The Do’s:
Tailor made
Making an inventory of your skills is a great way to start. You should tailor your CV according to the job you will be applying to. The best resumes are the ones that fit the job description of the employer so it is important to select your relevant qualifications and order them according to your employers interests for the job. Avoid writing your life story and anything else that is irrelevant for the specific position.
Size matters
Be clear and to the point. Reading CV’s is tedious and tiresome, make sure your target reader isn’t bored reading a CV that goes on for what feels like forever. Remember a resume usually sells you in seconds, so within these seconds the reader should only be seeing what it is that would make you great for the role. It is best to use:
Bullet points (duh)
Short sentences
Quantitative measures for your achievements
Don’t be redundant (please)
Formatting
This is basic! Fortunately you have a few options:
Functional: grouping accomplishments under different skills and achievements. This format is recommended to focus attention on skill set.
Chronological: accomplishments are in order, from most recent at the top of the page to least recent at the bottom. This format is recommended to focus attention on work history and extent.
Combination: a blend can be beneficial in order to highlight both work history and skill set.
Active voice
Active verbs activate your CV, make sure you’re using them. Also very important to make sure you are using the same tense consistently.
Keywords
Often times keywords are used to filter out hundreds of resumes, if yours does not include the keywords your desired employer is looking for, you run the risk of having your resume end up in the rejection pile. Check out our “Optimizing your Resume” blog post coming soon to make sure you are using the right ones.
Proofread!
The simplest and most important step to build your resume. Grammatical and typographical errors look incredibly unprofessional. Get a friend to proofread your CV, it will take minutes and could make or break you.