Writing a CV

Resume Writing Tips

Your resume as a job seeker, is your greatest asset.  It communicates to your employer, a good reason to require your services. It will help you present a neat and organized layout of your skills, qualifications and previous work-experience (if any) to potential employers in such a way as to greatly increase your chances of getting invited for an interview.

GETTING STARTED

Always bear in mind that your resume is not only about you, but also about your prospective employer. You must be prepared to portray yourself in very good light – such as would give you the needed competitive advantage over rivals. The following tips would give you the needed head-start.

Never be in a hurry!

Every good achievement requires quality investment of time and effort, so never be in haste to send out an ill-prepared resume. Take out good time to review your work over and over, as you may never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

Start with a rough list

Your list should contain:

§  Extracurricular activities you are involved in and enjoy

§  Every formal and informal education you have received.

§  Schools you have attended.

§  Awards, scholarships and commendations you have received.

§  Trainings and seminars you have attended – both formal and informal.

§  Leadership positions you have held in primary, post-primary school and college/university.

§  Employment opportunities you’ve had and specific work-experience you’ve acquired from each of these opportunities. Ensure you include internship placements and trainee positions.

§  Job descriptions from each of your past positions. If you weren’t offered a job description on resumption, then you could use online search engines to spool out possible job descriptions for your past appointments. For example, you could type the following in google: “job description for accounts officer”.

§  Specific key achievements from each of your past job placements and trainee engagements.

§  A summary of your career objective.

Organize your rough list into a neat layout

Your resume should present dates, company names, academic records, job titles and job descriptions in a manner that can easily be understood in quick glance. Previous work experience should be outlined chronologically, beginning from the most recent. Academic records and other qualifications should be outlined beginning from the most relevant to the position applied for. Make your resume attractive and easy to read.

Avoid unfavourable personal details

Unless specifically requested, your resume should not capture details of any unpleasant academic or professional record that may put off a potential employer. For example, you should as much as possible, never reveal a dismissal or a Third Class grade on your resume. Rather, do your best to emphasize your strengths, achievements, commendations, promotions and awards. It is important to always put your best foot forward.

Be honest

Avoid giving false information. Some employers could go all the way to investigate your claims either before or after inviting you for an interview. Moreover, you must be able to verbally defend the content of your resume.

Beware of Social Sites

I’d advice that you watch the feeds on your facebook wall. Use appropriate privacy settings where necessary and avoid posting comments that could portray you in bad light. Remember that the web has a long memory of both rights and wrongs.

Watch your grammar

Be careful with spellings, spaces and tenses.

Keep it short

Do not try to impress your potential employer with too many pages. Try to use a font size of 10 to 12 points. Except where specified, your resume should be compressed to not more than two pages.

Update and modify your resume from time to time

Be careful to reflect changes in phone number, address, emails, job-titles and other relevant details as they occur. Every resume should be patterned to the specific requirements of the job applied.

You need a Cover Letter

A cover letter adds a voice to your resume. It makes it easy to indicate your interest for a particular position, convey the reason why you may be the best for the job and specify details that may not be captured in your resume. You simply get another opportunity to sell yourself.