CVs

The components of a good CV

The components of a good CV. The success of your CV will depend both on what you put in the headings and on the coherence of your entire life path. The various information it conveys must respond to logic, allowing the recruiter to get a precise idea of ​​your professional skills and abilities but also to identify your personality, ultimately painting the portrait of the ideal candidate. Your CV must be adapted to what you are aiming for as a job.

CV stands for Curriculum Vitae or “course of life.” In the US, a CV is a 2–12 page academic document that describes your school career in deep detail. In Europe, a CV is a standard 1–2 page resume for a job, tailored to the position. In other words, the meaning and definition of a CV depending on your location.

A curriculum vitae, or CV, includes more information than your typical resume, including details of your education and academic achievements, research, publications, awards, affiliations, and more.

Components of a good CV

1- Marital status

This first part contains the basic personal information the employer needs to contact you. Your identity must appear at the top and to the left of the CV. You are required to indicate your first name in lowercase followed by your last name in uppercase. You will also register your current residence address as well as a telephone number and an email address. To make your email look more professional, avoid long emails or emails with numbers. 

With regard to other information such as your age, your date of birth, your family situation, and your nationality, they are optional and must be filled in only if they do not serve you. For example, if you are “too young” or “too old” it is best to skip it for now.
Note: There is no need to mention “name:” or “address:” in front of each piece of information, as this makes the presentation more cumbersome and goes without saying.

2- The header or headline

This part is completely optional. It summarizes in a few words your profile and/or your professional project. You can briefly and concisely write down the profession you are aiming for, the type of business where you would like to work, or your know-how or what you can bring to a business.
Be careful to use terms that are consistent with the content. 

For example, you will not write that you want to work in a “multinational” company if you apply for an SME. This header can be placed wherever you want in a CV. For example, you can put it as its name suggests in the header or on the left side in order to structure your document. In this case, you must write in your header your project in the form of keywords without writing a sentence.

For example, if a person is applying for a senior position in communications, you could write “Director of Communications and Marketing Development. 10 years of experience in a large pharmaceutical group”
Another example is “Customer director. 12 years of experience, fluent English, banking and networks”

3- Training or educational background

“For juniors, training must come before professional experience because that’s what recruiters look at first.” For people who already have a professional experience of at least 3 years, professional experience will be largely emphasized to the detriment of school education.

For juniors, focus mainly on getting your diplomas or qualifications, “but don’t go back to your primary school years, that’s ridiculous”. You can simply state your higher education diploma and mention if you were valedictorian or details that may gratify you the reader. For example, you studied at Sciences Po, enter Science Po Paris followed by your current year of study (L3, Cycle Master 1, Cycle Master 2). 

You must specify if you have completed a preparatory course as well as the year of obtaining the baccalaureate in the past sector. Did you obtain your baccalaureate with honours “good or very good”? Register it, it is part of “the most candidates” supporting your ability to work evermore. If you have obtained other diplomas, do not hesitate to communicate them and indicate next to “direct admission” or “double course” for example. In addition to your initial training, you can complete this part with professional training if you have one and detail your missions. 

Finally, if you have been part of an association, it may be worth mentioning it here or in the “Extra-professional activities” section.

4- Professional experiences

Respect the chronology of your professional career. A well-constructed story always has a beginning and an end, and so should your resume. Present your most recent experiences first in order to highlight the latest skills acquired. The key word: do not try to say everything! You should only give in this section the essential information about your experiences. For each experience, and especially for internships, it is important to specify the date in years, the duration in months or weeks, the name of the company or structure and its sector if they are not known.

Among the various headings, the most important is that relating to professional experience. You have 5 ways to present your professional experience. 

5- Extra-professional activity

This part of the CV may seem useless to you. However, the skills you use when you practice a sport, hobby or volunteer activity can be transferred to the professional field. For example, if you have been riding for more than 10 years, this can demonstrate your ability to persevere. Take the time to draw from your extra-professional experiences the key assets that can enable you to support your candidacy. Indeed, personal activities have necessarily enabled you to acquire useful know-how. You will then be able to explain them in order to relate them to your professional skills.

Note: Please do not try to invent an extreme sport in order to show your courage and your tenacity, you will inevitably be questioned on this point and you will then put yourself in an embarrassing situation.

6- Skills

You can show in this part the elements you want to highlight. You can also register your language skills there. For example, English is read, written, and spoken. It is also in this part that you will highlight your stays abroad. If you have Permits A and B as well as a personal vehicle, it is interesting to mention them here. It is also possible to register in this part your mastery of Word and Excel software on PC and MAC or skills such as mastery of software: In design, Photoshop, Illustrator.

Don’t forget that the CV no longer represents so much of a guarantee of safety for recruiters today, so you can add sections to specify certain elements that you think are relevant, such as your values ​​or your fundamental character traits.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Adblock Detected

Hello friend, Thanks for stopping by. But it seems you are using Adblocker. Please, consider disabling it in order to gain access to our website.