How to create a CV with the best outline

Let’s talk honestly: a CV isn’t the main thing when applying for a job. A person with a unique experience or competencies will get an invitation for an interview, even if he isn’t noticeable.

Another thing is if he does not yet belong to the category of rare super professionals. Then the chance to meet competitors in the struggle for the dream job increases as well as the quality of the resume comes to the fore.

How not to write a resume: basic mistakes

Experienced recruiters who have read more than one thousand CVs very often complain about a poorly composed resume. This not only discourages the invitation to seek a job but also the interest to further read it disappears. Therefore, they talked about the most common mistakes that applicants make in their CVs.

Avoid giving too much information

An outline of three pages or more is nonsense. It’s much better if the entire volume does not exceed one page. If your work experience consists of 15 years, you can write in 2 pages, but that is an extreme maximum.

It’s useful to remember that a resume has nothing to do with an autobiography. There’s no need to list each position and the duties performed there. A CV is more like a review, or a presentation of your experience, allowing the employer to quickly get an answer to the question of whether you’re in a position or not.

What should a resume outline emphasize?

Therefore, the key point for the candidate is to bring the CV in line with the vacancy. Carefully read the vacancy of the employer to find answers to the questions:

  1. What knowledge, abilities, skills does an employer want to see in the applicant?
  2. What skills does he consider the most important, key, and which can the applicant consider secondary?
  3. What are the key moments in the work experience for the employer?

If there are times in which the requirements of the employer and your skills or qualities coincide, write about this in the cover letter. And later reflect them in the resume surely.

Extra information to mention

Perhaps that’s a similar paragraph with the first, but we draw your attention: a CV should not contain any text that does not carry a useful meaning. For example, if you’re a secretary, and in the resume, you have references to the electronic document management that you used, in the Skills or Additional Information section you do not need to write an Experienced PC user, because this is already obvious.

It’s much better if you indicate that you have shorthand skills. Or that you have experience in applying for a visa.

Description of experience that is not needed for a vacancy

If you want to eliminate unforgivable mistakes in your CV, make sure that each line in the Experience section is useful for a particular employer. A sales manager does not have to indicate that he worked as a taxi driver for some time. What’s important to indicate the category of driver’s license and mention the presence of a personal car, for example.

It goes to everybody, except for some categories

The only exceptions are the resumes of graduates. Since young specialists do not have the experience, or it’s not enough, it’s recommended to include all types of practical activities in the CV to interest the employer, show the availability of skills, increase the competitiveness of the young specialist.

What if a resume is hard to read

If we list the main mistakes in the preparation of the resume, we need to mention the lack of structure in the document. When the paragraphs merge, and at first glance, it isn’t clear where the block on work experience ends and information about education begins.

What a correct resume outline looks like

Indicate only the most important information in the document. Stick to the traditional CV outline structure:

  • title (your profession, specialization in which the job seeker looks for work);
  • contact information (full name, year of birth, city of residence, phone, e-mail, family status);
  • purpose of the search (what kind of job are you looking for, with what form of employment, are considering relocation options);
  • hard and soft skills;
  • work experience (list the job positions that you held; what tasks the candidate performed; what successes you achieved);
  • education and certificates;
  • additional education (continuing education courses, online training, etc.);
  • additional information (additional information about skills, for example, knowledge of foreign languages).

Summary

It’s impossible to create a perfect resume outline because different employers have different ideas about a high-quality CV and an ideal candidate. In this case, gross avoid errors. The price of an error when compiling a resume is high: the job seeker can simply be weeded out from the list of candidates for a good job.