CV Essentials & Avoidable's

Although a lot has been written & debated on this topic, it still remains a most popular question that many candidates have asked me to write about - what to include & what to avoid in your CV ? Job hunting can be a truly adventurous process. Its a mad race out there, and writing a great CV is a vital starting point. Capturing a recruiter's attention and making a great first impression in just a few seconds is not easy. Now, imagine trying to do this without even meeting them. Sounds impossible, right?

We recruiters spend barely 10-30 seconds on a CV and it is essential that your CV grasps our attention within that time span. 

Below are some absolutely simple yet essentials elements which you MUST mention in your CV 

a) Current company - No point in trying to hide the name, its silly to do so in today’s day & age of social media. Don’t try and make us guess this please. 

b) Correct Designation - common mistakes that candidates make is to mention fake designations, or try to show seniority in designations as per role. For e.g. your role may be heading a particular division but designation on paper is still 'Manager' not 'Head'. Stick to your official designation as mentioned in company records pls.

c) Age - Always remains a debatable point, but in my view its always good to mention complete DOB. Many a times I have tried guessing & calculating the age of the candidate bcoz for certain roles its important for us to know this.

d) Location - Pls always mention your current location / city. Even though you may be open to relocating for a job, we recruiters still need to know where you are currently !

e) Dates - many candidates skip mentioning important dates such as graduation / schooling years, job duration dates etc. This is very important guys. The month & year should be mentioned for all such events.

f) Numbers, Facts & Figures - This is super important and can be best explained by these examples. I recruited a lot of people v/s I recruited 200 people within a span of 6 months. I over achieved my sales target v/s I over achieved my sales target by 30% in Q3. I designed a new process which helped to reduce cost v/s I helped the company reduce cost by 15% due to new process design and I was awarded top performer by my CEO.

g) Space - Have you ever read a full page of a dictionary from top to bottom ? Me neither ! Too much of text crammed up in a single page is not at all soothing to look at ! So ensure there’s enough breathing space

Below are some absolutely simple yet irrelevant elements which you MUST NOT mention in your CV 

a) Photograph - unless the job role specifies it, don’t paste a photograph in your CV. Its quite distracting & tacky esp as most people use selfie pics these days !. We recruiters can always access photos from fb or LinkedIn etc if required.

b) References - in my opinion there is no need of mentioning names of references, or even the standard sentence people generally use “references will be provided on request”. This is old fashioned and un - essential.

c) Cover Letter - We recruiters barely have time to read resumes, do you really think we are going to read your cover letter first ? Instead add a short summary at the beginning of your CV and you will never need a cover letter.

d) Fancy email IDs - many a times there are ridiculous email IDs mentioned, those which were probably created during your college days such as sexy16@, coolstud@, [email protected] don’t ever make the mistake of giving your current official email ID either ! Pls create a more professional email ID for your job hunt, its free after all ! 

e) Job Change reasons - never mention it in your CV, it reflects desperation of trying to justify yourself. Leave it for discussion during an interview

f) CTC details & CTC expectations - its wrong to mention both these in your CV. Don’t lay all your cards on the table, else the recruiter will never be curious enough to give you a call 

g) Too many personal details - Don’t overload the recruiter with too much of personal information such as details of all family members, super long list of hobbies & extra curricular activities, mentioning PAN No / Passport No blah blah. You can stick to mentioning 2-3 hobbies in keywords at most and the remaining info is irrelevant to mention.

Try and review your existing CV with my checklist of Essentials & Avoidable’s and see how you score :) 

Pls do leave your comments & feedback, and also mention the topics which you would like me to write more about.