did my best to make it nice and smooth. You shouldn't spend hours just thinking about the right wording for what you do every day in the office! I made it, so you don't have to.

Just don't forget to double check your details and remove all the bits you don't need.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE SOCIAL MEDIA CV TEMPLATE HERE

QUICK TROUBLESHOOTING:

- If the formatting doesn't work for you (it is all over the place, everything moved) try editing the template in your Google Docs or try to download Open Office from here

- I used the following fonts: Unica One and Open Sans Condensed. If you have any problems with those (they are not showing up as they should) click on the font's name, download the files and install them by double clicking on them and clicking 'Install font' button on the top left. This should solve it.

- Always save your CV as a .pdf file before you send it out. This will prevent the file from looking weird when the recruiter opens it.

YOUR BASIC CV CHECKLIST THAT YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH NO MATTER WHAT - FREE WORKSHEET

Last month I wrote about fixing your CV and making it more noticeable for recruiters. If you went through the whole article, you probably have quite a good idea what to do/rewrite next time you have some time to take care of your resume. If not (or if you would prefer to have a more condensed version of my post somewhere handy), maybe you will be happy that I made this simple, printable CV worksheet:

You can find a full .pdf version on my SlideShare and LinkedIn

Download this list, print it out, sit down with your CV for 20 - 30 minutes and go through the whole worksheet – make sure that you have all the information that you need, delete the things that you shouldn't have and fix all typos. After that, your resume will be ready to be sent out!

Have fun!

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!