How to make a good CV?

What is CV?

CV stands for “curriculum vitae”, a Latin phrase that means “course of life”. CV is a detailed document highlighting your professional and academic history, typically includes information like work experience, achievements and awards, coursework, research projects and publications of your works. Usually, CV is two or three pages long, but it can be longer depends on how much career accomplishments you have.

CV has no limit for length. It’s about how it can contain all the information to describe your academic and professional experience. To know well about the components that should be included in the CV and how to create them, pay attention to the following explanations:

1.     Personal Data.

Start by entering information such as full name, place and date of birth, address, phone number and email address. You can also enter an explanation of the field of work you are good at or interested in.

2.     Work Experience.

Give information about what positions you have occupied with each job description briefly. In addition to official work, you can also include information about your internship experience or even volunteers in certain activities.

3.     Education History.

A little different from resumes that focus on work experience information only, this document should also contain detailed information about your educational history. For example, the schools and universities where you received your education, as well as the degrees you successfully obtained.

Then what is the difference between CV and resume?

Well basically, they are quite similar since they’re both documents that summarize your professional history, education, skills and achievements. They’re also both documents you might provide an employer for consideration for an open position. A resume is typically a one-page document that provides a concise overview of your previous roles, skills and details about your education. The French word résumé translates to “abstract” or “summary.” A CV, on the other hand, is typically a longer, more detailed document focused largely on academic coursework and research. CVs are commonly required in industries such as education and academia as well as science and research.

Why is it so important?

CV is a short document that gives you a chance to show a prospective employer the best of what you’ve got. It sells your skills, experience, and shows them you’re the right person for the job. Making a good impression is important in today’s competitive job market. Your CV will be your first contact with employers so it’s essential to get it right.

How to make a good CV?

1.     Presentation is the key.

When a recruiting manager looks at your CV, the first thing they’ll notice is how it’s presented. Keep the font small around size 10 or 11, and use simple fonts like ‘Calibri’ or ‘Arial’ which appear clean and professional; don’t be tempted to try to put all the information on one page using a tiny font size! Keep your CV to no more than 2 pages (3 is acceptable if you have a lot of important information), you want to be relevant and to the point, employers will be looking at lots of CVs in one day, so you want to make sure they can see the relevant details on yours as quickly as possible.

2.     Contact information do’s and don’ts.

At the top of the first page you don’t need to write ‘CV’ because the employer already knows what they’re reading. However, make sure you write your full name at the top as an over-all title, so it stands out on the page. Include a current address, a phone number you’re easily contactable on, and a suitable, professionally named email address.

3.     Personal profile.

Write in 1st or 3rd person (just make sure you stick with this throughout!), and make sure you point to your strengths and skills that are relevant to the job. Tell the employer what skills you have, and where you want to develop in terms of new abilities. Try and keep this to 50 words and under, using strong verbs that’ll draw employers in.

4.     Work experience.

List your work experience with the most recent first, and include bullet pointed information about your responsibilities, and the skills you’ve gained. List specific achievements and any statistics in order to back these up, and aim to include no more than six bullet points. It’s also essential you’re able to explain any gaps in your work experience, with dates and short explanations.

5.     Educational information and professional qualifications

Keep the most recent details at the beginning, and if you have a long educational history, don’t feel like it’s necessary to include everything (for example all of your GCSEs and their results) unless you think it supports your application. You can also include acronyms such as ‘BSc (Hons)’ after your name.

6.     Know what to highlight and what to avoid.

You don’t need to put your date of birth, next of kin details or any long referencing details, as this information will be needed later down the line after you’re considered for an interview. You could consider adding a link to your LinkedIn profile if you feel it supports your CV, however be careful adding other social media profiles like Twitter if there’s no supporting information on them. It’s also really important to be completely honest.

7.     Additional supporting information

If it’s relevant to the job you’re applying for, then any outside interests such as community work in a leadership position are fine to mention. You can also add some relevant hobbies in this section as an icebreaker.

Example of a good CV

Refernces:

-        https://www.karyaone.co.id/blog/curriculum-vitae/

-        https://jobs.natwestgroup.com/posts/tips-for-writing-the-perfect-cv

-        https://www.coolfreecv.com/

-        Careers Inspiration > Support for Career Development > Why is a CV important?

-        What Is a CV? Curriculum Vitae Writing Tips and Example | Indeed.com

Written by:

-        Darell Rabial Andefa

-        Muhammad Azhar Khairyl S

-        Muhammad Rafi

-        Sulthan Faidh Kamal