Make Your CV Sound More Impressive

Getting a good job these days is harder than ever. With dozens or even hundreds of applicants for every position, it is difficult to make your resume stand out above others and get that first interview. Have you ever wondered how to improve your chances? It may take time for the results to show, but there are definite methods you can use in formatting, presentation, and content to make your resume more competitive.

Steps

Improving Format

1. Tailor the resume to the job. One big mistake that people make in resumes and CVs is in not tailoring it to the job. Employers looks for signs that you understand what the position requires in the formatting of the document itself. You should prepare a standard resume for most jobs in business, for example. Universities, labs, and other academic employers will look for a different format, the academic CV.
   • For example, a business resume is often about one page long. It is meant to summarize your skills and qualifications and to introduce you to an employer. An academic CV on the other hand is comprehensive. It is meant to provide all or most of your past education, experience, writing, and professional development.
   • You should also tailor the resume to the job itself. You can do this, firstly, by carefully reading the ad. As you get ready to put together a resume, mark the skills that are mentioned with a pen. Note anything – your qualifications, personal talents, experience – that you can link directly to these needs. An employer should be able to see from the information you give and from your structure that you are a good “fit.”
2. Break the resume into subsections. Resumes and CVs have an expected order. Knowing this order, and following it, reassures an employer that you are competent and are aware of basic communication practices. Usually, the order of a resume is as follows: header and personal information, education and qualifications, work experience, interests and goals, other skills, and references.
   • In the header, make your name slightly larger than the other information. Include below your name your current mailing address, telephone number, and the email address that you most frequently use.
   • Give education and work experience in a reverse chronological order. That is, start with the most recent positions and work backwards. For each job under work experience, employers will expect you to give the company’s name and location, your job title, dates (i.e. when you worked there), and three to four short lines describing your duties.
   • The interests section is a chance for you to include extracurricular activities, volunteer work, or other community involvement. Use this strategically if you can, particularly if you have outside experience relevant to the job at hand. Skills can include things like languages, proficiency in computer programs, social media skills, or other training specific to the job.
   • As always, an academic CV will be different. Along with the usual header and education, work history will usually focus on teaching, research, and/or editing experience. Depending on the job, employers may also want to see publications, a list of public lectures and presentations, and your grant history.
3. Prioritize key information. How to prioritize depends in part on what sort of job you are applying for. Usually, you will give the most space to your related work experience, then to qualifications. Employers look very closely at these two categories. For example, if you are applying for a job as an accountant, you will want to highlight your education and bachelor’s degree in accountancy. In your experience and qualifications sections, focus on your year-long internship with a tax firm and the fact that you have passed the professional certification exam.
   • In an academic CV, the format will again depend on the type of job. If you are applying for a research-oriented position, for example, employers will want to know more about your publications, grant history, and research impact. For a teaching-oriented position, they will want to know about you previous experience – where, what, when, and how successfully you have taught before.

Improving Presentation

1. Follow the rules of formal English. There is little that annoys a potential employer more than a resume with errors in spelling or grammar. To them, this says that the applicant is unqualified at a very basic level. Some resume readers reject your resume for even the smallest error. Make sure that your resume gets a proper read through at the least, and does not end up in the trash heap for this reason.
   • Spell correctly, for one thing. Use capital letters appropriately. Do not rely entirely on spell-check to catch all of your mistakes, moreover. Use it, but then have a friend read through the resume to make sure that you haven’t missed anything.
2. Be clear and concise. Your resume should be lean and give all the necessary information as clearly and concisely as possible. Don’t feel that you need to use full sentences. For example, use bullet points and “parallelism” rather than a series of paragraphs to describe job duties: e.g. “Handled purchasing, expediting, and returning – Processed change orders – Prepared weekly field payroll.”
   • Try to avoid confusing language and jargon, as well. You might think that big words or complicated sentences make you seem more serious or smarter. You might actually end up seeming pompous, annoying an employer. It is better to choose simple, to-the-point words when you can.
3. Favor action words. An easy way to make your writing clearer is by using an active voice, e.g. “I created a new website” instead of “The new website was created by me.” This makes you the active agent and gives your writing life. Verbs and action words like prepare, analyze, interpret, obtain, and others will infuse your resume with a sense of motivation.
4. Avoid clichés. In the same vein, there are phrases in the business world that have become clichés. To employers these buzzwords are like white noise and make very little impact. Read through your resume with an eye toward things that seem clichéd, like “dynamic,” “proactive,” or “synergy.” Adopt fresh phrases in place of these in order to describe yourself and your experience.

Improving Content

1. Be honest! Lying on a resume or CV is never a good idea. You may feel as though you don’t have enough experience for the job, and be tempted to stretch the truth, to invent a position that never existed, or to exaggerate your education. This will almost certainly backfire. Don’t assume that companies “don’t check these things anyways.” If anything, employers are more careful than ever in looking into potential hires and their histories.
2. Make the most of your skills, interests, and experience. Think hard about the skills that you have. You may be forgetting or undervaluing them. Even skills that we sometimes take for granted can be valuable in the workplace. Are you computer literate or proficient in certain programs like Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, or Excel, for example? Say so in your resume!
   • There are many skills that you have picked up in your education or previous job experience that can be useful, even if they don’t seem immediately related to the job you’re applying for. Do you have past experience in public speaking? Can you read Spanish? Did your previous job in sales require you to work in a team? These can all be marketable skills.
3. Seek out volunteer opportunities, internships, or work placements. If you have the chance, do an unpaid or paid internship. This will show potential employers that you are actively looking for career opportunities. It also counts as on-the-job experience that you can mention in a resume.
   • To better highlight internships, you might try creating a subsection under your personal info or before your education called “Internships and Work Placements,” or something similar. This formatting will highlight your experience and show an employer that you have more than just a degree.
   • Remember to note your relevant volunteer work, as well. In some sectors like non-profit organizations this kind of work is highly desirable. If you are applying for a job with a women’s advocacy charity, for example, include the fact that you volunteered at a local women’s shelter.
4. Do a gap year. For new graduates, a gap year can be a way to develop so-called “soft skills” that can also be valuable for employers. While a year working with a non-profit organization in South America or India might seem far removed from a job in business, it shows an employer that you are adaptable, flexible, resilient, and can work with diverse people. Maybe you also learned a new language. Do not underrate an experience like this. It may seem like a small thing, but actually it demonstrates that you have desirable character traits.
5. Highlight academic and work-related honors. Don’t forget to make the most out of any special recognitions that you’ve won, whether it was making the Dean’s List, winning first-in-class honors, or being named employee of the month for your sales. These honors can show your motivation, leadership, and how you can be an asset to a company in the future.
   • For an academic CV, awards and honors are even more important, as they show that you have been recognized by peers in your field for excellence. Here you will want to provide the name of the award and granting institution. In some fields it is also usual to include the amount of money, if you received any.
6. Teach and publish early. This advice applies specifically to academics. The best way to improve your academic CV is to have concrete experience – that means teaching courses and publishing articles. These are often what make or break candidates for university and research jobs. You’ll therefore want to get started as early as possible on them.
   • Try to get inside the classroom. Some graduate schools give you experience as a teaching assistant or even in teaching your own course. Others do not. Make the most of your opportunities. Talk to your professors and mentors. See whether they will let you give a guest lecture in one of their courses.
   • Talk to your advisor. Advisors can be “gateways” to your first publications. They might be able to recommend you to a journal editor for a book review, or ask you to contribute to a volume that they are editing. Let them know about your desire to publish. At the very least, they can advise you on how to turn your research into your first published article.

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Sources and Citations

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