What Makes a Great Curriculum Vitae (CV)?

Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking for a new opportunity or a recent college grad trying to get your foot in the door, a Curriculum Vitae (CV) is essential. But where to begin? In today’s highly competitive job market, merely listing every job you’ve held along with a few haphazard facts simply doesn’t cut it. CV’s have a structure all their own, and adhering to it is THE best way to start landing interviews and get settled in a great new job. This article will offer some time-tested strategies to elevate the content of your CV and implement a streamlined format that not only looks great, but ensures your document passes muster during the average 20-30 seconds a recruiter or hiring agent will spend reviewing it on a first pass. Ready to begin? Here we go:

A Powerful Opening

Beginning a Curriculum Vitae without an opening means missing out on an opportunity to TARGET the document. Recruiters/hiring agents scan hundreds of CV’s daily and rarely have the time to sift through the minutiae of a candidate’s work history to discover what job they’re applying for and why they’re suitable for it. Make their lives easier while increasing your job prospects through employing the following strategy:

1) INSERT THE EXACT TITLE OF THE JOB YOU’RE APPLYING FOR RIGHT AT THE TOP. This simple tactic minimizes the chances of your CV being lost in the shuffle. Swap this title out between submissions.

2) SEARCH THROUGH JOB POSTINGS TO IDENTIFY IN-DEMAND SKILLS. If you don’t know what your employers are looking for, how will you communicate your ability to give it to them? Go online and pull up postings for jobs you can see yourself applying to. Now make a list of key skills that pop up frequently. For example, a Senior Sales Representative candidate could end up with a list that looks like this:

New Business Development, Customer Service/Support, Team Building/Leadership, Channel Partnerships, Account Management, Staff Training/Mentoring, Sales/Marketing Initiatives, Budgeting/Cost Control, Product Development/Launch

3) CREATE A SUCCINCT OPENING PARAGRAPH. Evaluate your list to determine those skills you excel at. What’s important here is to make sure you can back up the claims within the work history portion of your CV. Now create a brief paragraph DEMONSTRATING them. Using the list above, we can create an opening along the lines of:

Versatile professional adept at forging new customer relationships, identifying untapped market potential, and offering exceptional service and support. Expert in spurring territory growth through launching new products and executing promotional campaigns. Committed to establishing channel partnerships and expanding sales staff performance through hands-on training and mentoring.

A great opening builds reader interest and serves as a POINT-OF-ENTRY for close analysis of your work history.

Keywords, Keywords, Keywords

There’s a lot of mystery and false information floating about the Internet when it comes to keywords. Yes, keywords are essential in today’s marketplace, where initial Curriculum Vitae scans are often performed by Applicant Tracking Systems such as Taleo and Kenexa that are designed to ferret them out. But what, exactly, are they?

Remember that list of key skills you compiled in the previous section? Those are keywords, and they should be included in a standalone section immediately following the opening paragraph. Using the example above, our Senior Sales Representative candidate would have a keyword section that looks something like:

• New Business Development

• Customer Service/Support

• Team Building/Leadership

• Channel Partnerships

• Account Management

• Staff Training/Mentoring

• Sales/Marketing Budgeting/Cost Control

• Product Development/Launch

IMPORTANT: It is essential to ONLY include those keywords you’re experienced in. While stuffing a CV full of keywords may sneak you past an initial scan, you won’t last long in an interview context.

A Winning Work History

Every RELEVANT position you’ve held in the past 10-12 years should, with very few exceptions, be structured along the following lines:

1) COMPANY NAME, JOB TITLE, AND YEARS EMPLOYED.

2) A 3-5 LINE PARAGRAPH DESCRIBING UNIQUE JOB RESPONSIBILITIES. Did you effectively guide teams? Manage multiple project demands? Did you coordinate with executives, demonstrate expertise in using a particular system, or maintain detailed documentation? These are all valuable contextual details that should be placed within this section.

3) A “KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS” OR SIMILAR SECTION LISTING SUCCESSES. Visuals matter when it comes to CV’s, and having bulleted highlights for major positions highlighting a track record of success is one of the best ways to get that phone ringing. Here’s an example of a highly quantifiable “Key Accomplishment”:

Exceeded quarterly sales quotas by 75% for 2011 through targeting small enterprise customers and offering highly customized solutions.

But what if you work in a field where achievements can’t be broken down so easily? No problem, your successes still have a place in this section. For example, here’s an accomplishment used for a recent Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) candidate:

Delivered insights to nursing staff and demonstrated extensive knowledge of equipment such as catheters, tracheotomy tubes, and oxygen suppliers.

IMPORTANT: Never be afraid to talk yourself up! A Curriculum Vitae isn’t the place for modesty. Just steer clear of exaggeration.

Older positions, or those unrelated to the type of job you’re targeting, can be placed within an “Additional Experience” section with 1-2 highlights her position. Inserting dates here is optional.

Keep Formatting Simple

The Internet abounds with flashy CV templates, complete with graphics, logos, and anything else that might possibly attract attention. STEER CLEAR AT ALL COSTS. Nothing screams “unprofessional” quite like a loud Curriculum Vitae. Recruiters and hiring agents are interested in one thing only: the CONTENT. If your CV can’t grab and hold a reader’s interest through the words, it doesn’t work. Formatting-wise, keep it as simple as possible and make sure it supports instead of detracting from the text. Also be sure to use a commonly accepted font such as Arial or Times New Roman.

What Makes a Great Curriculum Vitae (CV)?