True or false:

Your CV can unlock the closed doors of the potential employers.

TRUE
The first impression of you is created by your CV and one thing is for sure – you do not want to make it the only one. The good-looking, well-presenting, but still credible and realistic CV can urge the potential employer to spend a couple of minutes talkingto you and exploring your professional expertise and potential.

It is a tricky issue how to write your CV.

TRUE
Hundreds of CVs arrive further to an ad or even without a specific reason and the person in charge of the human resources is limited with respect to the available time for screening and interviewing. The most of the CVs are pretty standard, containing similar information (especially when it comes to describing one and the same position) and sometimes it is up to the employers’ personal inclination whether they will like, hence pick up your CV. It is very difficult to be original and still professional, detailed enough without being too wordy, remarkable nevertheless your jobs have been quite conventional. However, you can always create the impression that you have taken a time and devised a CV, tailored to the specific company you apply to.

The perfect CV is one page long and no more

FALSE
Have you ever enjoyed a movie by only reading its short outline on the poster? In the same way you cannot expect that the potential employers will be fascinated and intrigued by only having a glance at what you have jotted down. An extensive job history with a changing career and significant training background cannot be summarized in one-page format if you aim at creating a detailed idea about your capabilities. The size should be considered as constrain only in terms of being reasonable when telling the others what you have done so far.

On the other hand if you are in the beginning of your professional development path or you have just graduated do not try to impress the potential employers with a sizeable CV containing nothing but your transcript.

The CV format is more important than the content.

FALSE
This statement sounds like “be nice and shut up”. The format of the CV gives some idea about the general presentation ability of the person and of course it is totally unacceptable to have it hand-written. However, it is equally important to have an adequate content presenting facts, dates and achievements.

CV Formats

It is true that the CV format is what is remembered and it is highly recommendable to avoid the traditional layouts and to be creative, but still there are some types of data that should be presented in one way or another.

The CV should comprise at least four essential categories:

• Professional History
• Educational Background
• Additional Skills and Competencies,
• Personal Data

(See CV Formats)

Professional History:

• This category should state clearly what is your professional expertise in terms of obtained experience as a full-time or part-time employee, free-lancer or at an internship position.
• The professional history section can be organized according to one of the following principles:
• Functional – appropriate for applicants who have made significant changes in their careers by switching from one field to another one or by changing jobs very often.
• The second principle – which is more commonly applied – is the listing of occupations according to their sequence - in a chronological or an opposite order.
• However, the listing of the positions you have held and the respective companies is just not enough: in order to be able to give some idea about the type of the assignments you have performed, you should briefly describe the essence of your duties and responsibilities at the time you have occupied the positions. Ideally, you can also describe your status in the hierarchy by stating the position that you have reported to, as well as the positions you have supervised.
• When it comes to stating your employments you should clearly specify the starting date and the time you left. Of course, no one expects to have the exact days written down, but you should indicate the month and the year: it really makes a difference whether you have worked in the Company “X” from December 98 till January 99 or from January 98 till December 99.
• Sometimes, due to confidentiality motives you might be tempted not to mention the name of the companies you worked for or you are still working for.
• However, it always sounds strange to the potential employer that you fear to reveal the names: the first implication would be that you are hiding something that may put you in a disadvantaged position – an unhappy employer, weak performance, etc.
• It is equally unpleasant to the employers to think that you might have doubted their professionalism and business ethics with respect to preserving confidentiality.
• If this is your major concern you should handle it prior to applying. Try to gather references and assess the credibility of the company you apply to. If you are applying further to a blind ad (you don’t know the company’s identity), you should estimate the risk of being “betrayed” against your willingness to be invited to an interview. Generally, the employers are expected to aim at attracting the best people therefore, they are supposed to observe the confidentiality rules.

Educational Background:

• With respect to your education what matters most is the highest degree you have obtained.
• You should state clearly the University you have graduated from, your major and the obtained degree.
• It is important to pinpoint when you have started as well as when you finished your studies.
• If you are still studying you should claim the expected date of your graduation as well as whether you are a full-time or distant learning student.
• If your secondary school was a specialized one (i.e. language school, school of mathematics or natural sciences, etc.) it would be useful to have this fact stated in your CV.
• Any additional courses, professional trainings, workshops and certificates obtained that evidence for gained knowledge and abilities are assets and should be made visible to the potential employer.

Additional Skills and Competencies:

• Due to the demanding and challenging environment the applicants are expected to have excellent command of foreign languages, to be able to use sophisticated software applications, to have good communication skills, organizational abilities, people management skills, analytical approach to problem-solving and decision making.
• Experience and knowledge evidencing these types of competencies are highly valued hence should be made known to potential employers.

Personal Data:

• There are lots off discussions going on and concerning the extent to which the personal information should be a subject to the CV.
• One thing is for sure: in your CV you should state at least your name and contact details otherwise it will be a matter of providence to have the employers answering your interest in meeting them.
• Very often the contact details are limited only to a post address, which although essential is not enough.
• Pressed by the time the human resources people prefer to contact you by phone and if for any reason you have not stated one you are risking not to be contacted at all.
• When you don’t have an own telephone you can write down a phone of a relative, friend of yours, person whom you can easily contact and whom you trust. In this case you should also pinpoint that messages can be left, because otherwise the human resources people can refuse to disclose their reasons for calling you due to confidentiality rules.
• When you write down telephone numbers make sure that there is one, at which you are reachable during daytime. It is up to the human resources professionals good will to make an extra-effort and call you in the evenings.
• Don’t forget the modern communication channels, more specifically Internet. Get an email. You can even make a free-email account at some of the popular web sites.
• With respect to issues, such as marital status and age, it is strongly disputable whether they should be declared.
• The traditional American approach, which is more and more operated in Western Europe, suggests that it is a matter of discrimination to select staff based on their age and personal engagements.
• It is not fair to have these factors influencing your match to a position. However, some employers have built a stereotype according to which specific features of individual's personal status might affect his/her productivity at work.
• Sometimes there is certain logic behind similar requirements: some professions require excessive physical effort which is not affordable for an elder person; other jobs have the image to be occupied by youngsters; specific positions require extensive travelling – something like being out of home for four days in a week – hence typically they are not accepted by female applicants who have small children. It is true that it is a matter of self-assessment whether a person can cope with similar job requirements or not. However, it is the other side that is demanding to make the final judgment during the recruitment and selection procedure.

Achievements:

• This category is optional but a CV of an applicant with over 2 years of experience is expected to support his/her statements for professional competence with facts.
• These facts can refer to achieved sales volume, of expanded market share, value of saved financial resources, number of successfully hired people, types of successfully launched projects, creation of new product/service, implemented proposals for optimization of work processes, put into practice production or other technical methods, etc.
• For the fresh graduates the achievement can represent successfully passed study-projects, achieved score from the final exams, other rewards.
• When referring to a fact as an achievement make sure that it is relevant to the position you are applying to and also that it would be considered as an achievement by the employer too. Otherwise, what you have stated might be interpreted as evidence that you are inclined to set moderate goals rather than ambitious ones.

Referrals

It is considered to be a good indication when you have quoted names of referees in your CV. However, it is of no use to only state that references are available upon request: it should be this way by default.

The employers will expect that you will have somebody to "vote" for your application. In the best case you should be able to write down in your CV the names of ex-employers, colleagues with established reputation in the business word, partners, clients, professors who can advocate your application. Contact phone numbers should accompany the names. However, before citing contact details of referees make sure you will get the best possible reference. ( See References)