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CV and Resume Tips
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Use an opening profile?
An opening profile is very useful in bringing immediate attention to a summary of your skills and what you have to offer. As recruiters have lots of applications and little time, you need to ensure that they can remember you, just by glancing at your CV. For this reason, a carefully prepared opening profile statement, can prove very beneficial.
Sell your abilities and skills
Firstly, it is important to focus on transferrable skills, or what are known as "soft skills", such as management, communication, problem-solving and the likes. You should demonstrate such qualities from your experience. Secondly, you should speak about each of your job roles from the angle of the skills you utilised or developed in that role, illustrating the skills with examples, and with achievements if any.
Enter details in reverse order
When entering your job history, education or projects, work in reverse chronological order (your last jobs first, at the beginning of the CV and resume). The employer wants to see your most recent job experiences and determine if that makes you suitable for the job.
Use active language and give detail
The use of active verbs and positive language allows you to put your experience across with more impact. As an example, saying "Managed a team of 25 sales personnel" has more impact than "Sales management". Where there are significant numbers involved, such as personnel in departments, or annual budgets, or items of sale, then it is useful to mention the numbers, as this helps to quantify your ability and experience. MyCVBuilder gives you a list of around 500 active words to use in your CV.
References
It is best to avoid putting references on your CV or resume unless you have been specifically asked to provide them. Employers usually ask for references when they actually need them.
CV or Resume Layout
You should keep your sentences brief and to the point, and always mention the most important information first. It is a good idea to use bullet points to allow each point to be distinct. Do not use multiple fonts to make sure that the appearance remains consistent, and is easy to read. Try to leave plenty of white space. Generally speaking a CV should be around two pages and a resume should be one page long, or two if it is absolutely necessary. MyCVBuilder offers you a large variety of formats and layouts, and gives you the flexibility to determine the use of font type and size, as well as putting information in bullet-points.
Abbreviations
Take caution with the use of abbrevations because they can be often misunderstood.
Plain-text format CVs and resumes
Most recruiters prefer CVs or resumes in plain text format instead of Word or other formats. The reason being that they can simply dump this file into their database, ready for keyword searches when they wish to find suitable applicants for their clients job openings. A plain-text format of your CV or resume contains nothing but the actual text. It is a very good idea to create a plain-text format of your CV and resume to send to recruiters and agencies. MyCVBuilder allows you to create plain-text CVs and resumes with a mere click of a button.
Do not exaggerate
You must make sure to mention all the good points about yourself relevant to the job but do not, under any circumstances, exaggerate and go over the top. This can work against you in one of two ways. You might oversell yourself, or you will face problems if you are asked to prove your claims at the interview stage or if the potential employer decides to verify with your references.