A perfect CV is one which describes your personality, career achievements, aspirations and academic qualifications.Usually,the document is 2-3 pages but many job seekers end up putting as much garbage to the CV as possible, prompting recruiting officers to reject their applications.
It has been established that not more than 1 % of job seekers write perfect CVs for job search, even after they engage the services of professional CV writers. This one percent, who have advanced knowledge of what employers want barely apply for more than 3 jobs before they get job offers.
What is required from job seekers is which sections are more important in a CV and what you should avoid including in your CV.To start with, below are important sections you MUST have in your CV.
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Professional achievements describes what you have achieved since you launched your career. This is the most important section in a CV because it measures your exact performance. In fact most employers skip other sections with the intention of examining what you have achieved in your company.
Employers want to know what you bring to the company, if for instance you are a sales manager, they would want to know additional sales you made to the company, if you are a loans officer, they would be interested to know how many clients you brought to the company, and if you are an accountant, they would be interested to know how you cut costs and increased revenue by a certain percentage.
Without looking at other parts of the CV, a well written achievements section will automatically land you a well-paying job.
ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Academic qualifications entails what you have achieved in terms of academic papers. This section must be in line with the duties you aim at performing at you target institution. They should also rhyme with what you have been doing as a professional in your field.
Besides academic qualifications, an individual, especially accountants, actuaries, IT professionals, procurement officers and auditors must provide professional back up. This back up is very important because it demonstrates you have not only excelled in class but also as a professional.
People who possess professional certification are 80 % more likely to secure employment than individuals who never bothered to supplement their academic certificates with professional certification.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Professional experience is also another important section which you should not skip in a CV.This section describes your roles and responsibilities in your former employers.
The employer will evaluate you based on your previous roles, job title and responsibilities. If this section is missing and you are seeking a leadership position, then forget about the job.
When you are writing your CV, remember to write professional experience in a certain order where latest employer comes first, then followed by immediate past and finally earliest employer. In most cases, you are advised to include not more than 4 employers in your CV.
PERSONAL PROFILE
Personal profile include your email address, phone number, age, gender, nationality, your name and ID number. These are important identification details the employer will look at before they go to other sections of your CV.Without this section, you are completely doomed.
REFERENCES
When writing a CV, please don’t forget reference section; this is also a very important section because before you get a job offer, the prospective employer will contact one of your referees to determine whether you are employable.
Note that there must be three names of referees in your CV.The names must be accompanied with contact details and job titles.
Finally, if you have the aforementioned sections in your CV,other sections like hobbies and personal attributes can be overlooked, but I can tell you more than 80 % of the CVs we have gone through before forget the important sections and concentrate on less important sections like personal attributes. Some even include their photos and copies of transcripts when in the real sense they are not allowed to attach these documents unless they are told to.
