Pocket CV Your Simple Guide to Writing a Stellar CV
By ANDREA AMATO
Career prospects come and go, remains the most important do propel you to your dream job. The curriculum vitae (CV) follows
Your CV is the first impression you
your career journey in detailing your
make on a hiring manager.
work experience, education history,
“Submitting a good-looking resume
and other carefully curated content.
is just as important as dressing sharp
Just as your career prospects alter
for a job interview,” Darshinee
over time, so too does the
begins, “I would say much more
expectations of a well-written CV.
important!” In writing a CV, you want to motivate a potential
Darshinee Munsaram and Tijana
employer to offer you a job, but you
Tufek represent Castille’s Human
will only receive a call back if you
Capital consultant and Talent
successfully pass this first
Acquisition & Advisory senior finance
impression.
consultant, respectively. Darshinee and Tijana join us in conversing about the expectations of hiring managers—from formatting your CV to your weekend hobbies—and offer additional advice as two individuals in the recruitment field.
02
, but your CV ocument to
03
01. What does the perfect CV look like?
pg. 06
02. Don’t overshare personal details.
pg. 08
03. What is more important, a personal
pg. 10
statement or a professional summary?
What’s the difference?
04. The crème de la crème of your CV:
pg. 12
Employment History
05. From kindergarten to university
pg. 14
degrees, what is relevant today?
06. What about additional sections,
pg. 16
such as hobbies and interests?
Final words of advice.
04
pg. 18
05
01. What does the perfect CV look like?
One of the first things to consider
To compliment your sections, include
when writing a CV is format. “There
bullet points under headers so your
is no such thing as a single, standard
CV does not read like an essay.
CV,” explains Tijana, “CVs adapt to the particular role one is applying
In terms of understanding
for, and their particular profession.”
expectations, an important factor to
In general, you want to keep your CV
consider is the locality of the job role.
concise. It shouldn’t exceed two
“International standards vary greatly
pages, nor include any dramatic
depending on best practices and local
colouring and illegible fonts
legislation,” Tijana begins, “In
(Darshinee recommends using Times
Germany it’s forbidden to ask for a
New Roman or Georgia, for example)
photo of an applicant, whereas in the
to ease navigation for potential
US a portrait is considered standard.”
employers.
In Europe, Europass is a common format adopted to lay out a CV, but
Additionally, you should organise
nowadays Tijana suggests these
your CV with clear sections. “Keep
shouldn’t be used: “It is not widely
your font size between 10 and 12
accepted in the private sector
points and ensure you can
anymore.”
differentiate your headings using bold type and capital letters,” Darshinee emphasises.
06
07
02. Don’t overshare personal details.
We’ve previously learned to include
So, what is appropriate to add?
our full home addresses, marital
“Include your full name, professional
status, and other personal details on
title, email address and telephone
our CV. Unfortunately,
number,” Darshinee begins, “Details
discriminatory practices altered the
such as your marital status and
course on what details are
political affiliation are completely
appropriate for the document. “Your
unnecessary.” The sentiment is clear:
date of birth, religion, nationality,
input the necessary work details and
and other information that can add to
keep the political talk for your next
potential discriminatory treatment
dinner party.
should be avoided,” Tijana reiterates. Some countries, such as the UK, protect your personal details in that it is illegal for hiring managers to request certain personal information.
“
The sentiment is clear: input the nece
political talk for your next dinner part
08
essary work details and keep the
ty.
09
03. What is more important, a personal statement or a professional summary? What’s the difference?
A personal statement or professional
The professional summary goes a
summary serves as a quick biography
step further than a personal
of an applicant. Although they sound
statement, in that it typically
similar, both terms reflect different
displays the number of years spent in
goals. A personal statement outlines
a role, and other details such as skill
the objective of your application, i.e.,
sets and personal attributes.
why you are applying for a certain role. For example, the personal
Are these important to include? “Yes,
statement of a software developer
if there is space,” Tijana answers, but
would read: I am an experienced
not at the cost of your document
software developer now looking for a
length. If you have a lot of content to
senior position.
include on your CV, it’s not worth including either a personal statement
On the other hand, a professional
or professional summary. However,
summary presents a few sentences
Tijana considers another type of
summarising the content of a CV.
applicant: “If it is a graduate profile, an introductory personal statement is very welcomed.”
10
There is no real preference between a
they’ve applied these skills to achieve
personal statement and a
results in a workplace setting.”
professional summary, as both can
On the whole, include these where
have a place in a CV. Nevertheless,
appropriate and according to
Darshinee explains that at times a
available document space.
summary can be more beneficial, “As a professional summary highlights an applicant’s skills, and proves how
11
04. The crème de la crème of your CV: Employment History
Your employment history should be
“You could add two different
organised according to your most
sections, one for full-time and the
recent experience first. Include the
second detailing freelance work,”
company you work/ed for, job title,
Darshinee explains. When it comes to
and the dates employed in the
key responsibilities and
position. As previously mentioned,
achievements, what to include
use bullet points to outline your
depends on the position you are
responsibilities and avoid writing
applying for. “If it is a project-based
paragraphs.
role, you should focus on your achievements,” Tijana begins, “The
It could be that you are applying for a
same advice goes for senior
job role after a period of
applicants that have to narrow their
unemployment. “Ideally, applicants
10-year career into a few bullet
don’t go into detail about these
points.”
career breaks in their CV,” Tijana states, “Rather these are better
For a more junior profile (typically
placed in your cover letter.” Another
described as someone with two to
scenario could be that you offer
three years’ work experience), Tijana
freelance work, and, in this
thinks writing day to day
circumstance, you want the hiring
responsibilities are more appropriate
manager to distinguish between your
to include. “Be clear and focused,”
full-time role with freelance.
Darshinee states, and include only relevant details in this section.
12
“
Your employment history should be organised according to your most recent experience first.
13
05. From kindergarten to university degrees,
what is relevant today?
Your education and qualifications
Similar to your employment section,
section compliments your
you want to include the name of your
employment history and is often just
qualification, the institution where it
as important. “The education section
was issued, the start and end dates,
gives the employer a brief overview
and the grades/results of the said
of your studies and qualifications to
certification. For roles that require
date,” Darshinee begins, “You want
warranty, such as in law or
to include your degrees, diplomas,
accounting, you want to display your
any official means of certification,
qualification at the beginning of the
and any work or vocational training
section. For Tijana, this is an
you’ve received.”
important point: “This is because in most cases, your qualification is a non-arbitrary requirement for the role you’d be applying for.”
“
You want to include your degrees, dip
certification, and any work or vocatio
14
plomas, any official means of
onal training you’ve received.
15
06. What about additional sections, such as hobbies and interests?
Do hiring managers really care about
She went on to clearly express,
what you do on weekends? Not really,
“What you don’t want to do, though,
but they do care about your language
is put a section altogether just for
proficiency, and even this has its
random hobbies.” Including hobbies
limitations. “Applicants should add
are more appropriate for applicants
languages, but only those that they
who are still in education, lack
are fluent in or have working
experience, or applying for roles that
proficiency,” states Tijana. Perhaps
are directly relevant to their hobbies.
it’s worth skipping over that language you took up in secondary
If you choose to include these, place
school and dropped a year later.
them in an area of your CV that is not given much prominence, such as on
When it comes to skills and hobbies, the consensus is less agreed upon between recruiters. “Essentially, there’s no right or wrong answer,” Darshinee begins, “Some recruiters appreciate the extra detail, whilst others prefer to keep a CV strictly professional.”
16
the side or at the end of your CV.
“
Essentially, there’s no right or wrong answer... Some recruiters appreciate the extra detail, whilst others prefer to keep a CV strictly professional. 17
Final words of advice.
When writing your CV, you have to
Including redundant information
keep in mind that this should alter to
makes your CV hard to navigate, and
the specific job role you are applying
derails hiring managers from looking
to. You may have career experience in
at relevant keywords.
multiple industries, for example in sales and IT, in which case you have
When it comes to specifics, the
to lay out your CV and section these
obvious section to alter is your
appropriately. Maintaining the same
employment history. If you’ve
example, if you’re applying for an IT
received a promotion, changed jobs
role, you want to prioritise your IT
or responsibilities, your CV should
experience and skills before your
reflect these changes. If there is a
sales experience.
take home message for this guide, it is one that is offered by Tijana: “CVs
Contrarily, many of us experience a
need to be concise and focused. You
length of time when we don’t look at
want to make the reader interested to
our CV, and suddenly, a fantastic job
learn more about you, and that will
opportunity arises, and you must
be delivered when you get that job
re-write your CV overnight. When
interview.”
updating your CV after a long time, you want to retain your focus on the length of the document and leave out information that is no longer relevant (so, no, you don’t include your kindergarten years, nor do you write about what colour belt you obtained in jujitsu).
18
“
You want to make the reader interested to learn more about you, and that will be delivered when you get that job interview. 19
Pocket CV © COPYRIGHT 2021 CASTILLE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
