How to Write a Good CV

A CV (Curriculum Vitae) or a resume is basically a summary of your academic and work history. This piece of document is your introduction to your potential employer. So, if you are really interested in getting that job you must pay serious attention on writing a good CV.

A CV can be viewed as a combination of information under several heads. A few of them could be as follows:

• Job Experience
• Education
• Publications
• Awards/honours
• Research experience
• Affiliations with different organizations

Before you start writing CV, make sure that you have written down all related info under the heads mentioned above. Do not forget to add other categories relevant to you. For example while writing under the head of education you should include all your degrees/certificates, the colleges/universities you attended and the grade you scored. Do not forget to write the dates of completion. These dates really matter for your potential employer to hire you.  Once you have jotted down all information go to the next step.

Which job you are applying to? Is it a research-oriented job or more related to sales, marketing etc. One job requires that you are a good speaker and can communicate extremely well while for the other it is not that important. With this example I want to highlight the fact that a CV must be tailored according to requirements of the job you are applying for. This does not mean that you change the information present in CV. It is just about the way of presenting the information already present on your CV. You just need to highlight some info as compared to other. In light of the above example, if you are targeting the sales job, you will be required to write more about your communication skills-the presentations, speeches, and other similar info. On the other hand if you are going for a job which is research-oriented, you will be expected to give more detailed information about your research publications, their scope and methodology etc.

This appears to be cumbersome that every time you apply for a job you have to tailor your CV. But keep in mind this is worth the effort. I myself have a folder full of several versions of CVs in my computer. I have seen a big difference in the responses I get from an employer for CVs written in different styles.

Below I provide some sample CVs, or you can call them sample resumes as you wish. Observe the different formats/layouts of these CVs. If you are using Microsoft Word, you can find several built-in templates of CVs / resumes.

Use these samples to identify different possible heads under which you can include your information. The first example / sample is of a fresh candidate applying for an industrial job. Note that the candidate has given priority to job experience, even though it is of few months.

The second example / sample is of an experienced person applying for a research-based job. See how the list of publications and Thesis and other projects precede the job experiences.