Your résumé or CV is a document for making a good impression on someone you do not know. If you do not represent yourself well, you may be rejected from the position you are applying for. A well-written résumé or CV substantially increases your chances of obtaining the desired position.

Along with information about your higher education, name any courses taken and certificates earned that you believe necessary, including the institution having issued credentials, and the month and year of issuance.

Entry may also begin with the name of the degree earned, not with the university. In this case, giving the date of the program completion at the start seems more appropriate.

Experience (Professional Records)

Here you give positions you have held in reverse chronological order. You may specify all of your previous jobs or make a selection of the significant ones (in CV format you usually provide a comprehensive list). Begin with the dates, then provide employment information, starting with the position title (which is usually highlighted). Then give the name of the institution and its form of establishment (e.g. joint-stock company, limited, etc). Abbreviations must be spelled out. (You may briefly describe the activities of the institution in parentheses.) Indicate the institution's address (including country for international applications). Students and recent graduates who have previously only held unqualified jobs may wish to start their job entries with the institution name instead of the position title. If you are a recent graduate, you need to denote every professional job you've held, whether an internship or summer job. Be explicit with your information: it is highly recommended (especially when the position title is not explicit) that, in addition to job title and company information, you include a brief description (in incomplete sentences) of your job responsibilities, using present-tense verbs for current jobs, and past-tense verbs for previously held positions. To escape monotony, diversify the action verbs you use. Incorporating bullets for itemization will break up solid text and make the text easier to read.

For added effect, do not just describe your job responsibilities but provide quantifiable rate indicators, or better yet, your achievements - concrete results, if possible - in measurable terms as well. For example, rather than writing, "advised on taxation," instead write, "advised on taxation approx five clients daily (15 in peak of submitting quarterly reports)." Or, instead of "designed company's web site," you write, "designed company's web site, which increased company's overall product sale by 50 percent." If your accomplishment resulted in promotion, bonus, salary raise (in percentage; do not refer to the monetary amounts of salary), be sure to mention that as well. Describe the extent of your responsibilities (for example: "Managed purchase budget of $[number]," or, "Supervised [number]-people staff"). List the most impressive notes first to evoke reader interest. Again, omit irrelevant information: phone numbers or names of employers (though you may name supervisors of postdoctoral work). Finally, do not mention reasons for leaving former jobs.

Conferences

You may present a set of only relevant or selected conferences attended. Alternatively, you may name only conferences visited abroad, and then title this section "International Conferences." Give the name of the conference, date (or you may start the record with the date) and place (city and, selectively, country), title of delivered paper, if any (do not forget to include this in "Publications" section as well and refer to this section), organizers, and organizers' location. In this section and format you may also indicate seminars and workshops attended.

Languages

First, indicate your native language (or languages), then mention any foreign languages you know, accompanied by your level of proficiency: basic or introductory, intermediate, working knowledge, reading or audible understanding (or understanding text, speech), fluent.

Skills

In this section, you may want to emphasize your specific skills pertaining to the position of your application. Or you may describe other skills and their level (probably mentioning certificates) not denoted elsewhere in your résumé or CV, i.e. typing skills, computer skills, driver's license, First Aid or Lifeguard certificate. Everything listed here should be vocational.

Computer Skills

In this section, name all significant software (and probably hardware) you are familiar with. Make sure the names are spelled correctly. Begin with operational systems and continue with MS Office programs; Word and Excel are the most valuable ones. If you are able to program, under subdivision Programming Languages, indicate programming languages you know.

Extracurricular Activities

If you are a student applying to university, any information representing you as an all-round person will be beneficial. If you are not a student, a brief description of the activities beyond your main ones will convey your energy and involving character.

References

This is not a vital part of your résumé or CV; however, if you are applying for a job, under the title of this section you may insert the phrase "Available upon request." If you have space, it is even more helpful to provide a list of referees with names, positions, and work contact information. This information may also be listed on an attached sheet, titled "References." Referees must be from the professional sphere or academia, and not your friends or relatives.

You may also include other relevant information in your document, listing it under specially designed sections. For example, researchers may provide the sections "Research" or "Research Interests," and those having worked abroad may choose to include a section titled "Research Experience Abroad" (indicating time span, position and place). Professors may include "Teaching Experience," "Foreign Lecturing," or "Lectures and Presentations"; likewise, physicians may include sections such as "Community Service," "Licensure," or "Qualification Examinations."

Make sure your paper has no grammatical or orthographic mistakes. If you are not a native English speaker, let someone with high proficiency in English (say, native speaker or English teacher) proofread it. In any case, let many people look at it to trace probable shortcomings.

 

 

Author:
Ruslan Zalogin
Educational Adviser
Osvita Educational Information & Advising Center
Dnepropepetrovsk, Ukraine