Each year, hundreds of thousands of hopeful workers from around the world vie to be employed in Australia, have their visa, settle in, and establish a good and stable life. It is every migrant’s dream. However, you need to be noticed and employed first before this aspiration rolls on. And that starts with the curriculum vitae.
As we have mentioned before, your CV is your first chance to get your future employers’ (or the Human Resources', for that matter) attention. Much like in products and services, it is your advertisement. You do it wrong and you forever lose the chance of making a deal.
You only get a singular chance to make an impression. It better count. Follow these tips that everybody seems to neglect when writing a curriculum vitae, and then you can start walking the road to a better life.
Here is what every job hunter’s order of business looks like: Write CV. Print multiple copies. Send them to prospective companies. Scratch head wondering why he/she doesn’t get a call. Believe it or not, there is no mystery there. Once you start thinking that a single CV will be acceptable to all companies, then expect to get ignored.
Much like your suit/dress is tailored to your size and shape, your curriculum vitae must also be adjusted to each company you are gunning for. Sit down and read the company’s values, mission, and vision statements, take a look at the words they use, and customize your paper according to those. Each employer is looking for a person who will fit to its established goals and culture, and you need to sell yourself as that person.
But no, do not copy statements directly off their Mission and Vision declaration. You will sound pretentious and insincere. And that’s a turn off.
It is a wonder that people still bother including objectives. That much is very clear the moment you send your CV. You need a job. Period. What companies want to know, however, is what you can do. That is where your executive summary will come in.
An executive summary is your elevator pitch printed on paper. It contains a gist of what you are good at and what value it can provide to the company, all listed in three to five sentences. If your curriculum vitae is a TV show, this is the opening scene. If the audience (your prospects) don’t like it, they will switch to another channel (the next applicant).
Do not litter your summary with vague and cliché descriptions like “Self-motivated, organized, and excellent in multi-tasking,” they have seen that on the previous fifty resumes before yours. Instead, be specific. “Account Manager with a degree in Business Management and experience in sales and marketing” is a better description. It tells something about yourself and what worth you can give to the employer. Throw in your most substantial work-related achievements and work ethics and you have got the big bosses hooked.
It is easy to spot the first time applicants by the way they refer to themselves. They use pronouns. And nothing turns a good curriculum vitae sour than pronouns. You need to be streamlined and unambiguous in your descriptions, so you better take it off.
Logically, using third person pronouns are out of the question (it sounds weird and you are not the Rock), but you shouldn’t use “I” either. Your descriptions, whether it is about your qualifications, trainings, and values, should begin with a verb or (rarely) an adjective for them to be firm and straight to the point:
Has a degree in Psychology…
Develops computer programs for entrepreneurs…
Responsible for arranging financial reports…
Notice also that they come in singular form and in present tense, unless of course the description stated refers to a specific accomplishment in the past that has a profound positive effect to the company, then you use the past tense.
And speaking of accomplishments…
Say what you will, but accomplishments are the most prized part of your curriculum vitae. This part proves that you are not just an item on the company’s payroll, but someone who actually turns the lever and moves the wheels. So you better write them correctly or you are wasting a good opportunity.
You use the Result by Action format. It simply means you list the achievement (result) followed by the method(s) you used.
Generated 150% increase in sales quota (result) by targeting more densely populated territories (action).
Lead the acquisition of related business entities (result) by developing policies that mutually adhere to the companies’ interests (action).
Structured a teaching curriculum (result) by conducting an intensive academic study on freshman students (action).
It shows that you are the employee that provides solution to the company’s challenges and you are producing results.
You know why Facebook’s Timeline design is successful and engaging? Because it focuses on the current things you do, what you are into, what you have for lunch… etc. Then it threads on the past and less important occurrences as you scroll down.
Its structure follows a reverse chronological order, where the latest period comes first followed by the older ones. Your curriculum vitae should be written in the same manner, too. It lets the employer take a look on what you’ve been up to recently. Are you currently working? Attending school? Starting a business? Remember when it comes to employment, time is relevancy. What you are doing in the previous month impacts more what you can offer to the company than, say, your status a year ago.
Also, this format provides a clue of what your future boss thinks is next for you. Are you up for a higher position? Do you need to expand your specialization? The possibilities are endless. And unless you are a fresh graduate, you also need to place your educational background at the bottom. We understand you are proud of dear alma mater, but it won’t make much bearing on your application.
This we cannot stress enough. You have gone out of High School (or College) and now ready to face the professional world. Your days of getting immersed in the World of Warcraft twelve hours a day has ended. Competing with thousands upon thousands of other applicants and/or clients is the real game now. That being said, there’s no reason for your email address to be soulcutter_megablade_1177@hotmail.com (or worse, something laden with sexual innuendos).
Look, your email address is a means of contact. The Human Resource will take note of that. Be sure it is appropriate and emanates professionalism. Leave the silly, suggestive, innuendo-filled names to your Counter Strike: Go account.
Create an email address solely for job applications. Use your first and last name. Avoid using underscores (_) and limit the use of numbers. If you can’t obtain an address with your name, experiment by including your middle initial and/or your job title, like in JohnSReedWriter@gmail.com.
You email address is your brand. It’s something people will associate with you. Be the person that should be taken seriously. Start with your email address.
If you are like most of us, you probably ditched the idea of going from office to office to hand out your CV and instead send virtual copies of applications online. If that's so, you are probably are among the thousands who carelessly just named their CV file name resume.doc. Big mistake.
You see, much like your executive summary and email address, your CV’s final name can also make or break your chance of getting noticed. If you simply named your curriculum vitae, well, curriculumvitae.doc, you are among the one-third of applicant who do that, and there’s a big chance your application will be lost among the similarly and generically named ones.
Use your name on your file name so you can be indexed and found easily among huge batch of files. Or better yet, include your title or the position you are vying for like in RachelLee_CV_OperationsManager.doc (you may use underscores and dashes). For someone who sorts through gazillions of applications each day, your file name will provide a relief since it already tells them who you are.
Also, avoid using version numbers on your CV, like in MelissaCruz11.doc. Your boss will think there are ten more which probably went to the ten other companies in the building. You are not giving a good impression with that.