Creating a selling CV is not about reading online tips on how to write a top notch CV. It is not about looking at CV templates of successful professionals and imitating them. It is not about finding someone with experience in compiling a CV and asking this someone to create a resume on your behalf. And it is definitely not about copying and pasting semi-true info from pre-determined sources. Creating a selling resume is about meaningful content that is put into a simple form using formal language.
True or false: your resume tells everything your potential employer needs to know about you.
False!
When you sit down to write your resume try to make two parallel thoughts work together: making this CV reflective of your professional aspects as well as having the function as a professional reference for you as a person. Being able to balance those two highly important aspects sets your CV apart from many other resumes that reach your employer. The points that need to be tackled to be able to achieve this, you need to place your focus on both the form and content in parallel.
In reference to the form of the CV, there are limitless versions that you can obtain online from free sites. Just make sure that you match the CV’s form to the content that you would fill it with. For instance, there are tailored resumes that assist professionals from diversified fields according to their career path. One of the highly important points that you need to focus on when choosing the form is that you do not necessarily have to abide with the length of the CV as it is online. For instance, if you are a fresh graduate, your CV needn’t be anymore than only one page long. While organizing the elements inside the CV, it would be best to place your career objective at the beginning of the CV to help your potential employer place your application within the right pool and to spare yourself a phone call that informs you that you have an interview for a job that you are not interested in. As you move on to your current and/or previous jobs held, make sure you place your work history in reverse order! This is a very important point that puts weight on the professionalism of your CV by placing your current job first and moving backwards in time from there. Whether or not you place a personal photo of yours is your own call and depends on the sector to which you’re applying. However, there is one piece of advice that I would live to give you based on my experience as a recruiter: please take a professional passport photo for your CV. No matter how much you like that photo taken of you and your friends in your last outing and how much you would like to crop yourself and post it in your CV, that is professionally incorrect! The photo is not supposed to be taken outdoor or with an outfit that is too casual and wouldn’t be in your professional wardrobe. That being said, I count on your creativity to come up with the rest of the CV’s form.
As for the content, the content here is basically who you are! However, no matter how much you love life in shades of blue, please don’t place too many colors inside the CV. Usually the best CV in value doesn’t need garnish to catch the eye! Try as much as you can to make the content of your CV straight to the point and interesting at the same time.
I would like to draw your attention to a very sensitive aspect while drafting your CV: I sincerely advise you against writing anything on the CV that you may not be able to discuss openly and thoroughly in an interview. For instance, if you state that you are an active volunteer in community development projects, make sure there is actually a project or two that you are working on and be ready and willing to provide examples about those projects and charity efforts. I hope this sheds some light on what you would like to state about yourself in your CV.
The key to a successful resume is a successful holder! Unfortunately, we are sometimes faced with falsified facts and half truths. The sincerity of the applicant appears in the CV by the amount of truth stated. What are you waiting for? Go ahead, sit down, brainstorm and write!