How to write a convincing CV

How to write a convincing CV - that helps getting calls from recruiters.

If we ever want to find a standard example of an excellent CV we might fail badly as there is nothing like a good or a bad CV. Your CV is good only if it is successful in convincing you targeted recruiters and employers. According to the famous career strategist Heifetz your CV is a marketing document and the manager who is hiring you is your buyer and you yourself are the product. So, you need to give him a reason to buy.

Before starting you need to research about the organization and the role which you want to apply for so that you can think like your recruiter and understand what are the exact problems you need to solve and how will it make a relevant difference in that company. Then one should sort his or her skills that are relevant for solving this problem. It must be clearly written in your CV how can you actually benefit the company and how are you relevant for the role you are applying for.

The first 15-20 words are the most important part of one’s CV cause that is what attracts the recruiter’s attention. Therefore, you need to “open strong”. One can actually create the required initial impact in these first few sentences which summarises your own “unique value”, your achievements and how you can help the company or some of your special skills.

You need to be credible while constructing a CV. It is always better to give a concise idea and a context of your selected works, events and achievements rather than just making claims for yourself. One can CAR method to describe the Challenges one dealt with, the Action one took to solve it and finally what was the Result. While writing a CV you must not must not exaggerate or lie about your education and employment history. Neither should you make false statements about your professional qualifications and membership. A very famous company Hire Right found out that 63% of the applicants provide false information to their employers.

One should avoid use of long passive phrases and put the reader to sleep. The CV should be written in present tense and should be to the point. It should include action words but not flattery English and unnecessary long sentences. One should not also be fussy about their language. Unrealistic achievement details, exaggeration of your skill in a complicated languageand unrelated personal activities are unhealthy for a convincing CV. You should avoid unreliable opinions about yourself and focus on providing specific statements like “PR and social media manager with seven years’ experience, now relocated to Brighton.’

You should always use standard word template and a standard font and type size (not smaller than 11). A CV should not be less than a page and more than 2 pages as if you write more the recruiter may will you lack summarising skills. Recruiters want your recent details and not something you did 10 years back. So, it is very necessary to provide them with recent details of your achievements.

It is very much necessary to make every word written on a CV count. So, you need to put yourself in the shoes of you recruiter before providing any detail. Just for example you recruiter may not be very interested to know if you have a driving license or not.

For the part where you are mentioning about your career history one should include the company names and addresses and their job roles and dates of employment and should start with the most recent job. You should include bulleted points for the achieves you made under each role and should briefly

include the points below:

• Did you ever do something more and over you job description?
• What projects you worked on and what are their outcomes?
• Where have you shown that extra creative thinking and innovation during your job that should provide you this job?

You should only include your hobbies and interest if they are at all relevant for the job you want to apply for. If your hobby is to raise funds for poor in your local charity then it might reflect some skills needed in the work world. Similarly, impressive results in debates and elocution might attract some employers.

Finally spell check and grammar check you CV as according to a leading journal 56% reject a CV because of it. 21 % reject a CV as it is not perfect for that job. 15% of the CV are rejected as they lack objective and 5% are rejected when it is established that they are lying or faking experience. 3% of the rejected CVs are due to various issues like irrelevant listing (of personal hobbies and interested), using short forms etc.

Therefore, the summarised tips on writing a Convincing CV would be: -

• Your CV should be selectively and clearly written. Use of bold interface for headings are important.
• Your CV should be concise and it should act like an appetizer and should not cause indigestion to the reader.
• One needs to put themselves confidently and highlight their strong point in front of the reader.
• You need to be honest and understand the fact that your CV is not a legal document. You are not liable for anything within it but if an employer understands you are making a false statement about any of your qualifications your CV might get rejected rapidly.