A message from the future you
I have recently received an application for a job with a CV which had 11 pages!
As you can imagine this is not a helpful size of one’s CV and this immediately puts a candidate in disadvantage. More, having read through 11 pages of that person’s CV I still couldn’t verify whether he/she was the person I wanted to hire. It simply didn’t contain information I needed to make that decision!
You might think more information and more detailed is better. But that is actually not true. Keep reading if you want to find out how to win "the battle" with a recruiter and get the job.
I have listed below the most fundamental aspects of preparing your CV and included some examples. Some of my recommendations might be shocking to you but I prefer to shock you now rather than you to be shocked when after 6 months of job searching you still got nothing.
Your CV should have a following format:
1. Maximum 2 pages, PREFERABLY 1 page
Unless someone specifically asked you for additional information about a particular subject, you CV should contain maximum two pages, preferably one page.
This will probably be shocking for you but oil and gas industry research states that on average recruiters spend 6-8 seconds looking at your CV before they decide whether you are suitable for their vacancy or not. That is all. 6 seconds!
Don’t you think then that you should prepare your CV in a way that it will allow you to “impress” the recruiter in these 6 seconds?
That means you really need to stand out with the format and the content of your CV, don’t you think? And this also means that NO ONE, literally no one will be reading your entire CV (especially the 11-page one) from the beginning to the end.
CONCLUSIONS:
2. Include only relevant experience, only relevant education and only the information that makes sense for that particular job’s position.
For example, the information about my bachelor’s thesis being about eustatic sea level changes in Mesozoic (yep!) is not exactly an information which will be crucial to evaluate whether I am the good candidate for an operations team leader position. Right??
CONCLUSIONS:
3. Divide your CV into clear 6 blocks
?Yes, it is possible to fit all the required information into 1 page.
?The blocks include:
Contact details block
This block includes your name, surname, and the way you want to be contacted (email, LinkedIn profile, mobile number) and NOTHING ELSE.
Please do not include your date of birth, your sex, your home address, your stationary phone number, your Facebook profile, your visa status or whether you are married or not! Never do that. This is considered bad practice and you might be disqualified before your application process even started. ?
Include your photo only if you have checked the country custom where you apply requires it or it is advantageous for your application (each country has its own CV best practice and rules, so it is important to check them beforehand).
About me block
This is the most important part of your CV, and this is where a recruiter will spend most of her/his 6-8 second time to verify your fit for the position. That is why you really need to put an effort to prepare it properly.?
It shouldn’t be longer than 4-5 sentences and it should give a recruiter a very good idea of WHO you are as a person, HOW the organisation you are applying for will benefit from hiring you and WHY you are the best candidate for that role.
This is NOT really a summary of your CV. It is a mini-cover letter and a personal message to the recruiter. In other words, when someone asks you at a professional cocktail party who you are, why you are applying for that job and how they can benefit from hiring you, the answer you would give is the one you should write here.
Relevant achievements block
Please note that this block is NOT called relevant experience. This block is called relevant ACHIEVEMENTS and there is a huge difference between the two.
You shouldn’t include here your experience of drilling some wells or describe your responsibilities at your previous position as drilling engineer. It is hard to digest the truth, but NO ONE CARES about your responsibilities at your previous position. What recruiters care about is what was the effect of your work. The recruiter wants to read about THE RESULT of your work, experience and education put together. This is what you should include here.
?Pick two ACHIEVEMENTS you are the proudest of for each position and describe how did you make it better, improve it, increase it, expand it...
Measurable results are the most impactful. Try to include as many numerical results of your achievements as possible.
Relevant education block
Again, this is the block where you should include the relevant education only, NOT all your education.?So, that would be your B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D. etc. I often include here also relevant certificates and diplomas (but not training and courses diplomas).
For example, I would include here my PMI certification (project management) but I would NOT include my “Formation evaluation and petrophysics” 5-day course I took a few years ago. The latter can go into the section skills. Do you see my point? ?
Skills block
This is a very useful section of the CV where a very few words can say a lot to the recruiter. I usually create a separate section (and in a different colour) where I list all the most important (and most relevant) skills and capabilities) and then indicate my expertise level by yet another different colour (so the circles can be filled up or not).
Here, you could include all the professional skills that you particularly proud of and those that the position requires (e.g., drilling horizontal wells, deep water drilling, formation evaluation, wellbore stability etc.)
You can add a small additional description below the title of each skill. I would also recommend placing this block on the left side of your CV page to easily distinguish it from other sections.
Extras block
Finally in this block you can include your language skills, your publications / papers (if you have some), any courses and training you find relevant for the position (again, NOT all of your courses and training).
You can re-name this block however you want depending on the position you apply for, e.g. additional certificates, languages or publications etc.
Sometimes, especially in case of leadership positions it is good to include here your personal philosophy, favourite motto or some personal achievements so the recruiter will get a sense of WHO you are as a person. ?
Historically, I used to include this motto: “if you knew success was a certainty, what would you attempt to do?” This often sparks a question during the interview process where you will have an opportunity to expand on it.
In case of personal achievements (again, we are continuing with achievements here pointing out to the recruiter that YOU are an achiever) I used to include these:
CONCLUSIONS:
The result should look like this:
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