How To Write a CV ( Curriculum Vitae) to Apply for a Jobs

Hello Good Morning everyone, this time I will share about how to write a CV (Curriculum Vitae) to apply for a job.

You’ve found this dream job. You know you’d be a perfect fit. You send your CV and you breathlessly wait for the call-back. But it never happens.

Sound familiar? Yeah, it does for most of us. But how’s that possible?

Why, I happen to know the answer to that:

Your CV has never been read. It wasn’t good enough. Take heart, this nightmare scenario isn’t unfolding ever again. That’s cause you’re about to learn a surefire way to transform your run-of-the-mill CV into a fab one.

Here’s how to write a CV:

1.  Make sure you know when to use a CV
2.  Pick the best CV format
3.  Add your contact information the right way
4.  Start with a CV personal profile (CV summary or CV objective)
5.  List your relevant work experience & key achievements
6.  Build your CV education section correctly
7.  Put relevant skills that fit the job opening
8.  Include additional CV sections to impress the recruiter
9.  Organize this all on a professional CV template
10.  Complement your CV with a cover letter

What is a CV?

In its full form, CV  stands for curriculum vitae (latin for: course of life). In the US, Canada, and Australia, a CV is a document you use for academic purposes. The US academic CV outlines every detail of your scholarly career. In other countries, CV is an equivalent of an American resume. You use it when you apply for jobs.

Pick the Best CV Format

Here’s a disturbing thought:

Every time you’re looking for a job, you compete against 250 other candidates on average.  Yes, you read that right.

Imagine you are the recruiter and you have to review 250 job applications. Do you thoroughly read all of them? Nah, of course you don’t.

Recruiters spend only 6 seconds scanning each CV. So the very first impression is key. If you submit a neat, properly organised document, you’ll convince the recruiters to spend more time on your CV. 

A poorly formatted CV, on the other hand, will get you discarded in the first-round review.

Here’s how to format a CV the right way.

Start with creating a CV outline divided into the following sections:

Optional Sections to Include in a CV:

1.      Certifications and awards

2.      Languages

3.      Personal projects

4.      Volunteer Experience

The Must-have Sections to Include in a CV:

1.     Contact information

2.     CV Summary or objective

3.      Work experience

4.      Skills

5.      Education

We’re going to cover all of those sections step-by-step. Before we do that, though, let’s discuss how to...

Get The CV Layout Right

The first thing a job recruiter notices about any CV is the layout.

Things like:

• Is everything easy to find in one glance?
• Are the colors, fonts, and headings consistent?
• Is all the information well-organized?

Here are some of the best practices when it comes to getting your CV layout right:

• Keep it one page in length - You should only go for 2 pages if you’re confident you can’t summarize yourself in 1 page. Don’t waste your precious CV real estate on your life story - no one’s going to read it!
• Clear and consistent section heading - Keep the colors, font size, headings consistent so that it’s easy on the eyes. We’d recommend using a font that stands out, but not too much. Do use: Ubuntu, Roboto, Overpass, etc. Don’t use: comic sense.
• White-space - Make sure there are enough margins and space between the text so that the whole thing is easy on the eyes.
• Keep the details clear - pick the right font size (14-16pt for section titles, 11-12pt for normal text).
• Finally, save your resume as PDF, as Word might change up      your CV formatting.

One last thing you might want to think about is whether your CV is going to be the traditional type or the creative one.

If you’re pursuing a career in a more traditional industry - legal, banking, finance, etc., you might want to stick to the first one.

If you’re applying to a tech startup though, where imagination and innovation are valued within the company value, you can go for something creative.

How to Add Your Contact Information in a CV (The Right Way)

Your contact information is arguably the most important part of your CV. After all, even if you get everything right, it’s not going to matter much if they can’t contact you.

Make sure you triple-check everything in your contact information, word for word, and that it’s up to date. 

Contact Section of Your CV Should Include:

• First name, Last name - the generally preferred format is Name, Last name.
• Phone number - make sure to include your country code if applying outside your country.
• Email address - your email should be professional, ideally along the lines of [name][last name]@email.com
• Title - your professional title, either your desired job or the one you’re applying for word for word.
• Location - are you located in the area? Relocating there in a month or two? Or maybe you’re looking for a relocation sponsor?

Aside from the basic contact information, you also might want to consider putting your social media handles - as long as they’re relevant.

For every other social media channel, consider how they reflect your work. For example:

• LinkedIn - many people ask for a LinkedIn link when applying for a job. As long as your profile is complete and optimized (as it should), feel free to include your LinkedIn URL in your CV.
• Twitter - in very specific cases (e.g. marketing or journalism position), you could include your Twitter profile if you’re active, have a decent amount of followers and a writing style relevant to the position.
• Quora - do you have a lot of authority on a specific topic in your field with a decent amount of followers? This can convince the HR manager that you’re really the best expert they can hire.
• Stack Overflow / Github - only for developers, coders, and computer scientists.
• Medium - only for freelance writers, bloggers, and so on.
• Anything else - got a relevant personal website, blog, or a YouTube channel? Use your discretion if it’s relevant.

How to Grab the HR Manager’s Attention With a CV Summary or Objective

Your CV summary or objective is your attempt at an important first impression. Make sure the language you use is clear, and the HR manager doesn’t have to read it a few times to understand it - because they won’t.

Does it pass the 6-second test?

Your CV summary or objective is your attempt at an elevator pitch with 2-3 sentences. 

As a rule of thumb, if you have more than 2 years of work experience - go for a CV summary.

If not - go for a CV objective.

Let’s break that down.

Your CV summary should include:

1.       Jobs and years of work experience.
2.       Relevant achievements and responsibilities.
3.       What you look for, your goal.
4.       With that said, your CV summary might look something like this:

To make your summary memorable, make sure you mention how your previous experience will be beneficial to the current you’re applying for. You should also include the following information:

• What can you do for them? How can you help?
• How will your previous experience help fit in the company’s current environment?
• How can you help them grow while maintaining personal goals?

Now, how to write a CV objective?

Just like your CV summary, your objective should be 2-3 sentences at most. But instead of describing your work experience, it should focus more on your motivation for applying for the specific job. 

If, for example, you’re a recent college graduate with not a lot of experience under your belt, you might want to opt-in for the CV objective instead. This will explain your motivations as well as what you hope to gain from the position.

To create a killer CV objective, you might want to include:

• Skills, education, and certificate relevant to the job title.
• Type of responsibilities to help you will help out with successfully.
• How you can apply what you’ve learned so far.

How to Show Off Your Work Experience (And Stand Out)

Alright, if you’ve made it this far, now it’s time to really show off and sell yourself.

Your work experience is where you get to brag a little, assuming it’s justified and accurate, of course.

This is the MAIN section of your CV and where most HR recruiters jump to when looking at your CV. 

It’s also the deciding factor of whether you’ll get hired or not - no pressure.

So, to perfect your work experience section, the standard format is as follows:

• Job title/position.
• Company name, location, description.
• Achievements and responsibilities.
• Date employed.

Education Section on Your CV

Another important part is the education section of your CV. 

In the education section, you can include:

1.      Program name - e.g. BA in business administration.
2.      University name - e.g. NY State University.
3.      Year attended - e.g. 08/2008 - 06/2012
4.      (Optional) GPA - e.g. 3.9 GPA
5.      (Optional) Honors - e.g. Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, Summa Cum Laude
6.      (Optional) Academic achievements - e.g. relevant papers you’ve written, courses you’ve excelled in.
7.      (Optional) Minor - e.g. Minor in psychology

 When perfecting your education section, here are a couple of things you should keep in mind:

• If you don’t have any work experience, mention your education section first.
• If you have a university degree, don’t mention your high school at all.
• Mention your GPA only if it’s notable (anything between 3.5-4.0).

Other Sections for CV

The following sections can help you stand out, depending on the company culture and how unique your hobbies are.

For the most part, you’re going to be using your discretion to decide if they’re relevant or not within the bigger picture of your CV. These sections might include:

• Certificate and Awards 

Include any certifications you have if they’re relevant to the position here. If you’re a Facebook Blueprint certified marketer - feel free to include that. If you don’t have a lot of work experience, you can also include any relevant courses or online certifications that show you’ve taken the first step and to show you’re interested (e.g. HubSpot marketing training, Google Certifications, or just about anything you took on Coursera).

• Languages  

Most companies are international nowadays, being bilingual is a great way to stand out and have a competitive advantage. Even if language skills aren’t necessary to the position, they might come in handy at some point. When listing your languages, you can categorize them between: 

1. Native 
2. Fluent 
3. Proficient 
4. Intermediate 
5. Basic 

It goes without saying that you should be honest here and don’t lie on your language skills - it’s just not worth it.

• Hobbies and interest  

This is where you get to reveal a bit of your personality. You can mention something unique here if you want to stand out. What interests you? What makes you unique as an individual? To go the extra mile and show your general discipline and commitment, you can include personal achievements within your hobbies. For example, if you’ve run a marathon (something you should be proud of), you can include that in your hobbies. And who knows, you might have something in common with the HR manager as well. 

• Personal projects  

Side projects show your passion and dedication. They can help you make up for any lack of experience in a certain field, or display your passion for the job.
If you’re going to include optional sections within your CV, make sure they’re relevant and paint you in a positive light - either professionally or through your personality.

Top 3 CV Examples

If you apply everything we’ve learned so far, you should have a very well-rounded and detailed CV. Congrats, you’re already prepared to take on the world!  If you’ve never seen what a good CV looks like, though, it might seem a bit hard to get started with yours. 

These 3 effective CV examples should give you the inspiration you need to get started:

Referensi : https://zety.com/blog/how-to-write-a-cv

                         https://novoresume.com/career-blog/how-to-write-a-cv