The Curriculum Vitae (CV), a document that is supposed to be an individual’s personal career advert. It is used to promote and market oneself, illustrating why an individual is the next super CEO. However for some reason this document has become something of a conundrum, with either the person submitting the CV or the person receiving it never being happy. So what is the best way to structure a CV which will hopefully lead to positive result? We got in touch with Bridget Berry a senior National Graduate Recruitment based in South Africa and asked her for some tips, advice and horror stories surrounding this career gap!
The first point that Bridget asserts is spelling, yes grammar, get your CV into good shape, make it look presentable and make sure your diction is in order “…including the name of the company that you are applying to.”
The second point has been simply put by Bridget, “Do some research and apply to a relevant person, do not send your CV off to the whole executive of a company because firstly you are embarrassing yourself and secondly it’s not their job to handle recruitment.”
Thirdly packaging, whether you are emailing, faxing or posting your CV, just make sure it’s well presented and concise (long CV’s just don’t cut it). If you going to send it by email, make sure it has a short yet insightful introduction about yourself and what role you are applying for, you can use the same introduction sequence on a cover letter for a faxed or posted application.
Next, if you are a grad and you haven’t got a lot to write on your CV, don’t stress, people understand that you are a young buck with the rest of your life ahead of you. Hence you don’t have to put every single course or subject you have studied. Highlight and feature your achievements and focus on your majors.
Finally, and we will leave it as a direct quote from Bridget to allow the point to be well put across “Make sure your CV doesn’t take up too much bandwidth, nothing is more frustrating than receiving an email that is 20 megs in size…hence no pictures”.
So that sums it up, grammar, research, package, highlight and keep it professional.
