Writing a powerful CV

A powerful CV is the one customized as per the requirement of employer. Just assume for a moment that you are a HR Manager or Recruiter and your table is full of CV's in response to a job advertisment. When you have a primary review of few CV's you will get to know that some of the CV's catch your eyes immediately, while the others due to poor formatting & improper sequence fail to catch your attention. I came across so poorly formatted/ sequenced CV's that I had headache in attempt to understand the credentials, qualifications & experience of the candidates.

The format of CV must be simple and eye-catching, select a format that attracts yourself in the first attempt. Never use excessive color schemes on your CV's keep it simple & elegant.

It's important to understand the purpose of a CV, the purpose of CV is to enable you to reach an interview opportunity. We will talk about interview in detail some other time as today our main focus is on CV writing. If you are not getting interview calls it means that your CV is not good enough & needs improvement. When I applied for jobs, I used to change the format & modified my CV every other year. In case you don't get interview calls start improving your CV's till the time you start getting interview calls.

I see so many people asking recruiters to improve their CV's, I would like to tell you one thing that no one can write a better CV then you YOURSELF. As no one knows you better then yourself. Before writing a CV you must go through a few CV's related to your field, it will give you some practical knowledge about CV writing.

When you start writing your CV your name comes at the top, followed by personal information like current/permanent address, date of birth, mobile umber, your CNIC and email address. In case an employer desires some other pertinent detail you may mention that too in this section.

After introduction comes the career objective, the career objective section contains a brief on your key skill set, your current status & future ambitions.

The career objective section is followed by your education or experience, I would suggest whichever is stronger is placed upfront to catch the employer's attention. In case you do not have experience it's obvious that your education will come first. If you have done any internships that may follow. While writing your education you must write distinctions if any, you must start with your highest education which would be the latest and then go backwards. You must also mention your university, college name along with duration in terms of years. In case you have earned some certifications/ diplomas that augment your profile you must mention them on your CV, you can create a separate head i.e. professional qualifications for this section.

As I said earlier if your experience is bigger & better in terms of quality in comparison to your education then write your experience first. The experience section is the one that requires the most brainstorming as the rest of details are very obvious. This is the section that has the most impact on the employer in terms of what you are doing as a part of your current job, how much you improved from the past job experience they can well anticipate your skillset and compare it with their requirement.

Now lets talk about what should be written sequence-wise in your experience section, your experience section also starts with your current job unless otherwise specified by the employer. You start off this section with your current position title followed by the company name alongwith the period you are associated with this job. Then you must write the job responsibilities that you are performing given the role. Your job resposibilities must also be in the order of priorities, you must remember one thing while writing a CV that the sooner your CV attracts the employer the better it is, as the employer may not have enough time to go through all the CV's in detail. If you have some achievements on work you must put them on your CV to differentiate from the competition.

If you have acquired some special skillset like you are familiar with a particular language which may help you in performing a job better or you have developed a skillset may that be operating a machinery/equipment or IT skills you may mention them separately under the head of Skills.

You must also mention your constructive interests that would help you becoming better in your area of interest under the head of Interests. Some of the constructive interests are web browsing, relevant studies, participation in seminars related to your field etc.

Then comes the reference section, you can place two current or previous job references on your CV unless desired otherwise by the employer.

Good Luck