Thursday, 6 June 2013

Good Resume Creation Requires Clarity Over Everything Else

By Michelle Howe


At some stage in our working lives, all of us are going to be looking for a new job. Resume creation is one of the most important parts of finding a new position, but many people make basic errors when it comes to writing their 'curriculum vitae' or CV. A badly written list of achievements is simply not good enough for most employers these days.

Firstly, always remember that though gaining a job is the ultimate aim of creating a CV, its primary purpose is to secure you an interview. This is why it is best to keep the CV succinct and to the point. Do not make long lists of everything you have done at work, as this is not only boring but also indicates a mind which cannot filter what is important. The list of experience should be short and to the point, with examples of what you have done much more important than listing qualities which you think you possess.

This is why the use of bullet points is so common on successful CVs. Bullet points allow you to break information down into more easily digestible chunks, and to make the really important facts stand out. This also allows the really meaningful and noteworthy parts of the CV to properly stand out and be noticed by the potential employer.

The document as a whole should be kept to its barest minimum in terms of length too. Important details such as your name, date of birth and contact details, as well as your education, needs to be at the beginning of the first page. If you can keep the entire document to just two pages, then that can work very well, as long documents with many pages can often fall apart, with vital sections becoming lost.

Proofreading is one of the most important parts of creating a good CV. Spelling and punctuation always give an employer a very good idea of your all-round intellectual abilities, so make sure that everything is correct. Simple mistakes, like not knowing when to use its and when to use it's, can make you look very stupid indeed.

Also format the CV so that it is straightforward to read. Use bold headings where necessary to help delineate the different sections, and make sure that you use a font which is legible. Fancy fonts may look nice, but nice is not a CV's job; it needs to be clearly legible.

Including pictures in a CV is also not a very good idea, and will certainly not improve the overall quality of the document. Pictures of yourself can make you seem childish and self-obsessed, and are usually completely irrelevant anyway. A picture takes up space too, space which is at a premium in a document such as this.

A good CV is clear, succinctly written and well-formatted. It uses a clear font, bullet points and has no pictures included. Always proofread it very carefully before sending it away, and your resume creation process has a much better chance of being successful.




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