What is the most important part of a CV?

Curriculum Vitae (CV) is your face to the recruiters. To create a good impression on the recruiters, you should have a well-organized and informative CV. However, often good and skilled people struggle with writing a good CV of their own. The main reason behind this is that they do not know the basic components of a CV. This article will help you understand the major components of a CV including the do-s and don't-s.

Five Things Your Resume Must Have

The following are the five most important things your resume must have.

1. Career Objective: A vision you set for yourself must reflect on your CV.
2. Employment History (if any): An overview of your employment history must be on your CV.
3. Education: All the academic details must be on your CV.
4. Photograph: A recent professionally shot photo must be enclosed with your CV.
5. Contact Details: Contact Details are a must in your CV. Mailing Address, Phone Number, Email Address, LinkedIn Profile Link etc. must be on your CV.

Five Things That Make your CV Even Better

Apart from the must-have things on your CV, there are certain things that can make your CV look a lot better. These are the five things that make your CV better-

1. Career Summary: An overview of your career should be included on your CV.
2. Job Description: The inclusion of Job Descriptions with your Employment History will help the recruiters understand you better.
3. Training History: The Training History will help recruiters understand your knowledge development level.
4. Skills: Mention of skills will work as a plus.
5. References: At least two references from different sort of network must be on your CV.

Five Things That Make Your CV Perfect

Apart from these ten points, your CV needs the following to be called as perfect.

1. Sequential Organization: These information should be in a chronological order. Scattered information on your CV will not give a good impression of you to the recruiter. Contact Information, Photograph, Career Objective, Career Summary, Employment History with Job Description, Education, Training History, Skills, References- these should be in a logical sequence.
2. Academic Distinction (if any): If you have any academic distinction, it should be highlighted in your CV. This is a proof of your hard-work, sincerity, dedication and intelligence.
3. Personal Information: Some of your personal information can help the recruiter understand you better- Father's Name, Mother's Name, Date of Birth, Nationality, Marital Status, Permanent Address etc. can introduce you to the recruiter better.
4. Extra Curricular Activities (if any): Extra Curricular Activities in a CV helps the recruiter understand whether the candidate has multi-tasking capabilities and leadership. Adding extra curricular activities, therefore, is of great use; especially for freshers.
5. Known References: Ideally, at least two references should be given who know you better and say positive things about you. One referee can be from your academic area, another can be from your professional area. Sometimes, three references are given in case the recruiter cannot reach one referee. In this case, the referee can be a relative, teacher, colleague, peer, supervisor, or any superior from your past organizations.

You can add hobbies and interests if you desire as it helps recruiters understand you better.

Five Things You should Never Have in Your CV

There are things you should never include in your CV. The are-

1. Falsified Information: You should never add anything untrue to your CV. This is a serious crime. And even if you think that you can get away with this, this will surely cost you in the long run. Your recruiter may find about it while doing the reference-check and you may not get the job. You may even get banned in that organization for life. And if the recruiter does not find out about it and finds out later when the recruiter becomes your employer, you can lose your job straight. So, it is suicidal. Never lie on your CV.
2. NID/Passport No./Social Security No. etc: Your potential employer does not need to know your National Identity Number, Passport Number, Driving License Number or Social Security Number. You never know who gets your CV and misuses these information. Until you are officially and formally asked to provide these information, do not mention this in your CV in an open platform.
3. Sensitive Information: Often candidates mention their political and/or religious views on their CVs. Many times it creates discrimination. These information should not be on a candidate's CV. Though many prefer to add religion to their CV, but both of these have nothing to do with your job. So, these information should not be in your CV.
4. Unnecessary Information: Sometimes candidates include some of the information that has nothing to do with them and their abilities to work. For instance, mentioning father's position, uncle's position, grandfather's accomplishments etc. These create a negative impact about the candidate.
5. Size of the CV: There is no standard size of a CV. For entry level positions, a CV should not cross more than 2 pages. For a managerial level position it should be between two to four pages. But it can be even more than that if important information cannot be organized within this limit. For top level positions, on the contrary, should be of one page or two pages. Ideally, the top level position candidate do not have descriptive CVs. Rather they have short resumes.

These are some of the very basic and important components of a CV. Write your CV yourself and give proper and true information. Developing a good CV by your own makes you more confident. There are a number of CV templates on Google where you can take the idea and create something on your own.

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