Dos and Don’ts of CV Writing
Eddie Ellen Charles
Eddie is the Professional writer at SpeedyEssay-essay Writing. He is an expert who writes many articles and professional writer who loves to write about Education news, Copy Writing, Content Writing.
In the academic market, a CV or curriculum vitae is very essential and, after your cover letter it is used as the first introduction to the company in which you are applying for the job. The CV is the summary of your professional experiences, research and educational background. The CV helps you move from an application for an interview therefore it must have everything that help you grab employer’s attention. Here in this article we shed light on top do’s and don’ts of writing an outstanding CV that stand you out from the pool of hundreds of CVs.
What to do when writing a CV:
- Search four or five CVs on the Internet and check out how they have done their CV. Make sure a good CV is one that is visually appealing. You can also ask your colleagues and professors for some examples.
- Start your CV with general contact information about yourself that includes your name, address, fax, telephone number, email id and url (if any).
- A good CV is one that contains the following sections: contact information, experience and education. Include these sections depending on your interests and strengths: awards and honors (from post-secondary school); research and teaching interest; professional activities (relevant volunteer experience, intern experiences, committee membership); presentations; publications; skills (computer proficiencies and/or second language) and references (you may include two or three references or may write available on request).
- Once done, go through your CV and check it carefully for typographical and spelling errors as these errors will weaken your CV.
- Use formatting such as bold or italic font only sparingly, bullets and use white, beige or neutral color papers they usually weighs between 20# and 50#.
- Use active language. So, instead of saying “I had to plan… say Planned….
- Be honest in your CV. Embellishment, fabrication – whatever you call it doesn’t work on a CV.
What not to do when writing a CV:
- Don’t try or write it by yourself when you are writing it for the first time. It is always better to seek help from someone.
- Don’t worry about the length of the CV – there are no rules and regulations on length. But make sure your CV must be professional and should contain essential data.
- Don’t include the following information as these things are not necessary. Health, weight, height, photograph (if in an advertisement it is written to provide your photograph they do give), place of birth, marital status, hobbies, religious preferences, political affiliation, ethnic identity and age.
- Avoid writing too much in your CV.
- Don’t include information that is humorous. The CV is not the place for being cute or for humor.
- Avoid repetition and padding. Snappy, short sentences get your point across more easily and clearly.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In Nigeria, and from our experience at JarusHub, we think there is no harm in including hobbies and more critically, age, at least for entry level position. We also subscribe to the convention that graduate CV should not be more than 2 pages.
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Searching for specific information [link to article in English reading styles]) in a text is a skill that must be mastered in English. Practice reading the specifications of the products in English. Take on the task of finding a specific piece of information about a product and see how quickly you find it.