How to write a good CV...
Text: Stein Tore Nybrodahl ©.

Imagine yourself as a recruiter with an overloaded time schedule. You have 10 "must do"-cases on your table, many of them burning operational issues you need to handle before you break for the day. At the same time you need to go through the list of applicants for the last position as a SW engineer in your company. Your company has a web-based recruitment system, and it's easy for you to find the CV's and applications - they are just a click away. You open the inbox and see 40 applicants. How long time will you spend reading the individual CV and application?

The answer will of course vary from recruiter to recruiter, but think of this estimate: If you spend 15 minutes on each applicant it will take you 10 hours to go through everyone. Will you have time for this? For almost everyone the answer will be a clear NO! Let say you will use maximum 2 hours. This means that you will spend 3 minutes on each applicant, reading both the CV and the application. Let say one minute for the CV, one minute for the application and one minute to rate the application in the recruitment system. When you do the rating you think three categories; "Not applicaple" - "Questionmark/ wildcard" - "Candidate". In this first round it's all about getting in the "Candidate"-category, and be invited to an interview. No interview = no success...

So let's have a look at some important things related to the CV. How to catch the recruiters eye - either in a positive or negative way - in your one-minute attention from this person who will decide your future opportunity...

1. Max two pages: How much are you able to read in one minute? Not much. This is your personal ad! "Myself Inc."... Do not overload the CV with needless information. Be informative, concise and objective.

2. Do the company use CV-forms in their recruitment system? There is a reason for this: they want all information from you in the same format. It makes it much easier to overview and compare candidates. Many applicants bypass this extra work by uploading their existing CV and just write "See CV". How will the recruiter interpret this answer? You are not willing to take your time = you are not enough interested in the position. But don't overload this information in a recruitment system. And always upload your CV (in a pdf-format).

3. The CV must be accurate in content, spelling and grammar. Writing errors and "bad language" gives you negative points, and could be the small details making the decision tipping in your disfavour. Ask someone else to help you check!

4. Headlines - not details. Give the recruiter the big picture. Details is for the interview. Too many details showing inability to structure things and lack of ability to prioritize.

5. Structure. It should be easy for the recruiter to follow the red path in your education and work experience = your career. Use sections, bullet points, bold/ cursiv text = easy to overview. And make space in your CV.

6. Do not lie or hide anything obvious. The recruiter is especially looking for "black periods" ("holes") in your CV. Periods not described related to education and work history. This could be periods of unemployment, periods after loosing your job etc. Don't try to hide anything. The recruiter will find out in the interview anyhow.

7. List just relevant jobs in your CV. Consider if you should list all summer jobs/ internships/ part-time jobs. They need at least to be a bit relevant to be at the CV...

8. Try to link keyword from the position to the CV: In the recruitment ad you will find a lot of information what the company is looking for. This could as an example be work experience, education or personal skills. Try to match this keyword as best as you can in your CV. Another source for information to this keywords is the contact person mentioned in the ad. Make a phonecall, ask relevant question, and take notes of what is important. Use this information to "tailor" your CV.

9. Show your key competencies: Many people start their CV with a summary of their key competences. This is a nice way of presenting yourself from a "bird-view", but be sure that you check and change this key competencies according to the job you are applying for. Many people always use the same CV for all different kinds of jobs, but if you choose this way to make a summary of yourself you maybe do a bad shoot. (The recruiter don't see the direct link between your key competencies and the actual job position).  

10. Exclude "Tribe-language" and proffesional terminology. What you have written may seem simple and obvious to you, but not to a recruiter. Have someone else to look through your CV. The recruiter is not the expert and acronyms could be a real killer!

11. Include a picture of yourself? No good answer to this one, but; never try to oversell yourself by chosing a picture showing Mr. or Ms. Wonderful. This only creates high expectations before the interview and a possible bad start when you meet in person. Another better way is to show yourself from an untraditional angle by the picture, giving you a bit of the x-factor. Examples could be yourself in an sporty "outdoor-environment", showing your hobbies etc. This could be the little detail bringing you in to the interview.

12. References: Could be both in the CV or in the application. If the CV is long; put them in the application. References should be independent and credible. Examples of good references are managers/ supervisors. Examples of bad references are customers and collegues. You should also have references from several former employers - in acsending order for the last ten years or the three employers - if possible.   

How to structure your CV:

• Contact info on top: Always name, adress, phone and email.
• Decide if you want to start with a summary of your key skills
  
  
• Education: Cronologic order (last education first). Make a column for year-to-year, and another column with name of the school, your degree and main topics. E.g.:
  
  2008 - 2010           Stanford University           MSc in Electronical Engineering.
  2005 - 2008           Harry Potter University     BSc in Magical Sciences
  
  
• Employment history. Cronologic order (starting with your last job first): Make a column for month/year to month/ year, and another column with name of the employer, location, name of the position and a short description of your work tasks. (Description of work tasks should max. be 2-3 sentences for each work position). E.g.:
  
  01.2014 - 12.2016      ABC Company - Quality Manager
                                     Main responsibilites was HES-documentation and implementation in the organisation......
  
  03.2011 - 01.2014      DEF Company - Security Officer
                                     Project manager for a national project....
  
  
• Cources and certifications: If you choose to mention cources and certifications - only mention the important ones. Again related to the position. Many employees writes down an extensive list of every little course the have participated in their career. This makes your CV look very unproffesional. Noone finds time to read a list of 20 1-day courses. Pick the relevant ones for the position and only a few if needed.
  
  
• Personal characteristics: Sometimes in the advertisement ad you will find a description on preferred personal charateristics for the job. Or you can get them by making a call to the contact person. Try to describe yourself in the best and honest way in relation to the position. Ask yourself - or someone else - the question: What will be the important personal charateristics for such a position? If you find it difficult to describe yourself; Try to think of how other people - your manager, collegues and friends would describe you. Examples on personal charateristics: Structured, hard working, reliable, honest, creative, precise, flexibel...
  
  
• Interest/ hobbies: You should give a short description what you are doing when you  are not working. Hobbies and personal interest tells a lot about you as a person, and shows that you have a life outside work. But make it short!
  
  
• Languages: List your spoken languages and language skills within each language. (E:g: Beginner, Intermediate/ basic, Native/ fluent). This will be more and more important for an employer in a accellerating global world.
  
  
• References: Here you have two choices: 1. List your references or 2. References will be provided upon request. Which alternative? It depends a bit on the position. In general alternative 2 is most common for high level positions and positions where you want to be anonymous in the recruitment process. But if you have a strong/ good reference list - e.g. several former managers - alternative 1 shows that the applicant is self-confident and has nothing to hide in his former employee history. Many recruiters will give cred to a CV with "strong" referneces. But if you are missing good references: choose alternative 1. Then the chance to get into the interview maybe better.

At least: Some creative tips:

• Use colums: many employees uses colums to structure a CV. This could have both an aesthetically and "easier-to-read" effect.
  
• Use colors: Almost all CV's today are read electronically from a recruitment system. This makes it easy to use colors as hedlines and a kind of "Bold-effect". But be careful;don't make you CV look like a christmas tree.
  
• Use different fonts, bold/cursive, text size: This makes it easier for the recruiter to overview the CV. Think key-words.
• Use extra line breaks: To seperate different parts of the CV. (E.g.: Use and extra line break between education and work experience)
• Don't be afraid of open space!: Try to imagine from a recruiters point of view then he starts to read CV number 31 and sees a overloaded page with text... He/ she may give give up and goes to the next CV... Don't kill the CV with text. Less is better!
  
• Use a creative picture of yourself?: Too many people uses a processed picture of themselves looking like Mr/ Ms. Perfect. Try an alternative: Show a picture of yourself in another situation. From your hobbies? Favorite interest? Create the X-factor!
• Include logos: Logos from your former employees could look good in a CV.
• Use header/ footer: E.g. put your contact information in the header section?
• Make a broshure!: Use your own creativity and make your own broshure. Sell yourself in a creative way: Me Incorp!