Page 1: This is the most important page so it almost 60% of vital information about the candidate that helps him/her ‘sell’ themselves to the employer should be on this page with these sections.
- Check Objective Statement on CV. Should be ideally 3 lines long with a detail on education, no of years’ experience and skills / areas of interest.
- It’s a good idea to put the email, contact number on the header of the document, so that it shows on all pages.
- Key Skills Section – should come after the objective statement. Include core work related skills first, then people skills (leadership, team player)
- Work experience section – should always be in chronological order, with the current/last position mentioned first. Month and Year should be mentioned clearly with the position and company name.
- Work experience section – if the candidate has been promoted within the company, include a designation chronology.
- Employers are interested in ‘career highlights’ – what is your proudest achievement in your company. Mention these ‘highlights’ in points, quantified like “improved production by 20%”, “tripled the output” etc.
- Mention job responsibilities in no more than 4-5 points.
PAGE 2 – For more experienced professionals this page will have additional experience. For those with not much experience this page should include the following:
- If the candidate has experience over 10+ years, this should not be elaborated. Just mention the ‘past career highlights’ in points.
- Education section – don’t mention high-school (unless you don’t have a degree).
- Education section – mention institute name, year of graduation, degree. Mention GPA if 3 or above.
- Education section – if you have attended trainings mention those.
- Personal Details – the only information that needs to be added is nationality, language skills, and visa status.
- Check length of CV- should be no longer than 3 pages.
- References – Mention name, designation, and company. Their contact details can be mentioned or ‘provided upon request.
Points to Remember
- More pages means you have failed to make it short.
- Frequent change hoppers have less chance of getting better job. So don’t mention in CV if you worked for few months in a company.
- Put clear contact details with single email id and multiple contact numbers if possible.
- Keep your social website presence neat, professional as most employers will do a research on you to make sure you can fit their requirement.
