Your CV or Curriculum Vitae is your first point of contact. It allows you to summarize your academic qualification, skills, and experience, enabling you to sell your abilities to potential employers successfully. It plays a vital role in selling yourself as the ideal candidate for the job. In this article, you will learn how to write an effective Curriculum Vitae.
What is a CV?
CV is short for Curriculum Vitae, from a Latin phrase which translated means ‘the course of my life’. A CV outlines a person’s academic and professional history that includes the basic information, qualification, achievements, skills, and work experience.
Important Keys to include in a CV
- Contact details – Include your official full name, home address, mobile number, and email address.
- Profile – When you write your employment history and education details, put your most recent relevant achievements and skills.
- Education – Provide your academic details, starting with the most recent one. Include specific modules only where relevant. Academic CVs these days are at least 4-5 pages long.
- Work experience – If you have no employment experience, you can always skip this section. Since students and university graduates may lack work experience, they can add internships or volunteer work in this category.
- Skills and achievements – What are your unique qualities, personality traits, skills, and experience that make you the ideal candidate for the job.
- Interests – What are hobbies and interests is it Volunteering, community involvement, football, tennis, etc. The section on hobbies and interests is a great but optional section in your CV. Many candidates do add it in their CVs, whereas others don’t.
- References – Some employers will ask for references directly in the job advert, so it’s always best to have at least three from a very recent or current employment.
Things Not to Include in a CV
- Providing irrelevant personal information
- Writing Too Much
- Spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors
- Negative comments about a former employer
- Tiny text
- Lying or misleading information
- Inconsistent formatting
- Social-media Profiles that are not related to the position
- Passive language
