How to write a killer CV (Part 1)

What is a CV and what is to be included?

Whether you're a graduate struggling to find a job or a professional experienced individual planning to shift to a new role or position or you want to completely change a career, you’ll need to write an outstanding CV to be shortlisted for an interview.

Probably you’ve submitted several CVs for a job but never invited for an interview! Wondering why? I’ll tell you the reason.

But let’s start by defining what is a CV and why is it important to have one.

Ooh, some recruiters will ask you for a Resume while others will say to submit your updated CV. Wondering what is the difference? Well, there is a slight difference between the two depending on where you live. If you’re in America a Resume is a summary of your professional journey while a CV is more detailed than a Resume.? But somewhere else apart from America, there is no difference between the two. We’ll get into detail on what are the differences between a CV and a Resume later, but now, let’s get back to our topic.

Before we get into a formal definition of a CV and how to write a good one, consider a CV as a trailer of your professional life, your skills, capabilities, accomplishments, and achievements that you use to convince the recruiters that you’re the best fit for a job.

The word CV is an abbreviation of the Latin word ‘curriculum vitae’ a phrase meaning ‘course of one’s life’. This document was meant to describe one’s life, who are you, things you have done, the places you visited, your skills, and many more.

However, a CV is nowadays used to describe the professional life of an individual. It's a document you submit to be considered for a job. It summarizes your skills, experience, educational background, achievements, hobbies, interests, and sometimes referees. Therefore, it should be a clearly defined, easy-to-understand summary that describes you perfectly.

What to include in a CV?

Curious to know how to structure and layout your CV? We’ll get into it later, for now as you already know what a CV is, let’s discuss in a nutshell what to include in your CV before we get into details in the next article.

Before we begin the list, let’s stress one more important point.

Tailor your CV for each job position. You might be asking yourself why? Well, you might have your perfect well-organized, self-explanatory, and easy-to-read CV which you think you can use in every job application. Well, that might be the reason you’ve never received an invitation for the job interview.

When recruiters scan CVs for a prospective candidate, they’re looking for what they call keywords. Keywords are the words that best describe a good fit candidate for the job. They are usually those words in the job description. Nowadays AI tools are used to shortlist candidates for an interview, these tools scan for those keywords in your CV.? To get better keywords for your tailored CV, though it’s old-fashioned, I would suggest printing a job ad and using it while tailoring your CV. It will help you compose a document with the most relevant information for the position you’re applying for.

Okay, let’s get started.

1.?????? Personal Details or Headline

In this first section, tell the recruiters who you are. Your name, address, and contact information. Address is very important for the recruiters to know your location especially when permission to work is required.

2.?????? Your profile, sometimes called career objectives or summary.

This is the answer to the ‘tell us about yourself ‘question. Be careful to include only experiences relevant to the position you are applying. Include what you have done and where you want to be next.

Wondering if you have just graduated and have no experience yet, what should you write in this section?

Don't worry, it’s your profile. Think of your strengths, things you have managed to do and what you want to achieve next, they should be relevant to the position you’re applying though. For instance, if you’re once a learner in school, tell the recruiters that you’re a strong team leader or if you have played football or any game, say you’re a good team player or if you have a strong academic background, say you’re a fast learner. Think of your strengths and convert them to qualities and never forget to tell them what you want to accomplish next. However, choose the quality wisely, they have to be relevant, remember.

Write a few, clear and easy-to-understand sentences in this section, recruiters have limited time and thousands of documents to read.

3.?????? Work experiences

Now they know who you are and what you’re capable of, prove it! Show them that you’ve been practicing what you say you can do. List not all but only relevant experiences in a reversed order, starting with the most recent position. State the position title you held, company or organization name, where and when you started, and finishing dates. Include achievements instead of roles you played in each position.

Highlight your achievements. Let’s say you were a senior supervisor entitled to the role of improving equipment availability by coordinating and ensuring maintenance schedule compliance.?

Say “Managed to improve equipment availability to 90% through intensive coordination and on-the-dot maintenance plan compliance” Well get into it deeply later on.

Ooh, you’re a fresh graduate, wondering what I should write in this section. Don’t worry, we have you all covered.

For a graduate ??, write about a project you’ve done and what were your roles and/or include field practical training you have attended. ?In each of those, include what you’ve achieved to do. Remember to be relevant to the position you’re applying for.

Ewe! You’re almost there, keep going.

4.?????? Education background/ qualifications

Like experiences, this is also a proof section. List your educational qualifications, the colleges you attended, and what you’ve achieved.? Start with the most recent going backward, list awards received and course names including starting and finishing dates, place, and institution name. Always remember to write qualifications relevant to the position you’re applying for.

After education, it’s worth adding some additional information about what you’re about to offer, things that you’re made of, and those which you are proud of. These are.

5.?????? Skills and strengths

These are sometimes called interests, but I don’t prefer this word as it looks personal and selfish.

Here you tell them about your skills in bullet points, tell them you can use software, you can lead a team, and you can write reports to name a few. You can also all awards you’ve got anywhere.?

I’m a graduate, what should I say?

You have to show your strengths. For instance, if you received an award as the best student in math, this shows that you are a problem solver, if you were the best student’s leader, then you’re a strong leader.

Think about what you can do best, but it has to be relevant and convincing for the job position in question.

Okay, let’s get to the last component, Read?

6.?????? References

Now, that you have expressed yourself a lot, it’s time to leave for others to talk about you. Some recruiters would like to ask someone about you, for additional information, it might be your behaviors or your attitude towards work.

Give them someone trustworthy, it might be your former manager or supervisor or a college professor or tutor. Remember a referee should be a person who can describe you well before the recruiters.

In some cases, the recruiter may require a predefined quality and the number of them. List their names, professional titles, and contact information.

Before you submit

Then you’re done. Run through your document, and scan deeply for errors before you save it to PDF for submission. Your document should be error-free, it will be representing you before the recruiters and you don’t want to look foolish there.

What comes in part two? Well, get into details on the layout and style of a killer CV. Stay tuned.

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