How to Prepare Curriculum Vitae for any Application

How to Write a Quality resume?

Internet submissions leave their inboxes flooded with job applications and they do not have time to waste on badly written CVs and cover letters. It is this 30 second limit that dictates the content and how it is arranged: anything that is most likely to grab the employer’s attention must come first. It is important to not only think twice about what to include, but also about the style of the resume. Whether one opts for the chronological or functional type, the document has to be neat, well laid out and easy to read.

Things that are most important to recruiters and employers – skills, education, work experience, character – are more effective when they are presented in such a way that they reinforce and illustrate each other. For instance, instead of listing three separate facts – I worked as a software consultant for Firm X, my clients included X and Y, I have a keen interest in Application Z – it is both more effective and elegant to write “My work as a software consultant for Firm X has allowed me to explore my interest in Application Y and brought me several new clients and contacts.” In this way, the dry facts take the back seat to personal achievements and interests, allowing the recruiter to see the candidate in a more compelling light.

What to Include

Information that each resume must include is the name, address, contact number, work experience, education and skills. Anything else – references, personal information irrelevant to the job, photographs, unrelated hobbies and activities, salary outline, objectives – is better left out unless the advertisement specifically asks for it. The thing to keep in mind is that the three main characteristics employers look for in any prospective employee are a strong work ethic, personal integrity and good communication skills. Any personal information that does not serve to illustrate these is usually redundant.

Rules Before Writting

In terms of form, these are the basic guidelines to follow:

•use clean paper
•check for spelling and grammar mistakes
•use bullets instead of paragraphs wherever possible
•use font size 11 or 12 (except for the name and headings)
•write the name and subsection headings in bold
•do not write less than a page and a half or more than two pages
There are three basic formats used to write CVs: the chronological, the functional and a combination of the two.