How to Write an Effective Result-Driven CV

Your Curriculum Vitae is the most important tool for your professional life. Before the employer meets your personality, your CV meets his/her eyes. You have to make it right the very first time else your CV eats dust in the god-forsaken bin in the employer’s cabin!

Now, how do you ensure that your CV lands right into the selected pile of candidates and not in the bin?

Drafting your CV shouldn’t be an uphill task once you know what and how to present it. Presentation is the key!

I have put together the most important factors to keep in mind while working on your CV which will help you get an idea as to how to write a CV that is highly effective and result driven, it can guarantee in a way that it may boost the chance of getting a job if done carefully, as predicted by our CV specialists.  To begin with, the entire CV must be broken into easily-understandable parts which focuses on all the necessary and relevant information needed for the job you’re applying for. There is no hard-and-fast rule about writing your CV but sticking to these common sections will definitely make your CV effective when getting a call for the interview!

Contact Information

Your CV should read your name on the very top, and most importantly in BOLD. Your name carries equal importance as the rest of the CV!

While writing your contact information, never forget to mention your email address; it is the most professional mode of communication and should always be preferred. Now that we’re at it, let us also always keep in mind that the e-mail address we mention on the CV must be professional and not the one you created when you were a teen. You see, ‘iamtheone4u’ or ‘eatdrinkraverepeat’ may seem way too unprofessional!

Putting your phone number is a good idea too, considering if the employers want to reach you on phone instead of sending you e-mail.

It is advisable to supplement your contact information with an address. While doing so, use only the city and state and not the entire address (it isn’t necessary!). However, if you happen to stay too far from the place of the job you’re applying to, you can completely skip mentioning the address.

CV headline

CV headline, or what I’d like to call – your very personal marketing tagline is one of the best few words you can include in your CV!

Your CV is your marketing tool and like every marketing campaign, this one needs a tagline which positions you in the minds of the employer as the ‘most suitable’ one. Well, to start off, you can consider writing the name of the position you’re applying for or just mention what you’re best at. For instance, if you’re applying for a creative job, say a copywriter in a media firm, you could write “Wordsmith and Expert in Content Strategy”.

You can use humor as long as it plays by your side. Word of caution here, though, the moment your humor touches a wrong spot, your CV can be ignored and thrown away. Be very careful!

Summary

This part, written right after your CV headline, is the most important segment of your CV. In a clear and crisp manner, this segment should define and portray your skills, abilities, relevant experience and strengths!

Since this is the first thing your employer reads about you, this section should be given the most importance and written in the very END!

Few key facts which you would want to keep in mind while writing this section:

• This section is your first and most important chance to sell yourself. Make it the best by adding the highlights of your strengths and abilities.
• Always strive to answer the “Why hire me?” question in this section itself. Give reasons, with proof, relevant to the job applying for.
• This section should be a compact version of your CV; stating all your essential educational and professional achievements and relevant experience.

The summary in your CV should clearly state why you’re the one your employer has been looking for all this while and how you would fit the job role the best!

Keep the tone less boastful and more in a matter-of-fact way which interests the employer right away!

Skills

This section is where you tell the employer what you’re good at!

Simply put, this section allows the employer to quickly scan your credibility for the said job role and to check up to what extent you suit the job you applied for! I suggest, use bullet points to list down your hard skills and soft skills in a clear and relevant fashion.

It is advisable to use the right set of keywords to grab the employer’s attention towards the skills s/he is looking for.

1. Hard Skills –

These are the skills related to the industry or profession you work in. Use technical keywords and mention your proficiency in each skill (if possible) and be honest!

1. Soft Skills –

These skills are what sets you aside from the rest of the candidates!

Each candidate applying for the said position may have the same technical skill set but not necessarily the same soft skill set as you. Make the most use of it and use the most relevant keywords matching the job position to disclose what you’re amazing at!

These skills are the interpersonal and transferable skills which make you a great employee, for instance, team player, excellent communication, leaderships qualities, and so on.

Work Experience

This is a very crucial part of your CV as it needs to showcase the proof about all the relevant skills and experience you have been talking about before!

Work Experience needs authentic proof to support your CV Headline, Summary as well as Skills section. While listing down the experiences you’ve had, you must keep few things in mind:

1. Each experience should be put in descending order of chronology. That is, current job in the beginning and first job in the end!
2. Every position included should reflect how you contributed towards the progress and revenue in the said role for the organization.
3. Do not just mention a job. Highlight your responsibilities and positive contribution as well that align with the one you are applying for currently!
4. Use measurable contributions – for instance, if you were the key person responsible in the revenue generation in a particular quarter, mention the numbers achieved. Use target/goals versus achievements in a way of graphs or charts, if possible!

I know it looks a lot easier while reading than when actually doing it. Therefore, let the best one in the industry do it for you – we, CV Folks have years of experience in bringing brighter days to professional lives of people! Give us a try.

Education

Including the educational qualification is very important and gives credibility to your claims of having the skills and experience which you mentioned in your CV.

The easiest format to follow while adding your education is:

Degree Name – University Name – City, State.

While formatting the above, carefully BOLD face the degree’s name and do NOT use the year of qualification.

If you mention any professional courses, keep in mind that it should be relevant to the job you’ve applied for. For example, for a job in accountancy, your course in photography plays very little importance and hence should be safely skipped!

It is also very crucial to keep in mind that you should NEVER over/under qualify yourself for the job position while showing relevance. Keep it true and relevant.

Hobbies

You can safely omit this section unless your employer really needs to know what you do in your spare time.

Honours and Awards

Now, this section needs to be attached with the Summary section itself. As a matter of fact, any award or recognition that poses relevance to your field of job should be included in the Summary in BOLD or ITALICS, whichever necessary!

Endorsements

Endorsements are a way getting testimonials from your old employers. This is really helpful as it could help you stand out from other candidates and in a way authenticate the skills you mentioned. A small appreciation or acknowledgement from a previous manager or boss can go a long way in supporting your chance of landing the interview!

Instead of putting this section separately, quotes from old employers can be added right after the work experience from that particular organization. Short and sweet way of patting your back, professionally!

I Hope you got some real effective tips as to how to write a CV. But, writing your own CV or resume may seem a tedious task if you’re not much of professional but you can always leave the most crucial work for your professional journey to the one who’s best at it.

Still need an expert to write or draft a professional CV for you? Let the  CV Folks with a team of highly professional and trained CV consultants work its magic for you! And guess what? CV Folks provide exclusive ‘Job Guarantee’ that nobody else does when you book your CV with us.