WRITE A CV THAT REALLY WORKS

 

JOJO MEHRA ON HOW A CRISP AND ARTICULATE CV HELPS IN THE JOB MARKET

For every job post that HR professionals put out, they get a few hundred applicants.

And this is just through job boards. Add LinkedIn, Facebook, the company website, and WhatsApp to the mix and chances are that your CV is one amongst a couple of thousand hoping to be picked-up for review. Screening these CVs to find the most suitable candidates to interview is one of the most important functions in the talent acquisition process. In its current state, it is also the most tedious and errorprone. But we will leave that for another article.

Assuming that your CV actually gets shortlisted for review, you have one chance to get the attention of the HR manager and get shortlisted for an interview. Make sure you give it the attention that it deserves.

Here are 6 CV writing essentials, we think you should keep in mind with writing your CV:

Õ KEEPING IT TO ONE PAGE OR TWO

Considering that the reviewer probably has under a minute to review your CV, it is important to keep it short and readable. (I have heard HR executives tell me that they sometimes are so inundated with CVs that they barely spend 10 seconds on a CV! Yes, 10 seconds!).

When you sit down to write a CV, the general tendency is to want to describe everything in great detail. You need to control this urge and think from the reviewers’ point of view. They have a minute to review your CV, so it is best to be succinct and to the point, keeping the most important aspects of each role right at the top. It should be easy enough for the reviewer to skim through your CV and still understand your core competencies, skills and suitability for the role.

Õ CUSTOMISE YOUR CV FOR EACH JOB

Just as you would like to be treated as an individual within a firm and not a ‘replaceable resource’, recruiting managers also expect the same from you. If you are going to be sending a generic CV, chances are that you are going to get a generic response – which usually is a ‘no’.

Before you start customising your CV, make sure you have understood the kind of experience required for the role that you are applying for. Once you have done that, make a list of things from your past work experience you feel are in line with the skills and competencies the role demands and include those in your CV.

Õ INCLUDE NUMBERS, BUT NOT TOO MANY

Adding a few crucial statistics is always advisable. For example, if you are in a marketing role, it is great for the reviewer to get an idea of the kind of budget you handled. The trick is to not overdo it. Keep only those statistics that help in getting a clearer understanding of the scale and scope of your past experiences and highlight the successes. For example, “Managed accounts in multiple geographies” is perhaps better written as, “Managed eight accounts across three states”. These two figures help the reviewer understand your role and add context to the other details in your CV.

Õ STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

After you have added all relevant details from the work and education history, give some information about yourself that you feel brings out your personality. Most CVs have this in the form of extracurricular activities, hobbies etc. So if you are a professional dancer, or a yoga teacher or a state level athlete, definitely mention it in your CV. But do not add information for the sake of filling out a section. In fact, if you do not pursue any hobby, or a sport it is better to not write generic things like “Travelling; Surfing the Internet (!!); Cricket”, and instead write something that you actually do other than work. If that means mentioning your addiction for reading Harry Potter books for the fourth time, so be it. But let it be authentic.

Õ PROOF READ TWICE

Every person who reviews CVs will tell you how spotting typos and grammatical errors is the first thing they do. And once they have noticed an error, they cannot unsee it.

They have already made a mental note of the error and carry it with them for the next minute, and needless to say, not a great start.

After you have written, formatted, edited your CV, please proof read it. And once you are done proofreading it, proof read it again. And again. I cannot underscore the importance of doing this.

Source | Times of India | 26^th February 2018

Regards

Prof. Pralhad Jadhav 

Master of Library & Information Science (NET Qualified) 

Senior Manager @ Knowledge Repository  

Khaitan & Co 

Blog | http://pralhad-fyilibrarian.blogspot.in/  

Website | https://sites.google.com/site/pralhadjadhavlib/home        

Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978