Hot tips for a killer CV

Some straightforward guidelines that will help you prepare a killer CV while avoiding some of the mistakes most commonly made.

A CV is not a thesis

Be concise. Keep to two pages if you can, four as an absolute maximum.
A good CV says, who you are, what you are, what you've done and what you are offering to a prospective employer.
It stops there! It's not about past jobs! It's about you, and how you performed in those past jobs, which predict how you might perform in a future job.

Skills and experience

A good CV does justice to your skills and experience.

Make it attractive

An attractive, well-laid out CV, free from typos, grubby marks and coffee stains is easy to read and will stand out from the crowd.

Gaps in your work experience

If you were doing anything valuable (though unpaid) during those so-called "gaps," you could just insert that into the work-history section of your resume to fill the hole, for example: "1993-95 Full-time parent" or "1992-94 Maternity leave and family management" or "Travel and study," or Full-time student," or, "Parenting plus community service."

You held one job for 20 to 30 years?

Then list separately each different position you held there, so your job progression within the company is more obvious.

You had lots of short-term jobs?

To minimize the job-hopper image, combine several similar jobs into one "chunk," for example:

1993-1995 Software developer - CSM Softech; Micro Corp.; E-Infotech.

Also you can just drop some of the less-important or briefest jobs. But don't drop a job, even when it lasted a short time, if that was where you acquired important skills or experience.

Avoid glossy and parchment paper

Employers hate parchment paper and pretentious brochure-folded resume "presentations." They think they're phony, and toss them out. Use good quality paper, though not too thick as this can jam photocopiers and faxes. Print on one side of the paper only.

Short and snappy

Keep sentences short and succinct. Use short succinct sentences and avoid repetitive use of the word "I".

Gender confusion

Don't mystify the reader about your sex; they'll go nuts till they know whether you're male or female. And while they're worrying about that, they're NOT thinking about what you can do for them. So if your name is Suman, Robin Harsha or Pat or anything else not clearly male or female, use a Mr. or Ms. prefix.

Include your name

Do include your name at the top or bottom of every page. Prospective employers may have many CV's to look through. After all the hard work you put into the content and presentation of yours, you would not want the pages to become confused with someone else's CV.

Telephone numbers

Do include an after-hours phone number. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Start and end dates

Be precise on the start and end dates of previous positions.

Achievements and strengths

Do indicate your major achievements and strengths.

Bullets for highlighting

Keep to bullet point form.

Hobbies

Do include your hobbies and be aware what your interests indicate about your personality.