How to write an attractive CV?

Hi there! today I'm going to show you how to write an attractive CV. As you know, if you want to apply for a job or an internship, you have to write a CV and you need to face lots of interviews. Since I went through many articles on CV writing, attended lectures on creating CVs and Interviews, watched many videos and tried many CV builder tools as you all, I thought to share what I got from them and summarize the important points. Hope this will help you!

I will write a separate post on Interviews soon..

What is a CV?

Curriculum vitae (CV) is a brief introduction of a person's education, qualifications, previous occupations, and skills, typically sent with a job or an internship application. 

What are the Sections that you should add to your CV?


Sections that should be contained in your CV are given below 

Summary :

This part is not a must. Here, you can write a brief intro about yourself. In that intro, you can emphasize your capabilities and your aims. Be aware! Pick the most relevant. Don't be too smart. Because when you selected for the interview you have to explain those and you have to prove that you have those capabilities. If you are not ready, then it will be a disaster.

Personal information including Contact Details :

• Good name with the surname : Don't use your full name. Two names which are your first and last name will be enough.
• Email
• Mobile
• LinkedIn
• Github link
• Website/blog
• Address
• Research Gate/Academia profile - if you have any
• Do not add your religion, race, birthday and gender. This will not add any value to your CV.

Education Qualifications : 

Put your highest qualification first. You can add your undergraduate degree with your current GPA. But no point of mentioning a lower qualification while you're having a high one. For example, you don't need to emphasize your AL results if you don't have any exceptional result like Island rank or district rank you can mention it. If you want, you can mention your Z-Score and the Stream.

Professional Qualification :  

Here you can add your professional qualification such as CIMA, Oracle Java Certification, etc. Not only that you can add relevant course works also.

Project Experiences : 

When mentioning project experiences, prioritize the projects based on your contribution and relevance for the internship. Specify what you did, in other words, your responsibilities in those projects.

Awards and Recognition/Patents /Entrepreneurship : 

Don't forget this should also be relevant and this is something to stand you out among peers. If you have any patents for your research projects or if you have any startup you can put them here in a short and on the point manner.

Involvements : 

Your extra-curricular work such as positions held, memberships, sports, competitions, etc. can be mentioned here.

Skills : 

Experienced areas in IT which will be relevant to your internship and your soft skills are added to this section.

Hobbies and Interests : 

Do not try to be too smart, Be true to yourself, Better mention your favorite areas

Referees : 

As an intern, it will be better if you can put someone from your university's Academic Staff. But this "Someone" must be a person who actually knows you very well. You can add your university project's supervisors and mentors as Referees. Those people should available on request. And the important thing is, you should inform your referees that you are going to add them in your CV before actually adding. At least 2 referees should be mentioned.

Tools for creating a CV

You can find good templates from Freepik or Canva and you can edit them. If not, using online CV creating tools like Visual CV or Craft CV you can create an attractive CV in no time.

Some special things to remember!

• Your CV should be limited to 1 or 2 pages. Do not use both sides
• Font type, colors, and size should be formal. Don't use fonts like Comic Sans MS.
• You can set and customize your profile links as short as possible for quick and clear search. 
• After you create your CV, it would be better if you can convert it into a PDF. Your file size should be less than 1MB.
• Don't put contact details at the bottom. Put them on the top or side. In the middle is ok.
• Paragraph spacing and line spacing should have a clear difference.
• Manage your space in the paper.
• Don't add repetitive information
• Proofread your CV by you and your friend before sending.

Hope I added something to your knowledge. Thanks for reading! 

Kalpani