Resume (CV) Writing

Fatkhy Baridwan for WI Group 050921

Introduction
• Resume is your selling media
• For user, Resume is the media to know or getting first impression
• Multiple personnel from different background may read your Resume
• Each personnel may have limited time to read your Resume in full
• Resume is not the ONLY factor that will get you the job
Typical issues with Resume
• Not matching
• Too long
• Too short
• Unclear / unreadable
• Improper formatting
• Fraud / lie
• Lack of seriousness
Resume Tips
1. DO YOUR RESEARCH – TAYLOR MADE 13. AVOID GENERIC CLICHES
2. MAINTAIN CONVENTIONAL COLOURS AND 14. AVOID USING SKILL CHARTS
FRIENDLY TEMPLATE
15. DETAIL YOUR CURRENT OR MOST RECENT
3. DO NOT USE LOGO IMAGES ROLE(S) AND SHORTEN OLDER ROLES
4. USE SIMPLE FONT 16. KEEP RESUME BRIEF (MAX 3-4 PAGES)
5. STRUCTURE FOR EASY NAVIGATION 17. USE PROFESSIONAL LANGUAGE
6. BREAK TEXT UP 18. USE BULLET POINTS FOR ROLES
7. USE PROFESSIONAL DETAILS 19. EXPLAIN GAPS IN EMPLOYMENT
8. ADD PROFESSIONAL TITLE 20. TIDY UP PAGE TRANSITION
9. ADD PUNCHY PROFILE 21. GIVE IN WORD FORMAT
10. USE CORE SKILLS SECTION 22. GIVE PROFESSIONAL NAME
11. SHOW YOUR IMPACT 23. BE TRUTHFUL
12. GIVE HIGH LEVEL SUMMARY OF ROLES 24. PROOFREAD
DO YOUR RESEARCH
• Resume should be taylored to
each specific applied position
• Find out what user want (roles,
responsibility, skills, etc.)
• Taylor your Resume based in
user requirement
• Highlight important quality, skills
and experience
• Do not lie or too hyperbolic
MAINTAIN CONVENTIONAL COLOURS AND
FRIENDLY TEMPLATE
• Avoid highlight/ contrast color
• Simple color is acceptable. but
keep in mind: it still need to look
professional
• Simple template like below
picture is ‘safe’.
• Professional modern template
may increase your selling value
DO NOT USE LOGO IMAGES
• Except if it is aCompany’s cv, do
not put your current company’s
logo
• Or even worse, put logo of all
company that you had ever
worked with
• Logo is big size, also may have
legal consequences
USE SIMPLE FONT
• Avoid special font
• Avoid uncommon font
• Your client’s computer may not
able to read the font
• Font like Arial, Calibri, or Tahoma
works well
STRUCTURE FOR EASY NAVIGATION
• The first 1-1.5 pages is critical.
All necessary information should
be packed there
• Structure for easy reading
• Happy reader = happy recruiter
BREAK TEXT UP
• Avoid long paragraph
• Avoid complicated words,
sentence, or worse, paragraph
• Keep adequate space between
lines and pragraph
USE PROFESSIONAL DETAILS
• Use professional email address
• [email protected].
[email protected], or
[email protected] are examples of bad
idea
• Avoid unnecessary personal detail. Spouse
name, number of child, hobbies, are examples
of unnecessary details (unless asked /
required)
• Typical required details: location/simple
address, contacts (phone & email)
• May add link to your professional detail on
the web (linkedin, or else)
• If you want to add photo, please find the
professional or simple one. Cute expression,
full body, or full PPE photos shall be avoided
ADD PROFESSIONAL TITLE
• Match with the applied job
• Be humble, but avoid low self-
esteem
• Quality expert, Junior inspector,
client inspector, beginner are
examples of titles that should be
avoided
ADD PUNCHY PROFILE
• Sell yourself in summary lines at
the beginning of the Resume
• Profile should be brief and clear.
Stress the most important and
relevant qualities
USE CORE SKILLS SECTION
• As always, keep it simple
• List out only 4-6 core skills
• Show the relevant skills to the
applied job
SHOW YOUR IMPACT
• For example, instead of just
writing:
“Sourcing and approaching
potential customers.”
Expand to show your impact:
“Sourcing and approaching
potential customers to generate
leads for the sales team and build
pipeline.”
• You may not be able to do this for
every point on your Resume, but
always try to where possible.
GIVE HIGH LEVEL SUMMARY OF ROLES
• Provide adequate detail:
• Time period
• Who you worked for
• Whom you reporting to
• Scale of the project
• Overall responsibilities
• Achievements
AVOID GENERIC CLICHES
• “hard working”
• “team player”
• “enthusiastic”
• “out-of-the-box thinker”
• These phrases may appear impressive at first glance, but they don’t
actually tell recruiters anything factual about you.
• If you want to show employers that you are a hard-working team
player, don’t simply state the fact; instead use examples of the results
you have achieved within team settings to prove it.
AVOID USING SKILL CHARTS
• Skills graphs like the one below
are designed to give recruiters
an idea of your levels of
proficiency in certain areas.
• The problem with them, is that
they offer no real tangible scale
to readers.
• Giving simple statement such as
English: fluent (written and oral),
Arabic: fair (reading only) is
acceptable
DETAIL YOUR CURRENT OR MOST RECENT ROLE(S)
AND SHORTEN OLDER ROLES
KEEP RESUME BRIEF
• Busy recruiters may not have time to read your entire Resume
• Keep your Resume brief, maintain the keywords
• Max 3-4 pages. More pages might be acceptable if really required, but
need to be presented in ‘reading friendly’
• Unless required, details such as qualification certificates, passport,
Tbosiet certificate, etc. are not required to be attached
USE PROFESSIONAL LANGUAGE
• Your Resume will show your written language skills
• If you have trouble in grammars, use online free grammar tools
• All sentence shall be simple and straightforward.
• Avoid ambiguous
USE BULLET POINTS FOR ROLES
EXPLAIN GAPS IN EMPLOYMENT
• If you have taken time out to travel, study, complete a personal
project, or even due to illness; be transparent and include it on your
Resume.
• Leaving an unexplained gap will make recruiters suspicious, and trying
to cover gaps by falsely extending other roles may land you in trouble
when it comes to reference checks.
• Time spent outside of work can often involve plenty of skills (for
example travelling requires organisation, planning, social skills etc.) so
you can always put a positive spin on a career break description.
ADD REFEREES
• Referees is a person who know you and can give a unbiased
professional opinion about your performance
• Best referee usually is your direct supervisor. However, sometimes,
different level of referees are beneficial for certain applied positions
• Avoid:
• Adding referee before asking permission
• Adding referee that do not or barely know you
• Adding biased referees – giving hyperbolic compliment, or worse, degrade
you
• Adding referee with obsolete contact details
TIDY UP PAGE TRANSITION
PREPARE IN WORD FORMAT
• Always try to submit resume in word format
• MS Word is the most commonly used format, so sending in Word will
ensure that your Resume can be read and passes through any Resume
scanning software
• Also, there will be occasions where recruiters need to quickly make edits to
your Resume before sending on to hiring managers. For example some
organizations require recruitment agencies to transfer all candidates
Resumes into a company standard format before submitting – and
sometimes they will just need to remove contact details before forwarding
• No need to include signature

Recently, other format such as ppt is sometimes acceptable, but need to be

very careful depending on the employer type
GIVE PROFESSIONAL FILE NAME
• Remember, your Resume is a
professional document
• The filename of your Resume will
be visible when sending
applications, so take a few seconds
to name it professionally.
• Something simple like first name –
surname Resume / CV will suffice.
• Avoid using a messy name
like Daves CV first draft 030934
BE TRUTHFUL
• The worst thing in Resume is a fraud/lie, even worse if its caught
• Consequence of this action may be long – remember, professional
worlds are very dynamic
• No need to put disclaimer “I hereby confirm that all information
provided above is truthful and held responsibility if it is later found to
be incorrect…”
PROOFREAD
• It only takes one spelling or grammar mistake to make a recruiter
doubt your credibility, so proofread your Resume 2 or 3 times before
taking it to the job market.
• Do this everytime you want to send out your Resume