Your Dream Job Is Waiting for You: 9 Rules for a Good CV

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The essence of a CV is not to reflect the candidate’s full experience and abilities, but to show them only superficially. Since most people’s CVs are of poor quality, an ordinary CV, which clearly describes all the achievements and pluses, may give a better impression than a CV of a more experienced person. That is, the quality of a CV can even outweigh the quality of the candidate – and this happens often.

On average, it takes 5-10 seconds to look at one CV. Not much, right? That’s why it’s important to make a good impression straight away. A CV is a self-promotional piece of advertising that should show you at your best and sell you to employers. So your job is to make sure all the points you make on your resume “stick”.

The Perfect CV – Where to Start

A CV takes usually 2-3 pages long and a recruiter, with only a few seconds, can’t always catch the most useful information. Therefore, it is important to write a summary with key competencies and achievements. If you have some trouble with punctuation, you can ask for help from a special service by searching in Google “write essays for me”, and that’s enough to get superior editing. It is a really important thing because the recruiter always pays attention to the correct spelling. So don’t be mistaken.

Types of Resumes for Employment

The second step is to decide what type of resume is right for you: chronological, functional, or a combination.

A Chronological Resume

Such resume describes your jobs in chronological order starting with your most recent. Designed for people who want to find a job in a field they are familiar with and who have a lot of experience and career aspirations.

Example of Chronological Resume

Work experience:

07/2016 to date. The company “Smart parents and children” (education for children and parents). Position: CEO&Event Manager.

• Recruited a team of five people to implement the goals of the organization.
• Organized more than 150 educational events for children and parents.
• Assembled a team of 10 permanent teachers.
• Organized the system of quality monitoring of the events and feedback from visitors.
• Created and implemented a CRM database for quality customer service.

03/2014 – 05/2016. The project “Dreamers” (training for teenagers). Project coordinator position.

• Organized 15 lectures and educational field trips for 36 students of the program.
• Coordinated the work of 5 teachers and 10 mentors of the program.
• Maintained financial and administrative records.

Functional Resume

It focuses on your skills, abilities, and achievements, not on the job. This option is suitable for those who have little experience, change jobs frequently, and do not want to draw attention to it, as well as those who seek to change the field or return to the labor market after a long break.

Example of a Functional CV

Key competencies:

• general experience in organization and promotion of projects – 5 years;
• organization and coordination of measures for 500 people;
• ability to negotiate, to follow through on projects under any circumstances, persistence, ability to generate ideas;
• hard managerial, executive, and leadership skills.

Combined Resume

Combines advantages of chronological and functional – includes both descriptions of skills and list of places of work. It’s considered the most effective. Separate and combine your experience (depending on which job you are applying for), combine your skills with the companies where you gained them, and emphasize measurable indicators.

There are a few basic rules to help you write a good resume and avoid common mistakes.

Specify the Position for Which the Candidate Is Applying

Recruiters are used to receiving hundreds of irrelevant resumes from candidates who just send them in batches to every job in a row. That’s why as soon as we specify the position at the top, we show the recruiter that this is not a spam posting.

Here is a tip: no one is interested in what duties a person had, but interesting results of his work – with figures, facts, and specifics.

Writing about Your Achievements

Most people still write about what they did on their CVs. But no one is interested in what the person’s responsibilities were, but in interesting results of their work – with numbers, facts, and specifics. If a CV is written in the format of achievements rather than duties, it automatically bypasses ten others.

Here is a tip: a CV created in a loose format doesn’t work.

Choose a Good Template

Usually, templates on job search sites are bad, it’s best not to use them. But a CV created in a free format doesn’t work either. Recruiters usually find the information they need in their usual way, and a non-standard format is confusing and makes you spend more time. A recruiter goes through 200-300 CVs a day, spending a few seconds on each one. And if a CV is created in a loose format, there is a high probability that it will simply get overlooked. I advise using the LinkedIn template – it will increase your chances.

Formulate CVs as a List

Some people write CVs in long paragraphs or even without paragraphs – this is a mistake. Recruiters won’t read this way, they have 5-7 seconds, so they will skip long paragraphs and only pay attention to the list. Bullet points should be highlighted, with each paragraph taken up within a line. Yes, sometimes you have to rewrite sentences of 40-50 words into bullet points that are 7 words long. It’s complicated, but it can be. Such a resume ensures that the recruiter will read it.

Add Value to Your Previous Company

When a recruiter sees a big-name brand in a previous job, they may not even read it any further – it immediately adds value to the candidate. But there are millions of unknown companies. Some people write on their resume that they worked at no name company, but to a recruiter this is unsightly. It is more important to explain succinctly why this company is cool. For example, it can provide services to famous brands or cooperate with them. Such facts immediately increase the value of a little-known company tenfold.

Here is a tip: All those “communicative”, “team”, and “proactive” are perceived by recruiters as spam words.

Write about Achievements, not Traits

Usually, no one reads the text about personality traits. But if you want to mention them, it’s better to write about them in the summary. All those “communicative”, “team”, and “proactive” are perceived by recruiters as spam words, so you should back them up with specific achievements. For example, it’s better to write “worked with 10 countries”, than “have an experience in working with international companies”.

Here is a tip: do not specify in the resume marital status and date of birth, as now few people are interested, in addition, it may reduce your chances of getting an interview.

Do Not Use Tables and Lines, Choose a Sans-serif Font

It’s a mistake to design CVs in tables and use lines: they don’t work well. It’s also important to what typeface is used. When you go on Facebook, Gmail, Instagram, or LinkedIn, there are sans-serif fonts everywhere.

Times New Roman used to be used for resumes, but if a recruiter now sees a document in this font, they may think it is out of date. It’s better to choose a sans-serif font to make your CV look as clear as Facebook. The optimum size is 10 so that the text is not too big or too small.

Remove Family Status and Date of Birth

Do not put your marital status and date of birth on your resume – these days few people are interested, and it can reduce your chances of getting an interview. A recruiter may feel that a person born in 1973 is not young enough for such a position, but in conversation, the opinion might be different.

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