Imagine you are the recruiter and you have to review 250 job applications. Do you thoroughly read all of them? Of course you don’t.
Recruiters spend only 6 seconds scanning each CV, so the very first impression is key. If you submit a neat, properly organised document, you’ll convince the recruiters to spend more time on your CV. A poorly formatted CV will get you discarded in the first-round review.
How to format a CV
Start by creating a CV outline, divided into the following sections:
- CV header with contact information
- Personal profile: CV objective or CV summary
- Work experience
- Education
- Skills
- Additional section
Contact information
In the contact information section, enter your full name, professional title, email address, contact number, LinkedIn profile handle and home address.
Keep in mind that recruiters will use your contact information to research you online. If your social media profiles are unprofessional, or LinkedIn profile information doesn’t match that on your CV, you’re immediately disqualified.
To be remembered by an employer, make your CV pop with a personal profile statement. This is a short, snappy paragraph of up to 100 words that tells the recruiters why you are the candidate they’re looking for.
Your personal profile will either be a CV objective or a CV summary. A CV objective shows what skills you’ve mastered and how you would fit in. It’s a good choice if you’ve got little work experience relevant to the job you want, for example, if you’re a student.
A CV summary highlights your career progress and achievements. Use it if you are a seasoned professional and have much experience in your field.
Work experience and key achievements
Your work experience section is generally the most important part of your CV.
If you think you just need to list your previous positions, the dates worked and your responsibilities, think again. These details are essential in a basic CV, but recruiters want to know how well you did it and what you can offer your prospective employer.
Here is how your work experience section can illustrate that:
- Focus on your measurable, relevant achievements, not just your duties.
- Use action verbs like “created,” “analysed,” “implemented,” rather than “responsible for creating, analysis and implementation.”
- Tailor your CV to the job posting. Read the job description carefully and check what tasks will be expected of you.
- If you’ve done them before, include them on your CV, even if they weren’t your primary responsibilities.
If you have just completed your studies and have no work experience, or if you’ve graduated within the last 5 years, put your education section above your work experience.
Education
If you have tertiary education, include only it on your CV. Don’t mention your high school, unless it’s your highest degree of education.
List your graduation year (or your expected graduation date), qualification, institution name and any honours or prizes you received.
Skills
The skills you include on your CV should be relevant to the job you want. List in a spreadsheetall your professional skills. Then check the job description for the skills desired by your prospective employer. Include on your CV those skills that match some of the skills from your spreadsheet. Include an appropriate mix of hard skills, soft skills and anything in between.
Additional section
Here is where you show off your triumphs, namely the things that prove your value as a candidate.
CV formatting rules
- Choose clear, legible fonts. Opt for a standard CV typeface such as Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica Times New Roman or Bookman Old Style.
- Use 11 to 12 point font size and single spacing. For your name and section titles, pick 14 to 16 point font size.
- Be consistent with your CV layout.
- Set 2cm margins on all four sides.
- Make sure your CV headings are uniform – make them larger and in bold, but go easy on italics and underlining.
- Stick to a single format for dates on your CV: for example 03-2021, or March 2021.
- Don’t cram your CV with gimmicky graphics.
- White space is your friend – recruiters need some breathing room!
- Don’t add photos to your CV, unless the job ad specifically requests you to include your photograph. In this case, use a professional looking picture, but not as stiff as an ID photo.
- Make your CV brief and relevant. You don’t need to include every detail about your life on your CV. Nobody has the time to care about which high school you attended, or read 10+ bullet point descriptions of past jobs.
- Recruiters are trained to spot liars, so don’t embellish your past achievements or skills.
This article is based on an article published on zety.com
Want your details added to our job seekers database? Click to submit your CV.