Job Tailored Resume and CV Writing, Contents and Formatting
Objective:
At the end of this discussion, You'll:
- Have practical understanding of the meaning of a CV and a resume;
- Be able to differentiate between a CV from a resume;
- Understand the purpose of every section of a CV / resume;
- Note the sections of a CV or resume that you should include in yours and those you should ignore, based on your circumstance;
- Be able to write a professional CV / resume that gets you through the application phase to the screening [aptitude test and/or interview] phase.
- Know when to use a resume or a CV
- Understand the concept of ATS and how to write an ATS compliant resume
Series covered are:
- Conceptual clarification on CV and Resume: Definitions and differences
- Highlight of the sections of a good professional CV
- Why Should The Education/Certificates Of A Recent Graduate Come First Before Skills?
- Detailed discussion on the various sections of a professional CV With real cases
- Steps to enhancing the quality of your CV or Resume
- When to use a CV or Resume
Application tracking System [ATS] Compliant RESUME
WHAT IS A CURRICULUM VITAE [CV]?
A CV or curriculum vitae is a professional document that outlines your work and education experiences in great detail.
This can include extensive information about the courses you took in college and specific projects or research papers you wrote as a part of your coursework.
CVs are typically used in the place of a resume when you apply for jobs in academia. However, in some countries outside the United States like Australia, etc., a CV is used in various sectors outside academia job applications.
A good CV is necessary for Getting Hired Fast. It should help a recruiter to see through your professional personality, in relation to a particular job you applied for, and your personality as an individual. That'll assist the recruiter in making an informed judgment concerning your suitability or otherwise for the position you've applied. And recruiters makes such judgements every time.
What Is A Resume?
A resume is a concise and curated collection of your professional experience, skills and qualifications that are strictly relevant to the job you’re applying for.
What to include on a resume
A resume typically includes a professional summary, dedicated skills section and condensed description of your recent and relevant professional achievements listed in reverse-chronological order, starting with your most current job.
You may also choose to share your education experience, relevant professional associations you’re a part of or volunteer work. If you have little or professional work experience, you might list relevant internships, apprenticeships, volunteer work or personal projects instead.
Resume Key Points
- Resumes are typically one page
- A resume is a concise, curated summary of your professional accomplishments that are most relevant to the industry job you’re applying for. Depending on your level of professional experience and the role, you may also include descriptions of academic and personal projects or volunteer work.
Resume Example
The differences between a resume and a CV
The differences between a resume and a CV include the document’s length, contents and purpose. You should also consider which region of the world you’re applying in and your career path when deciding which is more appropriate to use (if the the job description doesn't expressly state the one that's required).
Most notably, in the US a resume should be a concise and curated collection of your professional experience, skills and qualifications that are strictly relevant to the job you’re applying for. In contrast, a CV presents an in-depth history of your professional and academic credentials and accomplishments. Some of their main differences include the following:
Length
Since a resume includes your skills and qualifications for a specific role only, it should typically be just one page ( or two pages). A CV won’t have a length limit and is much longer than most resumes because it includes more information and more detailed descriptions of coursework, research, publications or presentations.
Experience/career type
CVs are mostly used to apply for academic roles or programs, grants, fellowships and research or teaching positions. You may have a CV if you are currently applying to or have graduated from a master's or doctoral program, or if you work as a professor or researcher at an academic institution. Resumes are used when applying for jobs in the private or public sectors which are often referred to as “industry positions” in contrast to academia.
Geographic location
In other regions of the world, such as the UK, New Zealand and parts of Europe, employers use the term CV to describe both CV and resume-style documents and don’t use the term “resume” at all. In South Africa, Australia and India, the terms CV and resume are often used interchangeably. But, in the US, a resume and CV are two distinctly different types of documents used for different purposes.
Highlight of the sections of a good professional CV
Let's quickly consider the various sections of a Smart CV and how to make them interesting to recruiters.
Check 1: A good CV of a mid-level (experienced) professional has the following sections:
1. Title or Headline
2. Professional Summary
3. Career Objective
4. Achievements and Skills
5. Employment History or Work Experience
6. Education and Professional Certificates
7. Professional Accolades
8. Leadership Experience
9. Personal Interests or Hobbies
10. Reference
Check 2: The CV of a fresh graduate or professional seeking entry level or internship positions should follow the order below:
1. Title or Headline
2. Professional summary
3. Career Objective
4. Education and Professional Certificates
5. Employment History or Work Experience
6. Achievements and Skills
7. Professional Accolades/ Awards Received
8. Personal Interests or Hobbies
9. Reference
Why Should The Education/Certificates Of A Recent Graduate Come First Before Skills?
The usual notion about recent graduates is that they may not have acquired years of hard "on the job" experience that may help to provide strong validation to their skills.
Stating the skills first may raise lots of questions. But Stating educational and interesting certificates of professional training acquired, will be a sound validation of skills that may be listed. And there is this challenge that some busy hiring decisions makers may not have the time to go through the entire sections of a CV. Where this is the case, It may not help an applicant if the starting point of his or her CV raises questions that the recruiter was unable to resolve.
Detailed discussion on the various sections of a professional CV With real cases
1. Title or Headline section:
This section should contain name and contact information, such as contact address, phone number, email address, and LinkedIn profile address. Only include your LinkedIn profile address if your LinkedIn profile is optimized.
There is no need to use Curriculum Vitae (CV) as your Title or headline. There's no point in attaching it to your name either. CV is not your name. Use your own formal name ( in full) as the title of your CV or Resume. Something like this:
NAME ( MIDDLE NAME) SURNAME
Contact Address: Your Contact Address, City, Region/State
Email Address: goodcvwritingtemplate@gmail.com
Phone number: 12345678910
LinkedIn Address:
OR
NAME ( MIDDLE NAME) SURNAME
Contact Address: Your Contact Address, City, Region/State
Email Address: goodcvwritingtemplate@gmail.com
Phone number: 12345678910
LinkedIn address: Include your LinkedIn address only if your LinkedIn profile has been optimised.
P.S. [ Your email address must be a formal email address that bears your name and doesn't include casual words. Resist the urge to use email address like: Tosinthesweetgirl@gmail.com. Reserve that kind of email, if you have one, for your friends].
2. Professional Summary Section:
A professional summary is a concise interesting summary of your professional self. In other to make it interesting, it should focus on your skills, achievements and what you can do for the prospective employer. negligible stories and/or frivolous unproven details should be excluded.
Example:
Below is an example of professional summary. It is suitable for internship and entry level jobs in finance related roles. It was extracted from the revamped CV of one of our clients who got hired as an Associate Financial Analyst by a Fintech company.
Professional Summary
"An enthusiastic graduate of economics, with reasonable competence in data analysis, data interpretation and the use of economic principles to predict market and consumer behavior. I am proficient in working with Excel; have basic knowledge of MySQL, VBA, python; and a hands on internship experience, as a Bank Teller / Customer Service Officer. The role provided opportunities that enabled me to be productively engaged in carrying out organization growth tasks. I have proven track record of performing bank reconciliation, working with teams; playing extensive role that helped to achieve loans disbursement and recovery targets; and organizing and leading of teams that successfully executed public sensitization campaigns/ seminars on sexual abuse. I am committed to stepping up to new challenges; learning and leveraging acquired professional experience to play extensive role, as a key team player, in driving exciting clients experience, through making high value contributions, that will move the organization I work with, toward the actualization of its objective."
P. S. You can adapt this approach to create your own professional summary. Make sure your professional summary is tailored to meet the requirements of your career field of interest. And note that you can make your summary to be in block form, like the one in the example above or you may include paragraphs. The approach you choose depends on your taste. Both methods are equally acceptable. And once you've created your Professional summary, use it to update the "About" section of your LinkedIn profile.
If we include paragraphs, the above professional summary will look like this:
Professional Summary
"An enthusiastic graduate of economics, with reasonable competence in data analysis, data interpretation and the use of economic principles to predict market and consumer behaviour.
"I am proficient in working with Excel; have basic knowledge of MySQL, VBA, python; and a hands on internship experience, as a Bank Teller / Customer Service Officer. The role provided opportunities that enabled me to be productively engaged in carrying out organization growth tasks.
"I have proven track record of performing bank reconciliation, working with teams; playing extensive role that helped to achieve loans disbursement and recovery targets; and organizing and leading of teams that successfully executed public sensitization campaigns/ seminars on sexual abuse.
"I am committed to stepping up to new challenges; learning and leveraging acquired professional experience to play extensive role, as a key team player, in driving exciting clients experience, through making high value contributions, that will move the organization I work with, toward the actualization of its objective."
3. Objective Section:
The career objective section should necessarily be a two way goal. If it's just about you, it will send wrong signals that paint you as selfish and immature. Don't just say you are looking for a good organisation, wherein you can learn and grow. That's pure selfishness and it will hunt you. Be careful enough to tell the company what you want to do for them and then let them know what you're expecting in return. That makes it a two-way thing. Also, there's nothing wrong in specifying the kind of company you want to work in, in your objective statement.
Example of a good OBJECTIVE STATEMENT:
" I seek to join an organisation that has a fast-paced work environment, where I can consistently bring the knowledge gained from my academic trainings and my ( say 3 years of hands on ) professional experience to bare in contributing to achieving the objective of the company, while developing and advancing my career."
Note: By adding that you want to join a fast-paced environment, you have specified the kind of company you love to work for. By specifying the experience you are bringing onboard, [e.g, 3 years professional experience and the theoretical knowledge gained during your academic trainings], you are pointing out that you are a good deal-- an asset. And by stating that you will consistently commit to making valuable contributions that will aid in achieving the goals of the company, you have provided a fair reason for stating that you require career development and growth as fair compensation for your valuable contribution. How about that? Doesn't it make sense?
4. Achievements And Skills Section:
This section should carry your proven achievement as a professional, student etc. The skills included should be followed with a brief two sentences that show how each of the skills have helped you to complete tasks.
It is not appealing to just list skills. If everyone does that, who will be different from the others. State your skill and attach a brief description of an achievement you have made using that skill. It's better like that.
Example:
Below is a part of skill section extracted from the CV of one of our clients who got offered a position as a Data Analyst.
CORE COMPETENCES
Effective Communication: Effectively communicated with loan users. This resulted to 55% decrease in default rate.
Analysis of Data: Organized and analysed data gathered from 1500 RSA Pins within 3 months and performed complete data recapture exercise that recorded improvement in data completeness compared to the recapture exercise recorded in previous periods.
Problem Solving: Developed strategic solutions that was approved, implemented, and led to 55% decrease in loan default rate.
Teamwork: worked with a team of 4 persons to develop contents for 60 episodes of Aajirebi program within one month.
P. S. S. You may adapt the approach above when stating your key skills in your CV.
5. Employment History or Work Experience Section:
This section should carry straight to the point details of the positions and organisation you've worked with. In stating the duties of the positions, present them as things you've done using catchy 'adjectives and past tenses' like "Successfully completed" "Timely carried out" "Performed Routine... " etc.
Here is an Example of how to format and present your employment history
6. Education and Professional Certificate section:
Include here your relevant professional trainings completed and academic qualifications obtained starting with the most recent qualifications. Your most recent certificate is the one you have just acquired and added to your previous qualifications. For example, If you were among the recently inducted ICAN members, your most recent certificate is ICAN [ ACA], followed by the date of issue and the Issuer of the certificate. then, you can include other certificates obtained by you in the order of most recent first.
Here's what we mean:
Chartered Accountant [ACA] Certification Year ( E.g., 2020)
Institute Of Chartered Accountants Of Nigeria [ICAN]
B.Sc. Hons., Accountancy 2019
CV-Writer University, City, State/Region
Diploma in Bookkeping 2012
College Of Example, City, State/Region
Etc.
7. Leadership Experience Section:
Depending on the relevance of your leadership experiences to the role you are applying to, such should be included in this section..
Your Leadership experience may include:
- Any post held in a student association, or in your class ( E.g., Class Representative)
- Any post held in a club you belong to or in a religious body
- Any post held in a social or non profit team
- Any Cause you have led . E.g., A campaign organised by you or co-pioneered by you to raise awareness on any social issue-- such as drug abuse, child trafficking, child abuse, Literacy promotion, etc.
- Any Key role played in a team you were part of in your previous place of work.
- Etc....
8. The Case For Professional Accolade Section:
If you have a long list of professional awards you have received, it should be added here. If you must add them here, they must be excluded from the skill section in 4 above.
Your professional accolades may include awards received as a student, awards and recognitions received from your past employers, professional bodies to which you belong, governments, local and international bodies or agencies and any recognition received from a club or religious organisation, by virtue of your contribution in that club or religious group.
9. Personal interests Section or Hobbies:
Personal interests or hobbies that are relevant to the role you are applying to, should be added in this section.
For instance, if you love to travel, It's sensible to Include TRAVELLING, as a hubby when applying to a sales job. A sales person will be shuttling around different cities for sales leads anyway. So if you love travelling, it becomes an asset in such a scenario.
However, this section is strictly optional. Omitting it will be better. Don't bother including it in your CV if you're not interested in including relevant hobbies or you don't know what to add as a relevant hobby. At best, Leaving the Hobby section will save space and keep your CV shorter and relevant.
10. Reference:
Available on request
OR
Will be furnished on request
Steps to enhancing the quality of your CV or Resume
There are several ways you can enhance your CV. Here are a few to consider applying to your own, along with examples:
- Change your objective statement to a CV profile
- Add quantifiable statements throughout
- Ensure your CV is two or more pages in length
- Create multiple CVs for different industries
- Revise the font and format throughout
- Add a summary to each experience about what you learned
- Remove references to create more space for experiences
- Shorten paragraphs for enhanced readability
- Incorporate keywords that relate to specific jobs
- Always check for grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes
1. Change your objective statement to a CV profile
An objective statement can be a smart way to summarize your qualifications if you are just starting your career. However, a CV profile can provide a more thorough summary of your qualifications, which allows employers to get a quick overview of all you have to offer. You can place your CV profile at the top of your CV, just below your name and contact details. CV profiles can include the following components:
- Professional Profile heading: Use the heading "Professional Profile" or a relevant title to introduce your statement. You could also title it, "Career Objectives," "Personal Statement," "Profile Statement," etc.)
- One-two paragraph professional statement: The length of your CV profile is up to you, but it is best summarized in one to two short paragraphs so as not to overwhelm the reader. In this statement, you can use the third or first person to describe your professional traits and background.
- Skills heading: This is an optional component of your CV profile. However, it allows employers to get a sense of your qualifications.
- Bulleted list of skills: Include a bulleted list of skills under the "Skills" heading. You can include relevant skills along with certifications you currently hold. Structure this section to include groupings of 3-4 bullet points that take up horizontal space.
2. Add quantifiable statements throughout
Just like on a resume, you want to demonstrate to employers what you accomplished in addition to your responsibilities when talking about professional and academic experiences. This helps employers determine the results you could potentially bring to their business. For example, instead of saying, "I coordinated events while overseeing a team of event specialists," say: "I coordinated over 200 events while overseeing a team of 15 event specialists."
RESUME EXAMPLES 1
The Resume below was writing for a client of Smatkaria who got a job at PwC through the resume and our mock aptitude test and mock interview.
[Note personal details adjusted to remove the real identity of the client]
RESUME EXAMPLES 2:
The resume below is suitable for roles in DATA SCIENCE
Our next track covers:
- Writing a good professional Portfolio
- Addressing employment gaps in your application
- Information required by us for writing job tailored CV and and cover letter for you
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