CV writing is a tedious job. Whether you are writing for yourself or for someone else, one has to go through painful and time consuming analysis to make their CV most competent for the job. You can't control everything when you apply for a job. But, the least you can do is avoid obvious mistakes. Read on.
Before Starting, Make sure you have the following -
- A LinkedIn profile with at least 200+ Legit Connections and your roles publicly visible
- A Word Software such as Microsoft Word 2013 or later, Libre Office or Google Docs
- A valid professional sounding Email Address
- The Job Description of the job you are applying for
- Your rough Resume
0 - That's the number of spelling mistake your CV should have
Most of the users do not understand the importance of a grammatically correct CV. While this may be overlooked by certain recruiters, this is ABSOLUTELY essential to maintain for 99% of the recruiters. After you've completed writing the resume, please triple check it for spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and wrong annotations.
1 - That's the number of page your CV should have per 10 years of experience
This is the most important point and in top companies, can decide whether your resume will be even considered or not. No recruiter has the time to read your auto-biography. Specially when you are applying for a top job is a reputed company. Recruiters search for keywords, skills and related experience. Everything you write in your resume, should always be RELATED to the job you are applying.
Go through the job description properly. Identify Skills and required experiences. Compare with your experience and take only the related part of it. For example, a Product Manager job at a Tech Company will require a certain experience with product development/management, technical expertise in working with related (E.g. - Web/iOS/Android/Windows/Linux) products. Expertise in working with different teams such as Marketing, Business, End Customers and experience in product design.
In this case, you should focus on whether you meet the minimum experience requirement, write the RELATED products you've developed/worked on. Include the technologies that are common and all the activities such as Product backlog creation, agile delivery experience that will help your cv stand out!
2 - That's the maximum number of lines for your summary
Your summary is what the recruiters will read first. Using words like highly motivated, focused etc not only wastes space, but they are so cheesy and common that they create a negative impact on your CV. Be crisp. "15+ years of experience in Web based product management, agile teams and marketing" looks better than 5 lines of gibberish.
3 - Maximum number of education degrees you should mention
Importance of Education degrees are different in different countries and for different jobs. In any case, Graduation, Post Graduation and Doctoral degrees (If any) are the maximum you should provide. Anything else, in most cases is redundant. Use that space for something else. If you hold multiple G/PG/PhDs, mention them as appropriate for the JD.
Many are confused how and whether GPAs are included. Denote GPA in an understandable way. If I write GPA - 4.5, it does not convey anything. But GPA 4.5/5 or 90% does.
The ONLY exceptions could be if you are preparing your CV during your graduation. In that case, yes, you can include your High school name and marks. Same is applicable for multiple doctorates if you are applying for a Nobel prize.
4 - Maximum number of points you should include per job position
This point is applicable ONLY if you worked in multiple companies and/or multiple roles. Always use bullet points to write experience notes.
Point 1: What the project is all about. The scale and what value did it provide. E.g. - "Worked as a Project Manager for a web based E-commerce Product serving 1 million customers across 70 countries and improved PoS by 30%"
Point 2: What was your role, What did you contribute? E. g. - "Led five agile teams of total 70 engineers working across the globe and coordinated between marketing, business and sales."
Point 3: How did you contribute? "Project conception, end to end application design, creating marketing campaign that improved the CSat index by 300%"
Point 4: Misc like awards/achievements related to the project [Optional] E. g. - "Won the Most valuable player award because of my contribution to the project"
5 - The maximum modes of contact/personally identifiable information you should provide
Many of us provide unnecessary contact information. Not only these take extra space, but also expose us to identity theft specially when the CV is shared with many. To keep it concise, just give -
- Full Name,
- Contact Number
- Email ID
In addition to that, for technical profiles, you can share your
- LinkedIn profile link (Generally write the text as linkedin.com/
- Skype/Google plus id in case you are anticipating a video call.
Anything apart from these five is redundant. Companies doesn't want to know your home address and father's name when they are coming for recruiting. If you are selected, you'll have ample time to share that.
6 - Different styling Guidelines you should follow
- Except for User Experience and Designing field, make sure your CV is readable in grey scale. Most companies tend to print and give it to recruiters during interview. A nice logo/picture will look good in screen, may not in the print.
- Try to avoid putting your picture unless you are applying for an acting and modeling role. This is in most cases, unnecessary.
- Make sure every section is identifiable separately. Bold, italics, Font size, background color of sections and capitalization are at your disposal.
- Keep it readable, provide some space between the contents and at least 1 line space (Microsoft Word standard)
- Use bullet points wherever possible. They are easy to read and will help you to deliver maximum information within minimum time.
- If possible, showcase logo/text of your top achievement/certifications at the top right corner of the page. (gray scale friendly)
7 - The Maximum number of sections your CV should have
The Seven sections of your CV may look like the following. Make sure they are distinguishable separately.
CV
Summary
.
.
Work Experience
Company1
Position1 - Location
- Point 1
- Point 2
- Point 3
Position2 - Location
- Point 1
- Point 2
- Point 3
Company2
.
.
Skills (Optional)
.
.
Education
.
.
Certificates (Optional)
.
.
Achievements (Optional)
.
.
Contact
.
.
8 - Highlight these important things
- If you've worked in big companies, Company name should come first under work experience and then the role.
- Your skills which matches with the JD should come first.
- Try finding keywords in the job description and make them bold in the points you are writing in your experience. However, these should not come across too loud. The number of such highlights should be minimal
- Your certifications that are directly related to the job description should be mentioned first in the certifications section
- Achievements of similar type should be clubbed together and if they are not related to the job, should come last and are optional. For example, if you've won a chess completion on state/international level but actually applying for a Hardware engineer or Finance Role, this is good but unrelated. It should come last no matter how good it sounds. But, an AppStore/GooglePlay/WindowsStore link to a popular application you've developed might be more useful.
- Be consistent with the hierarchy of different sections. If you use Company name > Position in your work experience, you should use University Name > Course name in your education.
- Highlight international experience if you have one, and mention the location.
- If you have a gap in your job experience, mention the reason. It is thus also important to mention everything in time range and make sure all time ranges till date, matches and are explained in the CV.
9 - Important points to consider when you Save/Share your CV
- Always share your CV in PDF format. This is the ONLY format which looks same in almost every kind of viewer and Operating systems. THis also means you won't have to worry about fonts as they'll be included in the document. For other formats like Word (.doc/.docx) files may look different in different reader/editing softwares. However, use inbuilt "Save as PDF" instead of "Print to PDF" as "Print to PDF" will remove all links from the document in most software. That means users can click on your linked in link and go to your profile.
- In case you are uploading it to public job sites, make your email and Phone number in the CV - Images. That's right. This will stop many automated SCAM/SPAM mails.
- Make sure that search and copy are enabled in your CV. Recruiters may search for keywords Disabling these will irritate people who are looking to hire you.
- Never protect your CV with a password. If you are including any information in the CV that is meant for public consumption - Don't include it.
- Always keep an editable version available. That means keep your .docx files with yourself. This will help you to quickly edit and share a CV in case there is an emergency opening you are interested in
- Always keep an editable copy in the cloud. Use Google Docs/One Drive/Dropbox to keep a copy of the latest CV available for editing. In case you are not near the system, you can edit that from any device.
- Maintain one base version of the CV. This base version can have two pages for 10 years of experience. You can remove certain sections based on relevance to the job.
- Make sure you are sharing it in A4 size compatible ALWAYS. This is the most used size for printing and generally is supported by all printers.
- Make sure your LinkedIn profile is consistent with the information given in the CV.
10 - Minimum font size in your resume
Resumes are to meant for reading. They'll be views in Web and Print and in the second case, no one will be carrying a magnifying glass. Thus, keep it readable. Using font sizes below 10 and family like comic sans is a strictly no no. Imagine how a 8pt font would look like in a mobile device.
You can use the following fonts and size along with the format of the document based on what system you are in -
i. Ariel
ii. Georgia
iii, Verdana
iv, Calibri (Windows)
I'm going to post certain templates I've used and created soon. Please check back this blog for more.
Disclaimer: Neither I am an Expert on Resume writing, nor the methods described below ensures a sure-shot success. These are my opinion ONLY based on my experience and should be followed at your own responsibility. This format may NOT be suitable for all roles and are meant for Managerial, Engineering, Finance, Sales and Marketing roles. I hold a Program Managerial position with a Tech MNC at the time of writing this blog.
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