HOW TO WRITE A RESUME/CV THAT GETS YOU INTERVIEWS

HOW TO WRITE A RESUME/CV THAT GETS YOU INTERVIEWS

Resumes or CVs as I like to say is a personal business proposal. A document to introduce the product (You) and sell yourself to the Investor (the employer).

Because your resume has the ability hurt you more than it can help you sometimes, it is important that you take certain basic step in ensuring that it does you no harm. In today's job-search market, you are often competing against large numbers of candidates, and your resume has to be good enough to make it past the screening stages.

You can minimize the chances of your resume being thrown into the thrash can during this round by following the following simple rules.

1. Don’t Tell Stories – Be Simple and Precise.
Don't say too much. A good resume should leave the prospective employer with a desire to know more. Don’t make your CV look like Biography. The employers are likely to call and phone-screen you. So save all the extra information for the interview, but paint a big picture of yourself and what you can offer in your resume.
Resumes that are simple to understand, especially when it comes to the skills needed to perform the job and employment history is what recruiters want.

Let your resume state clearly the knowledge and experience you have and that is needed to perform the job in question. Use the job description to tailor your resume to the position, avoiding such ambiguous jargons such as "facilitated" or "value-added" when describing your skills and experiences.
Don’t forget to include your dates of employment, to avoid unnecessary suspicion by the recruiter.
A one page CV is ideal for anyone, especially fresh graduates -- two pages only if you are a 15- to 20-year veteran with a significant growth and promotion history. In Nigeria though, the preferred page number seems to be two.

2. Sell yourself - Blow Your Trumpet
Make a list of your strengths/skills and let your potential employers know how you can benefit them. It’s important also that you show past performances. It’s often an indicator of future performance. Briefly, in short sentences, explain the impact you made in your former company, how you made them some extra money, saved them money or improved a process or product.
Think very well and tell instances where you went the extra mile in performance of your duty. Employers want and love the best employees. Let you CV reflect all these.

3. Play Pope
Most employers today take out time to verify the information provided in your CV/Resume. It would be best if you did not apply for the job at all than to apply and probably get employed only to be discovered to be fake two months into the job. You may never get a job for the next year.
Some background checks can employers can carry out include:
• reference checks,
• credit checks,
• criminal background checks,
• past employment verification,
• education verification etc

If you do not play pope in this phase, chances are that you would be caught. So rather than waste the recruiter's time -- and yours -- be truthful in your resume. It's the smartest thing to do, not only the right thing to do.

4. Seek Assistance
To create a strong resume, you need help either from a friend or better still an expert, if you can find one.
Always have someone take a second and a third look at your resume before you send it. You cannot do all the proofreading all by yourself and you cannot rely on grammar spelling checks in the computer.

Creating an effective resume requires practice and feedback. But once you get the basics down, interviews are sure to follow.