Crafting a compelling CV for the first time is no small feat. It’s a crucial tool that plays a pivotal role in your professional journey, opening doors to potential career opportunities, but we can understand how overwhelming it feels as a beginner.
A well-written CV can make you stand out from the crowd and significantly boost your chances of landing a job interview. In this blog, we’ll uncover the secrets of writing an effective CV from a beginner’s perspective, focusing on what you need to include and tips on how to write a resume.
How To Start a Resume For Beginners
The first step before we go into what to include on your CV is the introduction.
To start your CV, you’ll need a short 100-word introduction featuring a clear job title or career objective, a summary of your most relevant skills and experiences, and a unique value proposition that distinguishes you from other candidates.
Example Of How To Start A CV:
“As a skilled Full Stack Developer with over 2 years of experience in building and optimising user-focused websites and applications, I excel in creating innovative solutions to complex problems. Proficient in a variety of programming languages and frameworks, I specialise in developing scalable and efficient software that enhances user experience and drives business growth. My unique blend of technical expertise and creative problem-solving ability sets me apart as a valuable asset to any development team.”
If you’re a beginner and searching for your first professional position, then instead of highlighting experience, focus on your education and study projects that you completed that demonstrate your skills.
What To Include On A CV: Beginner’s Checklist
A comprehensive CV includes several key sections:
- Contact Information: This includes your full name, telephone number, email address, and LinkedIn profile if applicable.
- Personal Statement or Objective: A brief introduction about yourself, your career goals, and why you would be a good fit for the role.
- Education History: A detailed account of your academic background.
- Work Experience: A chronological order of your previous jobs, including the company name, position held, and dates of employment.
- Skills: Both hard skills (technical abilities) and soft skills (interpersonal skills) relevant to the job you are applying for.
- Certifications and Awards: Any relevant qualifications or accolades that could set you apart from other candidates.
- References: Names and contact details of people who can vouch for your abilities and work ethic.
A resume is just a stepping stone to an interview, not an all-inclusive record of your career. Have a look at our example CV for beginner’s or fresh graduates so you get an idea of what it should look like:
Now, we know exactly what you need to include on your CV or resume.
Points to Take Into Consideration
1. Less is more.
Many professional resume writers will attest to this: it’s much easier to write a long resume than a short one. Being concise on paper requires strategy, effort and time. It’s much easier, but less effective, to provide a laundry list of weak job descriptions. For young professionals with limited work experience, a 1-page resume should suffice.
Seasoned candidates can make use of a second page, but it is generally ill-advised, even for senior-level executives, to exceed 3 pages. Putting energy into a long resume “booklet” is a waste of time, because most recruiters and hiring managers are interested only in the professional summary and the most recent experience — both of which should fit easily within the first page.
To help with limiting your options, start out with an old-fashioned pad and pen to identify the top few points you want to get across. Look to it throughout your writing process.
A long-winded resume also signals that you’re unable to prioritize your skills and accomplishments, and prioritization is an essential skill in any profession. If you’re struggling to edit your resume down to size, ask yourself, “Does this sentence make a strong impression on the reader? and Does it relate closely to the job I’m applying for?” If the answer is no, chances are it should be axed.
2. Easy on the job description, heavy on the accomplishments.
Job descriptions within resumes are often weak and passive, merely listing what an employee was “responsible for”. Many resumes fall victim to this trap when instead they should highlight your skills and specific achievements. It’s the difference between “responsible for the management of the sales team” and “single-handedly managed a team of 15 inside sales “. The latter is active, specific and impactful – all qualities a hiring manager seeks.
By eliminating, or at least significantly abbreviating, the list of mere duties and responsibilities, your resume will become much more concise and focused, demonstrating what hiring managers really want: someone with a penchant for action.
3. There is strength in numbers.
When listing your professional accomplishments, try to quantify as many of them as possible. Vague accomplishments prompt red flags. Specific, granular numbers sell.
Some professions — like finance, sales and marketing — will be easier to quantify on paper than others, but anything can be a valid unit of measurement: products sold (dollars), project completed before deadline (time saved), year-over-year sales (percentage increase), size of team you managed directly (headcount), etc.
Recruiters and hiring managers don’t spend much time per resume. When they’re skimming the most recent job experience section, their eyes will be drawn to numbers.
If those numbers are notable or impressive, they’ll be that much more likely to give you a call, and you’ll be that much closer to getting your foot in the door.
4. Formatting IS important.
Certainly, the content of your resume is the most important element of all, but even the most accomplished candidates can shoot themselves in the foot with poor formatting. Common blunders include text that is too frilly or too large (can seem juvenile) or text that is too small (can be illegible).
Additionally, unless you’re applying to a truly out-of-the-box creative agency, most employers are looking for clean, simple fonts, not revolutionary typography. Indeed, the applicant tracking systems (ATS) that scan, parse and rank your resume may choke if they encounter an uncommon font style.
The moral of the story: keep font and formatting clean and simple. If your CV is just under a page or just over, you can play with the formatting slightly (e.g. margins, font size) to ensure that your resume is compact and does not leave too much negative space.
A resume with a sentence spilling onto an additional page will appear less assertive and compelling, sloppy even.
Final Words
Your CV is often the first visual impression you make, so make sure it’s a strong one.
Writing a CV for the first time can seem daunting, but with the right approach, you can create a powerful tool that highlights your skills and experience. Remember, a CV isn’t just a list of facts about you; it’s a marketing document designed to sell you as the ideal candidate.
So, put in the effort, avoid common pitfalls, and you’ll be well on your way to crafting a CV that lands you interviews. We welcome any questions or feedback you may have and wish you all the best in your job-seeking journey.
About Allen Recruitment
Allen Recruitment is an international recruitment consultancy business with offices in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Sweden, Belgium and Poland. A full-service recruitment consultancy offering temporary, permanent, contract and contingency roles in a variety of industries such as IT, Tech, Finance, Telecom, E-commerce, Engineering and more.
Posted in: Job Seeking Resources
