How to Write a CV?

The importance of a CV (Curriculum Vitae) in your job search can never be overemphasized. In fact, your CV can play a decisive role in landing you a dream job. For this reason, writing a CV should not be regarded as a mere formality. Rather, it’s a specialized job that every job seeker should have perfection on. There are numerous resources all over the Internet to guide you on how to write a professional CV. However, if you still don’t get it right, it’s better to seek the help of a professional resume writer than coming up with an unprofessional CV. The next few paragraphs will try to avoid the professional CV writer for you and aims at educating you on how to write an appropriate and a professional CV.

Firstly let’s understand what a professional CV looks like. To put it simply, a professional CV is the one that will fetch you an interview call! However, that would be an over-simplification of a complex process. The first thing you should keep in mind is length; do not to make your CV too long as to make reading task a Herculean effort on the part of prospective employer, nor it should be too short to convey your skills effectively. An ideal CV should not be more than 3 pages and ideally 2 pages long, excluding the certificates and testimonials.

The next thing of note is the readability of your CV. The language of the CV should not contain the words that are ordinarily not used in day-to-day functioning. Absolutely avoid use of stylish fonts, colours, images, and layouts. The best approach is to use a standard Word-processor document with a white background and legible font, like Times New Roman or Arial.

Next comes the content on the pages.

The first page

This should ideally contain your name (bold, top, centre), your contact details, objective, and your qualifications (both educational and technical).

Second page

Your employment history and achievements are covered in the next one or two page(s) with your most recent position first. Try to highlight your skills and experiences as factual as possible, your current job role is usually the most relevant and what most employers are interested in, so make sure you include all the skills and very importantly your achievements such as; increased company turnover by 10%, achieved personal sales targets of £250k, won employee of the year 2007.  Also, if you have any gaps in your employment, make sure you explain why and what you did, the employer does not like to guess.

At the end

An oft-abused section is the hobbies, interests, and extra-curricular activities paragraph. Mention your hobbies and interests only if they are somehow related to the job in question. Don’t just write for the heck of it. If, at all required, you should include this section at the end of your CV

Miscellaneous Tips

• Limit the number of headings in your CV
• Use only plain A4 white paper or easy to read program package such as Word
• Try to maximize the usage of white space in order to keep your CV short
• Only a very rough draft of CV should be used as a template for different jobs. As far as possible, customize the template CV for the job in question before applying
• Be objective! Don’t proceed on a fantasy trip. Just state the facts and highlight your accomplishments, wherever needed
• Proofread twice both with spell-check tool as well as manually
• Read it yourself at least 3 times in order to make it sound professional