CV writing tips:

The word ‘Curriculum Vitae' literally translated means the story of your life. The words ‘Curriculum Vitae' are usually abbreviated to CV or C.V. (Do not write it in lower case as c.v. or cv).

First impressions matter; if your CV does not attract the reader's attention in the first 20-30 seconds then your chances of obtaining an interview call are greatly reduced . An employer may have a hundred or more CVs to go through before short-listing it for the interview. So your CV has to be just that little bit special to stand out if you want to obtain interview call.

General CV tips:

General Structure Tips:

•  Write your CV using a modern word-processing package, such as Microsoft Word or Lotus WordPro.

•  Ensure that you have all margins set to one inch.

•  Decide a font type and size for the CV. Generally; ‘Times New Roman' font is used for making CV. The running font size could be 12, but the Section headings could be one font size higher ie. 14 and in bold upper / sentence case pattern.

•  Name, address and telephone number should be included in the first or last page.

•  Please ensure that you use enough empty space on each page - do not squeeze things in and make your CV looked cramped.

•  You should check your draft CV thoroughly for spelling and grammatical errors.

What information will you need?

You should gather together all of the information required below. You will probably not use all of this information in your CV but it will provide you with useful reference material when it comes to preparing for interviews.

Personal Details

•  Your full name,

•  Address (Communication & Permanent)

•  home telephone number / Mobile number,

•  E-mail id

•  date of birth,

•  Gender

•  Marital status (put only single or married - in your CV)

•  Languages Known

Education / Qualifications details:

List your qualifications and education history (start from the highest qualification), in following manner:

•  Degree / Diploma

•  University / Institute

•  Year of Passing

•  % Marks / Class

Professional Qualifications:

List your professional qualifications, membership of professional associations etc.

Training Courses:

List any work related training courses which you attended, including company courses and any you attended on your own initiative. If you obtained a qualification on any course please list it. You only need to list the important courses you attended.

Work Experience:

Start with your most recent or last job and work backwards. For each position (treat internal promotion as a new job and record the dates separately) list your job title (e.g. General Manager, Manager, Executive, etc), and when you started and finished in each job.

Give the name of the company and include a brief description of the service they provide (if the organization is not well known).

Write down your key responsibilities & achievements during the employment.

Major Achievements:

While listing your achievements, list only 3 to 6 of your most important work achievements; your other achievements can be described under the work experience section.

Write your achievements carefully as it my be an important point in getting short-listed for the interview, as well it will also be probed in detailed during the interview.

Interests / Hobbies:

List your interests, hobbies and any sports you play. List any positions of responsibility you hold or have held in any club or organisation, and say what your responsibilities and achievements were.

References:

Normally a list of 2 –3 referees is provided in the CV, including referees from past employment, well known professional in your professional and at times even an academician. List only those people as referees, who know you well and can describe your strengths and weaknesses, if asked for.

Profile / Summary:

This should be a short summary of your experience, skills and abilities, and be contained in four to six lines of text. Only list the attributes that will be of interest to your next employer; do not include irrelevancies.

What should you leave out of your CV?

1. Photos (in soft copies).
2. Reasons for leaving each job.
3. Leave out weight, height, health, or any other personal information that is irrelevant to your application.
4. Fancy patterns / borders
5. Any sort of failure - exams, marriages, businesses, etc.

Selecting your CV format

To get yourself noticed, it is important to use a CV format which will best represent you in the jobs market. There are many number of ways of laying out a CV, but the following sample CV format (Performance CV) works best for most people with prior work experience, assuming that you are for the position in the same field.

Please see a model Performance CV for your reference. (All the Names mentioned in the CV are purely imaginative)