What every candidate should consider when writing their CV- Part 2

As unemployment numbers keep rapidly skyrocketing across the world due to several macroeconomic factors, I decided to share a final follow-up resume writing guide that would be more prescriptive about the key dos & don’ts when writing your CV. With only around 2% of job applicants accepted during the resume screening stage, we hope this guide and our first initial 3 will help propel your career to the desired levels. Before we continue, check them out below to get the most out of this final piece;

1. How to get your resume game on this year
2. Our Top 10 Picks of Free Resume Resources for You!
3. What every candidate should consider when writing their CV

Key Resume Dos & Don’ts

1. Section order- Most ATS-friendly resumes use the following section order: Name, Title, Contact Info, Professional Summary, Key Skills/Areas of Expertise, Work Experience/Work Summary, Education/Certifications, and Additional Info.

• Name - Your name should be clearly indicated and visible at the very top of your resume. Whether you choose to center it or left or right align, the most important thing is to make sure it’s spelled correctly and written in a very large font size ie 20–30px, and bold if necessary. Avoid calligraphy and have your name at the top of your first page. Also, avoid initials and credentials like PHD, MD etc. I see many young people on LinkedIn put all their education titles on their name or intro. Keep it simple and as chunkyless as possible. Plus you are not what you do for a living.
• Contact Info -Indicate only your city and country. Recruiters are global. And even if they aren’t, you could be applying to a fully remote role or a company with global or regional presence. DO NOT include extra personal information such as box address, house number, street name, etc. It may seem obvious, but we do receive many CVs where candidates share too much personal information that could pose a security risk. This can be dangerous because you don’t have control of where your document ends up even in the age of data protection laws.

After indicating your name and contact information, every other piece of info is not needed in this primary section. Please DO NOT include info about your race, religion, marital status, photo, number of kids, tax identifier, tribe, or gender. This may all open you up to unconscious bias and discrimination. Remember, keep your resume as short and concise as possible by only sharing the MOST RELEVANT info as it pertains to your job candidacy as shown in the template below.

https://www.resumehelp.com/resume-templates

2. Your title should not be too specialized. Especially if you have 10 years experience or less. It should also not exactly be your current title only but most importantly your vision and next role aspirations. E.g instead of HR Assistant you can say People & Culture Generalist. You can also entirely not have this as a full title and include it as a statement in your Professional Summary section. Your resume should not only share a story about your past, but it should most importantly speak to your potential & future.

3. Your headline summary should include average years of experience, top technical areas of expertise, a line about your top 3 soft skills traits (that are aligned to the job you’re applying for), and a statement on your corporate unique value proposition.

4. Skills section: You should only list the skills that are the most relevant & the highest impact on the job you’re applying for i.e. job critical competencies e.g. for a marketing manager this can be client development, social media advertising, and public relations. You should include at least 5 and no more than 12 skills on your resume. Apart from deriving these key skills from job boards online, I shared here in my latest article how you can use LinkedIn to recommend the top skills based on your profile or people similar to you in your networks. This section is extremely critical as these skills are what ATS will use to determine your job match.

5. Work Summary- Flesh out your key job duties and achievements. Use numbers as much as possible to quantify your work or achievements ie. the number of people you worked with, the number of regions served, customers reached, financial amounts etc. Numbers give context and context helps define the depth of your role. An HR Manager managing 100 staff in an SME is very different from one doing the same for a large FMCG with 5,000 staff. An IT project manager managing a project in a local startup is different from one managing a team across geographies and time zones. Again, use this section to highlight relevant & matching responsibilities to the role you’re applying for. I want to see that you have either successfully done this before or you have the ability to do this in the new role. This represents around 3 to 6 bullets per work experience, projects & activities.

On the question of whether all experience is relevant e.g. internships, I believe this is about the story you’re trying to tell with regard to the competencies and skills you’ve been acquiring in your career journey. As you progress further beyond 10 years, you can simply highlight some experiences with one or two sentences in the section.

Also, use action words and words that show initiative and proactiveness as opposed to sounding passive by just stating what’s in your job description. Avoid repetition by finding different ways to start each bullet point. In my work revamping resumes, I’ve come across many CVs of senior professionals who fail this first stage because the language in them speaks in passive terms and not in leadership ones. Ask yourself “What’s the overall tone of my resume?” Instead use powerful active verbs such as;

AcceleratedAchievedActedAdaptedAddressedAdministeredAdvisedAllocatedAnalyzedAppraisedApprovedArrangedAssessedAssignedAttainedAuditedAuthoredAwardedBalancedBroadenedBudgetedCalculatedCataloguedChairedClarifiedClassifiedCoauthoredCoordinatedCoachedCollatedCollectedCombinedCommunicatedCompiledCompletedComposedComputedConceivedConceptualizedConductedConsolidatedContractedControlledConvertedConvincedCoordinatedCorrespondedCounseledCounselledCreatedCritiquedCustomizedCutDecreasedDefinedDelegatedDemonstratedDesignedDevelopedDevisedDiagnosedDirectedDiscoveredDispatchedDoubledDraftedEducatedEffectedEliminatedEnabledEncouragedEnlistedEstablishedEvaluatedExaminedExecutedExpandedExpeditedExplainedExtractedFacilitatedFamiliarizedFashionedFiledForecastedFormulatedFoundedGeneratedGuidedIdentifiedIllustratedImplementedImprovedIncreasedInfluencedInformedInitiatedInnovatedInspectedInspiredInstitutedInstructedIntegratedInterpretedInterviewedIntroducedInventedInvestigatedItemisedLaunchedLecturedLedLiasedManagedMasteredMediatedMentoredMinimisedModelledModeratedModernisedMonitoredMotivatedNegotiatedOpenedOperatedOrderedOrganisedOrganizedOriginatedOvercameOverhauledOversawParticipatedPerformedPersuadedPioneeredPlannedPreparedPresentedPrioritizedProcessedProducedProjectedPromotedProposedProvedProvidedPublicizedPurchasedRecommendedReconciledRecordedRecruitedRedesignedReducedReferredRefinedRehabilitatedReinforcedReleasedReorganisedReorganizedRepresentedResearchedResolvedRestructuredRetrievedRevampedReviewedRevisedRevitalizedSavedScheduledScreenedServicedSetupShapedSimplifiedSolvedSpearheadedSpecifiedStartedStimulatedStreamlinedStrengthenedStructuredSummarizedSupervisedSurveyedSystematizedTabulatedTaughtTestedTracedTrainedTransformedTranslatedTrimmedTripledUncoveredUnifiedUpgradedValidatedVerifiedWidened

Photo by hannah grace on Unsplash

6. The same principle applies to your education, courses, trainings or projects section. As you go along your career, you can opt not to include the earlier qualifications e.g. high school. Apart from dates and full course description(as it appears in your certificate eg Bachelor's Degree in Education and not B.ED), for projects & training you can have a short description of the key topics or skills gained if you don’t have sufficient work experience such as the case in fresh graduates.

7. Extra Tips

1. Most people don’t open additional attachments. Either have other information on your website, LinkedIn profile, or as a drive link. Such info that can vouch for your candidacy can be your work personality profile or testimonials.
2. Having an additional information section for Hobbies and interests, Professional associations & memberships can all help tell a story of the type of person you are. Remember recruiters are human beings too and you may just connect with someone on this! For some professions e.g. project management or HR, professional memberships may be compulsory for job application or accreditation. This should just take up 1 or 2 bullet lines.
3. You can use lighter more rounded fonts instead of the usual boring Arial or Times New Roman. Explore modern font types like Roboto, Gotham, open sans or other sans types to get a professional but stylish feel and look.
4. Save the Cv with your full name eg John_Doe_CV. It is important that your resume document is easily recognized when a recruiter is searching for it online or offline.
5. Avoid wordings that are too complex or buzzwords. Most folk tend to use longer words which can come across as overly complex or wordy. Try to simplify your word choice so that your resume is easily understood by recruiters and hiring managers. There are some industries, such as in Technology or Healthcare, for example, where it is acceptable to use longer, more complex terminology. Use your judgment combined with these results to determine the best approach. If you are not sure about your writing level, ask a friend, relative or colleague to review your resume for readability.
6. Use personal language always. Using first, third or second-person pronouns such as “I, me, my, you, yours, we, our, ours, his, her, she, he, him” in your resume is too informal. Avoid writing full sentences using pronouns and instead use result statements that start with an active verb. Say “Initiated a cross-team project for ABC” and not “I initiated….” The same goes for your professional summary section.
7. Don't be shy to brag. Everyone does. Your resume will be your primary advocate for your job application process. It gets you in the door and first impressions do matter. A common mistake we see in female professionals is an engrained false sense of humility that fails them during hiring because they want to come across as not arrogant. This instead fails them as their male counterparts come out as competent and confident.
8. Always proofread your work 10 times before you finally save your brand-new work. Use apps like Grammarly to assist in detecting any errors you may have missed or have a peer review it. Check for spacing & spelling errors and common writing errors. The first major turn-off for resumes is always bad grammar. There’s no excuse for this mistake. Do not rush your resume writing process. If you have a well-written resume, the remaining task is to ensure you look at it quarterly & update it when you have new info to add. DO not make the mistake of only looking at your CV when you’re actively applying for a job.
9. Digital Branding- If possible, ensure consistent branding across ALL your brand documents e.g. resume, cover letter, website, LinkedIn, and portfolio. This includes the same font types, header color or images.
10. To work on your LinkedIn profile, work on your resume first then copy paste the contents onto Linkedin. The second option is to work on your LinkedIn the download your profile as a free PDF resume from the site as we showed in the previous article. LinkedIn has a free inbuilt resume writing tool that will generate an ATS-friendly CV and recommend the best skills and work experiences to include based on your title.
11. Put in the work. It's easy to have a CV written by a resume specialist or edit an online template. But the best resumes are the ones that show individuality, creativity, and the best side of you. A consultant will not do everything for you. No one can sell you better than you. Working on your resume will also help you learn how to sell yourself, a skill you’ll need for the next phase of interviewing.
12. Try to keep your resume length to 2 pages unless you are an experienced manager or executive, in which case you can expand it to 4 pages long. Everyone SHOULD however have a one-page CV as some recruiters insist on it for preliminary screening.
13. Once you’ve finalized your resume, it’s important to download, print preview, print and confirm the appropriate resume length and page breaks or cuts.
14. Avoid using overly done modern CV designs such as the ones with two-page columns that make it difficult for ATS systems to extract info or ones with pictures and large graphics. If you use an ATS-friendly CV template, you can test out its compatibility when you’re applying for jobs through various HR systems. Assess how easy it is for the system to extract your info into the fields or if you find yourself having to refill your info into the ATS again and adjust accordingly. For instance, let all your date formats be similar throughout your CV. Once the content is clear, do not stress too much about the design. Pick a simple elegant looking design that is 90% white. You can have 2 resume designs for both your long & short CV. But do not get caught up in the trap of overdoing your resume!
15. Do not share the private details of referees in your CV. Most recruiters will ask for this info separately and once you’ve passed the interview stages. This is critical especially in the age of data protection laws and GDPR.

With the internet now and so many free resources like the ones we highlighted at the beginning, there’s really no good reason to have a badly written CV in this era. All the best.

Next steps: Scan your resume using any of the several FREE AI Resume scanners or builders e.g resumeworded to get a quick score & or generate a new one altogether!

Still looking for more, check out https://medium.com/jobonics/3-things-we-wish-experts-told-us-earlier-about-finding-your-dream-job-9f2142f8087c