IS YOUR CV INFORMATIVE AND ATTRACTIVE?

By Ms. Sheila Tu, Researcher, Onpress Shanghai

Each person who wishes to look for a suitable job and career should provide his own CV.  The CV is one of the most important documents of your life.  The CV is your ID card, your best chance to make a good first impression.  Normally, what is described by a candidate on his academic background and employment history in brief is what we call the Curriculum Vitae (abbreviated as ’CV’).  As a professional recruitment agency, we have the opportunities to read and go through many kinds of CVs daily. Our experience tells us that there are a lot of candidates who do not really know how to describe their own competencies, qualifications, skills and experiences aptly in their CV; that is, they do not know how to use the essential tools to make their CV looks very informative and attractive so that they can grab the readers’ or the potential employers’ attention quickly and readily.  Hereinafter, I would like to share with the readers and list some of the mistakes that candidates might often make in their CV, and introduce and describe some key points in order to make your CV look very distinguished.

Normally, there are two kinds of mistakes that candidates would easily make in their CV: oversimplified, and too lengthy and complicated.  These are the two undesirable features that can have you eliminated in the first-round through the long job-search process.

There is one kind of candidates who are used to think things out in a simply way.  They find it unnecessary to put extra efforts in polishing and editing their CV in a simple, informative and to-the-point fashion.  Simple items will be enough to make you recognized and visible.  Firstly, using a one-page CV looks lazy at best and may exclude you from consideration immediately.  Secondly, a CV that is hard for the reader to recognize your strengths, skills, qualities and experiences promptly can very easily bore the reader; it is often put aside and forgotten. If you can’t make it out of the pile, what chance do you have of landing the job? 

Until such time as you can be seen in person, you are only as good as you appear on your paperwork.  This makes your CV crucial.  A good CV therefore helps you sell yourself effectively.

date and place of birth, marital status, education with the year of attainment and from which institution, and qualifications) and a brief overview of your skills, experiences and the nature, level of position and the industry you might be suitably considered.

With regards to your working experience, you should highlight your responsibilities and achievements in quantifiable terms (such that the reader can decide on the magnitude of your experience; for example, you should mention that you might have managed 20 people in a 3-year period from Sept. 1999 to Sept. 2002, comprising 10 graduate mechanical engineers, 5 technicians in quality engineering and 5 support staff), concentrating on the last five years and/or the last 3 positions.  For each position held,  describe the title, the work undertaken, duties and responsibilities.  Do include achievements, not just tasks.  As a rule, use about one paragraph, one-fifth of one page of A4 to describe each 2 or 3 years of your work experience.  Make sure that for each job, you show the full name of your employer, your location, the description of the project you undertook, the nature of the project and your job title.  In addition, it is also better to list what kind of training course you have ever received, say, the professional career training, people management training and your language training in China or out of China.  It is very important to mention your language skills, including your ability in listening, reading, writing, vocabulary and comprehension.  It is also worth listing the medal, honored title you have ever been awarded by your past companies or your country (again, an indication of your personal achievements and how the company, the community or your country see these achievements).  Such information will help the reader learn whether you are a good citizen or a loyal employee.  Ensure your CV is well structured.  This gives the impression that you think logically and have good presentation skills.

Your CV should also be tidy, well presented and free from errors, especially the names of companies, locations and institutions.

There is also another kind of candidates who like to over-polish their CV.  As a well-established recruitment firm, we receive dozens of CVs every day by post, fax and e-mail.  It is very easy to discard your CV if it looks too thick with too many graphic or words on too many pages.  To read every one ‘from cover to cover’ would be physically impossible.  A 15-page CV will antagonize the reader at the very beginning and it is highly likely that it will be discarded.  Do not try to ruin your CV by drawing a snake and adding some feet to it.  So it is crucial for the reader to grasp the essence of what you have to offer within a few minutes; unless the reader’s interests can be aroused and maintained initially, the chances are that this CV will not be read continually and considered an important document.

The other situation is that a candidate might wish to add color and emphasis on their CV; some even state some un-truths.  There are also candidates who purposely put the achievements of their colleagues or their boss as their own, or over-state the work level, duties and responsibilities in order to make themselves look more senior, distinguished, or palatable.  An experienced recruiter will be able to assess the authenticity of your CV through interviews and reference checks.  I would like to suggest you do NOT try your luck this way.  It is quite a serious matter, reflecting your personal integrity and business ethics.  Once you are proven that some of the facts as stated in your CV are not true, you will be discarded very soon indeed.  And you not only will lose out on this career opportunity, but it will also affect your personal reputation adversely in your future job searches.

The best CV we have seen are written concisely and precisely in 2 pages.

Finally, I hope that you have an informative and attractive CV, and always keep it up-to-date.