Tips for Writing a CV/Resume
Your resume is not supposed to just inform but to sell you.
This is what distinguishes a resume that is only filled with responsibilities as opposed to accomplishments.
When writing a resume, consider asking yourself the outcome of whatever task you did on a job. Give it context and let employers see the importance of whatever you did.
Think about the person or employer that would be reading your CV/resume.
How would you portray yourself in the best light to the person reading?
Remember that employers are one of those that have a short attention span so you want to captivate them at the first sight of your resume.
Your resume is to get you an interview, that’s the purpose! Put anything that presents you in a good light for the role you’re applying for. Only include your strong points.
The perfect resume should be performance-based, human-centric, short and concise (between 1 and 2 pages), job-specific, and easy to glance through.
What to include in a CV/Resume
Career Objective: Tell the employer about yourself and why you are the best person for the job. You should also include what value you are bringing to the table. Add keywords.
Experience: Include month and year. Write accurate titles for the job positions you’ve had.
Write the full name of the company/organization. If the company is not well-known, add one or two sentences to describe the company.
The Experience section should come before Education except you really have no experience (I don’t assume that have none) or you are applying for your first job. But this is not a ground rule. It is a suggestion.
Education: If you have any degrees in view, mention it. Include any that’s relevant to the job you’re applying for.
Skills: Industry-specific skills and soft skills are for this section. Add skills that are most important for the position.
Certification: You can include those that are in view. Add the year you got the certification and the organization that awarded it.
Trainings: You can have this together with certification. If you have no certification, you can use trainings.
Projects & Activities: Over here, you have school projects, hackathons, side projects, competitions and anything you think is relevant under this section.
Other sections to add are: Volunteer positions, References (available on request is not palatable; it’s better to leave it out if you have no reference or take it out altogether), Hobbies, Leadership Positions, Courses, Publications, etc.
You don’t need to have all of these on your CV/resume before it attracts an employer.
The most important tip of all is to focus on results.
No grammatical errors or misspellings. Always have someone proofread your CV/resume for you after you’re done writing.
Have more questions on CV writing? Drop them in the comment section or drop them on Twitter and tag @maryabiodun01.
Read this article on how to excel in interviews. It has useful interview tips for you on your next interview appointment, either virtual or physical.
You should also read how to stand out with your resume.
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