You studied, you learn, you work, got the skills and also chosen the career that speaks to you. Now here comes the hardest part of the career: Job Application.
Nothing is scarier than putting yourself and your skills, but a great CV can help you to in getting a job.
What is a CV?
CV, short for Curriculum Vitae, is a document used to market and self yourself to potential employers. It will help you to tell them about you, your professional history, skills, abilities and achievements. Basically, it will highlight you as the best person for the job.
Your CV is essential for you which helps you to showing the employers who you are and skills you have. You want to show potential employers that you’re exact person who they’ve been looking for. CVs will be different for every position and the company, they all follow the same fundamental principles.
While preparing your CV, remember the following five things to make the perfect CV.
1) Make It about You
While preparing your CV, make sure to focus on you by putting your name as the title of the CV. Also put your contact details at the top of CV.
Don’t waste the valuable space by writing “Curriculum Vitae” as the title. Remember that you are the product and you are what the CV is marketing. So, make yourself stand out in the CV with your name as title.
Format of your CV is flexible, your contact details like phone number, email address and the city you’re based in should follow the title in a smaller font. After all, it is obvious that you want the employer contact you, so make sure that he can easily understand where and how to locate you.
Include your professional profiles like LinkedIn Profile or any other professional website and profiles at the top of your CV before listing your work experience and education, so that employer know you a little better.
Don’t include your personal information like your date of birth. These information are unnecessary, also in some places, it’s illegal for employers to ask your age. There are some strict rules govern, to protect the employees’ privacy by restricting employers to ask the personal information.
2) Keep It Clean and Consistent
Unfocused and disorganized CV is worst thing. Check your content and make sure that there is no spelling mistake, don’t include too much different fonts and visual designs, it will give the employer headache. Also clearly states your skills and work.
Use bullet points to clean up your CV. Researches show that recruiters spends only seconds to loop up your resume. A bulleted list can help you to stand out quickly.
It is good to use simple and easy to read fonts. Use Arial, Times New Roman or Calibri in 10 to 12 point size. A larger size font 14 to 18 point is good for titles, headings and subheadings. Keep all the content in same style and margins should also be uniformed.
3) Make Employer To Know More
Experience in your CV should be in detail about your job roles, employers’ names, and dates for the positions held. This will help the employer to see the highlights, success and progression of your career quickly. List your experiences in reverse order, starting with your most recent position at top.
Like you write your experience section, your education qualifications should also be listed in reverse order. You have to include the name of institutions and the dates you were there, followed by the qualifications and grades in them you achieved.
4) Know Your Employer
Write information related to the post you’re applying for. If your skills and experience is not related to the post, leave it off. Also do some research about the company you’re applying in. Check out the keywords used in Job documentation and descriptions and use them in your CV.
For instance, if you’re applying for a Programmer, make sure you mention your Programming and Developing experience.
5) Key Skills
If you have some abilities which you want to show off them to the employer immediately, insert a key skills section directly below your personal profile. You should detail you four to five abilities at most.
6) Proofread
Last and important step is the proofreading. It can make or break your CV. We are humans, it isn’t possible that you didn’t make any error. It is good scan your CV for any possible mistakes.
You can avoid simple mistakes in your CV by proofreading. First check out for spelling and grammar errors
If you follow these tips, your CV will be easy readable and easily reflect your skills.
PS:- via Tech Blicks