Master the Art of CV Writing

One cannot deny the unequivocal vitality of his/her curriculum vitae (CV) in applying for a decent position at a dream company. The following lines manifest my experience in writing a creative CV and resume that works for your interest and represents your skills and potential before big companies and titanic recruiters.

Step number one is always about writing your full name and contact details, which should be centered on the top of the file with a distinct font for the name which needs to be full (i.e., first, middle, and last name). Your contact details should include your professional LinkedIn account, YouTube channel if any, and Facebook account if professional and not the personal and familial use. Your phone number should be added in its international format (i.e., +..-....), and it is always advised to provide your WhatsApp number to guarantee a quick connection with clients. Your email address should be professionally chooses, i.e., no nicknames, no hypocorism, and no long numbers.

Step number two is all about your educational background which needs to be written in a descending order. This means one should mention his/her recent educational diploma first, then go down with the remaining certificates in a reverse chronological order. For example, my PhD degree comes before my Master's degree which also comes before my Bachelor's degree, and so on. One important note here is that this particular section has nothing to do with your training courses. Also, make sure you mention when exactly you received the diploma in years, so no need to mention day and month.

Step number three is to mention your professional experience, and I totally endorse dissecting this section into separate sub-sections if you have a rich career where you have more than one professional position. For example, I work as a translator, interpreter, and lecturer at the university, hence I would make a separate section for translation and interpreting and another one for teaching and mentoring. This planning is much better that compiling your whole career under one title. Always use a reverse chronological order as mentioned in the previous paragraph. This time, details are of a high priority and importance, so please mention your responsibilities that you were assigned to under each title.

Step number four is about detailing the training courses you received, and this part can be somehow tricky because we take courses in different fields that may be irrelevant to our professional career. Therefore, I advise you to only mention the training course that are mainly related to your career or those that closely serve it. Dissecting this section into separate sub-sections is also advised.

Step number five is all about your achievements, which applies to those who received grants, honorary prizes, or even personal achievements relevant to their career. It can be somehow challenging to find something to write under this section, yet with time, patience, and hardworking, your achievements will be long listed.

Step number six is to mention your volunteering activities. This particular section has been one day of no importance to a lot of people, however, with the emergence of humanitarian work all over the world, volunteering has become of a high priority because it shows that the holder of such a CV is a charitable person who does not spare effort or time to help others.

Step number seven is to list your linguistic skills, i.e., your mother tongue first, then your foreign languages if any. However, it is critical to mention your level in each linguistic skill (reading, listening, speaking, and writing) in each language you speak. Also, you are advised to mention the placement tests that you underwent one day as long as there are still valid not expired.

Finally, step number eight is about your computer skills which include your software skills and all programs that you can use whether relevant to your career, e.g., Computer-Assisted Tools (CAT Tools) in translation, or irrelevant. I always advise my students to get accustomed to using Artificial Intelligence tools in their career and to include them in their CVs.

In a nutshell, one cannot ignore the criticality of following these steps to ensure having a professional CV that qualifies him/her for dream jobs and positions, yet it is all about how to write their details correctly and wisely.