Writing your CV

CV = Curriculum Vitae = course of (one’s) life

General suggestions.

There are 2 aspects:    “WORDS”     and   “LOOK”

The WORDS:   
1. Keep them crisp.  Say the most with the least.
2. Use ACTION verbs. They want to know what we’ve done – so tell them.
3. Relevancy. Employers don’t care what is important to us – only what is important to them and their customers. If it is not relevant, leave it out.
4. Personality. Most CV’s are quite boring. Include interests that stand out, however strange they may be.

The LOOK:   This is the advertising part.
1. Alignment. Keep things well sorted to the side
2. Proximity. Things that go together belong together.
3. Contrast. When you use different font sizes/styles make it Obvious
4. Repetition. Same text for all content. Same underlining style.
5. Space. White space is good.

Some interesting research results on CVs

Employers want CVs so we write them.
Very few of them ever read a CV from cover to cover.
 
So what do they do with them?

Most employers:
1. scan them for about 20-30 seconds looking for key words
2. Don’t always file them in an organized way as the “sorry” letter suggests

What does it mean?

The CV is to spark interest so the employer will want to meet us. That is 1st base!

2nd base is a meeting – not necessarily to interview or hire you – just to find out more about you.    Interviews sometimes lead to jobs. Interviews are part of the “scanning” process where they decide if we are IN or OUT.