Is there a perfect CV
The answer could be yes. Not one, but many...as many as you can find...as long as the persons in those CVs are existing. A perfect CV simply defines you as you are. It is a mere tool to let others know what you are in the exact terms you intend to put yourself in - A CV is no mantra to success. It is a mere communication tool.
Different requirements need different CVs.
When u put in a CV for a position, just put in ’’ what you got in you to take up the position’’. In simple terms...just highlight what the job requires. Ignore the rest. Nobody have time to read elaborate autobiographies.
This simply means: you must have a customised CV for each application. Now this does not mean that you put in as your experience whatever the position requires. The chances are high that you may not meet all criteria. Just highlight the ones that you have experienced and which are essential. Everybody is looking for the ’perfect candidate’. But then everybody know that:
There Is No Perfect Candidate. Hence There Is Not One Perfect CV
Talk about success and responsibilities.
When someone recruits you, it is only to relieve themselves of a burden. So remember that by accepting an offer, you are going to assume a responsibility. Just mention what responsibility you can handle and substantiate it. In simple terms, put in your responsibilities and achievements. This is a way to assure that you can do it...because you had done it once before.
There is no one-in-a-million CV
I was a witness to this incident that shook my faith with the corporate world. My friend was a HR executive with a big-size IT firm. When I visited him at his workplace, he took me to a cabin that was serving as a CV Godown! They needed 3 people for a particular position and had duly advertised through various media. They landed with 1, 786 CVs in three days. Guess what my pal did?
’’In, pin, safety pin;
In, pin, out...’’
And Lo! He had 12 CVs from the bunch in hand, at random.
It did not matter how the others in the remaining 1, 774 stood against the ’dirty dozen’. These guys just won. He scanned them briefly and made another visit to the godown to retrieve 3 more to replace the 3 duds he had landed with in the first raffle. The recruitment was made from this pack.
If your skill-set is as common as crows in a city(IT graduates...pardon me...but this is a reality), forget the great time you had as a learner....just be done with key words....and a brief description about what activity(or achievement) each key word translated into, in your employment record. If all keywords match, there are chances of beating the lottery system. Else, continue the game elsewhere.
KISS
Talk sense. Talk reason... and talk shop. A cobbler cannot always talk of cutting leather while seeking to be a carpenter (sounds like a Sidhusim...better stop with that). Simple reason...wood and leather aren’t quite the same. So forget about impressing would be recruiters with how your leather cutting skills can be useful to a wood cutting job. The word leather instead of wood is enough to pack your CV off. Companies look for the word ’wood’. It is the recruitment agent who stops with the word ’’cut’’. Do not write CVs for agents. Write it for the men in the trade. Write it in the simple shop talk they understand. Put in what is relevant. Make it simple ...nobody has got the time to look into a dictionary. Keep It Sufficient & Simple.
I could go on and on ranting...but I guess, you got the message by now.