IT’S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR, TIME TO BRUSH UP ON YOUR CV IN PREPARATION FOR INTERNSHIP APPLICATIONS AND CLUB EXEC SUBMISSIONS.
Need a job but got a crappy CV? Read on, and learn how to fix it!
Credits to Paul Rataul founder of Millennial Mindset who gave a killer workshop on CV writing at our Employability Workshop!
What You Need in Your CV
- Education
- Academic Scholarship & Awards
- Work Experience
- Miscellaneous Experience
- Leadership & Voluntary Experience
- Major Achievements
- Other
The Structure Breakdown
1. Education
- Write your institution, degree, majors & dates.
- Include any relevant academic results e.g. GPA (Optional)
- DO NOT go back further than High School
How it should look:
University: Degree (Majors), Relevant Academic Results, Dates.
2. Academic Scholarship & Awards
- List your best scholarships and awards
- Keep your description as short as possible (Max 6-8 words)
- Bold the ones that you want to stand out
How it should look:
Award: What did you win or why did you win? Dates.
3. Work Experience
- Include the company name, role, one sentence highlighting quantifiable awards or successes (Max 2 bullet points)
- When you write about skills, think about what employers want
- If you have lots of experience, cherry pick the ones that are most relevant to the role that you are applying for (Max 6)
- DO NOT focus on your responsibilities, employers don’t want to read about nitty gritty detail regarding what your tasks were. They want to know why you were good at them & what makes you stand out from other candidates.
GOLDEN RULE:
When you are displaying evidence of work experience, you should only spend 20% of the section on your responsibilities. 80% should be spent on what you achieved or the consequences of your tasks & responsibilities.
Situation (10%) – What is the context?
Task (10%) – What did you do?
Achievement (40%) – Quantifiable awards
Result (40%) – How did it change the situation?
How it should look:
Company Name – Role Dates
- Description of awards.
- Description of successes.
4. Miscellaneous Experience Section (Optional)
- This section is for any extra form of experience that deserves it’s own category e.g. entrepreneurship. Follow the above format in point number 3.
5. Leadership & Voluntary Experience
- Follow the above format in point number 3.
How it should look:
Leadership OR Volunteering Location – Role Dates
- Description of awards.
- Description of successes.
6. Major Achievements
- This section is for any awards that may not be related to your academics but extra curricular OR interests.
- Describe how and why you won this award in (Max 1 bullet point).
How it should look:
Award: Award Sub Category if applicable. Dates
- Description of awards.
7. Other
- Interests: List these in one line using commas.
- Anything else that you want to include.
How it should look:
Interests: rock climbing, video creation, design, Instagram.
Major Formatting Tips & Tricks
- Align EVERYTHING to the left, and DATES to the right.
- Always put your most recent experience first.
- Unless you are in the field of design or other similar fields, keep your CV design simple.
- Most CV’s should be no longer than 2 pages.
- Bold your categories and increase their size.
- Always research what format companies prefer for CV’s, not all are the same. Particularly if you are applying for overseas companies.
- Employers spend less than 6 seconds looking at your CV, this is your chance to make an impression. Choose your best work!
- Don’t be ambiguous, don’t leave any imagination to the employer.
- THE ULTIMATE GOAL: The employer should understand who you are by reading for 6 seconds.
Did you make it to the bottom? Click here, for our Niesh CV Template!