CV and RESUME - seem to be the same, but they have different meanings. The full form of CV is Curriculum Vitae, which means "Course of life". So, CV should contain greater details of qualifications, accomplishments, trainings etc, while "Resume" is a shorter version of CV - should contain professional history in brief.
Now, how to prepare an effective CV or a resume?
Studies show that recruiters spend 7 to 20 seconds reviewing the CV, so better to "Keep It Short and Simple" - KISS. Short, but content should be impressive and relevant in order to make the CV attractive forrecruiters / employers.
So here are some tips
- No jumbled and confusing words, easy-to-find information.
- Highlight important aspects of experience as per the job you are applying for.
- CV should be in reverse chronological order meaning most recent experience should come first and so on, then follow up with Education, professional affiliations, trainings, awards etc.
- Skip unnecessary information like - graphics, school/company logos etc. and no point of sharing unnecessary personal information unless asked.
- Career objective / Statement on your special abilities - write them, but you should be able to justify them in case of counter-questioning. They should complement your skills and experience, exhibit your ambitions.
- Try to use appropriate keywords related to the job you are applying - so that your application can be tracked by Resume Management Software used by companies these days. Also, it will appear in the searches done by the recruiters.
- Fonts - Very important - use professional looking font, no unnecessary Italics/bold words - it irritates the viewers and looks unprofessional (unless you are applying for a creative / artistic type positions). Ideal font size according to experts is 10 or 12 points, for headings it can be 14 or 16. Most commonly used fonts are Arial, Verdana, Calibri and Times New Roman.
- For layout or formatting options, use commonly used ones so that the CV can be accessed in all types of software programs being used by recruiters.
- Use bullet points to grab attention (KRA / accomplishments)
- Use a logical format, write clear headings - helps in reading important parts
- For experience holders, CV should be of 2 pages, not more than that, no one has time to read long CVs, trust me. If needed or asked, you can prepare a separate list of the work done with all the details in form of annexure. For freshers -1-page CV is fine. Ideally, Resume should be of 1 page, mentioning relevant experiences and meaningful keywords that are directly related to the advertised position.
- As one gains experience, the older or not-so-relevant experience can be minimised while applying for a particular job.
Hope you find the above-mentioned tips useful!
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Arti K.
An engineering graduate who works at the front of our searches across Delhi NCR - first contact with candidates, and keeping the firm's network of legal professionals warm between briefs.