1. I
HOW TO WRITE A CV THAT
REALLY WORKS
Part: II
By: http://SBANJAR.kau.edu.sa/
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar http://wwwdrshadiabanjar.blogspot.com
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2. The importance of your CV/Resume cannot be
underestimated. First impressions count in competitive
job markets.
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3. There’s More Than One Way to
Present Yourself
In part I , we have been analyzing why it is so important to ‘sell yourself’.
We have examined how to identify your skills and achievements and what
information to include on your CV. This part concentrates on how to present
this to the reader.
PUTTING ON THE STYLE
WHICH APPROACH TO TAKE!
There are three main styles of CV:
1 The chronological CV.
2 The functional CV.
3 The targeted CV.
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4. Each one has its strengths and which style you
use will depend on:
1. what you have already done
2. what you intend to do.
It may well be appropriate for you to have more than
one version of your CV and to present yourself
using different styles.
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5. The Chronological CV
This style of CV presents your
career history in chronological
sequence, starting with your
most recent job first.
C
V
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6. This style is useful when:
• Your career history shows natural
progression and growth.
• You’re staying in the same field of work.
•You have worked for well known
companies with good reputations.
•Your previous job titles are impressive.
•You’re aiming to work in a traditional
field, e.g. government or education,
when where you worked or studied is
important.
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7. •Your last or current position should include more information
about your duties, skills and achievements than previous ones.
•The less recent your job, the less information you will include.
•Remember, when writing about your work, only include:
1. the main highlights,
2. what you achieved (not just what you did),
3. the skills you developed,
4. facts and figures that help sell you (e.g. managed a team of
14 staff, working to a budget of £250k).
So if your career to date emphasizes continuity and
progression and you have worked for well known
employers, this style may well be best for you.
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8. The functional CV
This style of CV highlights your main skills and
strengths and does not place so much emphasis on
who you worked for and what your job title was.
The functional CV offers greater flexibility on how
you present yourself than a chronological CV.
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9. This functional style is useful when:
•You want to emphasize skills and strengths not necessarily acquired through
paid employment.
•Your career to date consists of a number of jobs, most of which are
unconnected.
•You want to change careers and therefore your present position may be of no
relevance to your future ambitions.
•You want to emphasize skills and achievements from previous work experience
which were not required in your most recent position.
• You are entering the job market after a break or for the first time.
•Most of your work has been freelance or you have worked on a number of
temporary assignments.
• You are self employed and want to present to clients the range of areas in
which you have experience.
•You have had a number of job titles, but the work has been basically the same.
(Using this style avoids endless repetition of the same information.)
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10. •This style can be used when sending your CV
on a speculative basis, as it gives a brief
overview of the range of your skills, rather than
simply emphasizing what you have done in your
most recent position.
•For this reason it is also useful when contacting
agencies who may wish to consider you for a
number of positions.
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11. The Targeted CV
•This style of CV, as the title suggests, is best to use when you
are aiming for one specific type of job.
•As such, the CV can only be written with the job in mind.
• Although much of the content of the CV may be the same as
used in the previous styles, this one will be tailored accordingly.
•Greater emphasis will be given to detail that relates specifically
to the job in question.
A targeted CV can be a combination of functional and
chronological CVs. However, all detail included will be
written with a clear objective in mind, as opposed to a
general overview.
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12. This style is useful when:
•You have a specific job to go for, or are responding to a
particular job advert.
•You want to emphasize skills and achievements, not necessarily
acquired in your most recent work, or which were obtained
outside paid employment.
•Adopting this style will, by its nature, mean you are likely to have
a number of versions of your CV which you adapt accordingly.
+
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13. Getting The Length And Layout Right
One of the main talking points around CVs is
how long they should be. It is helpful firstly to
answer the following:
1. Does my CV give enough information to the
reader?
2. Have I been able to portray fully my skills and
achievements?
3. Am I getting interviews?
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14. •Most people agree that there is no need for a CV to be any
longer than three pages – and quite often two pages is
enough.
•To some extent, this will depend on the size of type face and
how spread out your information is.
•There are those that argue that a one-page CV proves most
successful and that it should be possible to include all
relevant information on one page.
•Certainly, if the reader is inundated with CVs and only has to
glance through one page of yours, this may be an advantage.
•The key, is to concentrate on what you want to tell the
reader and then decide how long your CV will be.
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15. The third question is perhaps the most vital one.
Ultimately, if you are not gaining interviews:
•you are applying for the wrong types of jobs.
•your CV needs changing.
•you need to adopt different strategies for using your CV.
•The readers of your CV have different preferences.
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17. MAKING FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT
•The length of your CV will depend on how you decide to
lay out your information and also on which one of the
three styles you choose to use.
•When someone sees your CV for the first time, they will
begin to form a strong impression immediately. This will
be influenced by:
a. the quality of paper used
b. how neatly the CV is presented
c. whether or not the CV is clear and easy to read.
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18. The reader does not want:
•eye strain from trying to decipher a mass of words crammed
onto a single sheet of paper
•to be faced with a seemingly never-ending document that
fails to get to the point and does not give them the information
they require.
•Remember:
Your CV must look good visually and be easy to follow.
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19. The use of headings, bullet
points and bold lettering
can all play their part in
helping to make your CV
look good.
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20. CV No-No’s
1. No more than three pages.
2. No CV without editing. Learn to Edit your CV and know
what needs to be in and what doesn’t.
3. No frivolous email address. Keep those ones for your
friends and get a new one for the job search. Your name,
or some version of it, is all you need.
4. No too small font size. Keep it to 12pt for Arial or Times
New Roman. There is no need for any other font – if you
like a modern look go for Arial, if you like a traditional
look Times is for you.
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21. • No Gaps. Every year of your career should be accounted for. If you took
a sabbatical or time out to do non-work stuff, you need to say something
to explain that time
• No Platitudes and clichés. They don’t say anything. “A highly
enthusiastic team player” or “Hardworking and able to work alone or
in a team”. Has anyone yet confessed to be a lazy misanthrope? Keep
the subjective opinions and the pointless clichés out of the profile
statement and focus on facts.
• No need to be a job board tart. Recruiters are using clever programs to
manage on-line applications. If you are rejected by one consultant in a
firm it flags up for the others the next time you apply for something. If
you consistently get rejected, sooner or later the other consultants will
stop opening your CV, especially if you apply for a wide range of
unrelated positions.
• No need to rush. Don’t forget, January is traditionally a good month for
recruitment.
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22. One Last Thing:
EDIT
EDIT
EDIT!
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23. Resource:
•How to write a CV that really works © 2009 Paul McGee. Published by How To Content:
www.howtobooks.co.uk
•Five CV No-No’s, by Nick Gendler:
http://workjoy.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/five-cv-no-nos/
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