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10 Tips for Writing a Great CV

10 Tips for Writing a Great CV Guest post by Elinor Bat-Genstein, Founder & Managing Partner of CommuniTech. Elinor has worked as Marketing Director, Product Marketing Manager, and Sales Operation Manager in the Israel high-tech industry since 1996. Elinor established CommuniTech in order to develop best practices and domain expertise, with a special emphasis on Product Marketing for global companies, so as to utilize her personal strength in this domain.

Today CommuniTech is concentrating on placement of, and training for, Marketing and Sales position worldwide. Growing up in Paris gives Elinor a clear advantage while helping Israeli organizations in placement projects for their European subsidiaries. Before founding CommuniTech, Elinor was the marketing director at the Israeli Mobile Association (IMA), Global Director of Marketing at Personeta, and Product Marketing Manager at Amdocs, from where she has a vast and global network of candidates. Learn more about Communitech here: www.communitech.co.il.

Today when the market is full of excellent candidates – the first buffer for you to get an interview is your CV. Your CV is your most important marketing tool – worth investing.

front 10 Tips for Writing a Great CV

1. Personal Details – Must: Name/ Phone number and email

Do not forget email; companies use it for communication!

You can add other parameters like if you are born elsewhere – but marital status, children and your age are not relevant for getting a job and should not be listed

and no picture on the CV

2. Try not to exceed 2 pages (and yes – we know you have a lot to write about yourself)

cv 10 Tips for Writing a Great CV

Do not have more than 5 bullets on each position

3. Font: people are reading your CV.

If you want recruiters to like you use: Ariel font – size 11

4. Colors: I personally adore it; if someone is writing the company names in another color, it makes it easy to follow

5. Companies’ logo – if you worked for well known companies – add the logo to the CV – this always makes an impression

6. Executive summary – personally I am not a fan, but in some cases when it is hard to categorize the person, try to have a short one : write 4 bullets about

a. The role you can perform

b. Your market experience – Telco/ Web / Security/ Clean-Tech

c. Geographic expertise (Europe / APAC / Africa etc.)

d. Your strengths

7. Always write a short sentence about the companies you worked for – do not assume all recruiters know all the market (i.e. ” leading provider billing-ordering and CRM for telecom and IPTV”)

8. Education vs. Work Experience – what comes first? The order should be as follows: if you went to a well known university: put in on the top page (you worked hard to get in and it worth credibility). However, if you chose an unknown university but your career path is impressive: put the education on the bottom (and spare us your high-school name…and “megama”)

9. Prizes and awards: write about every single prize you ever got and if your company gave you a bonus awards / top grades – mention that as well.

10. Tips per roles:

a. Sales: write your customers’ names and size of deals

b. Marketing: write which PR agency / firm you used and which conventions you promoted

c. Engineer: write about all the technologies you are familiar with

A good CV is all about MARKETING!

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Illuminea Team on March 11, 2010 • Short URL: http://illum.in/gEaYsq • Category Blogging,Business • Tags: , , , Comments (6)

6 Responses to “10 Tips for Writing a Great CV”

  • Comment by Charlie Kalech
    Twitter: on Mar 12 2010 at 9:28 am

    In the past half year I have seen over 150 CVs (For Job opportunities with our company see our Web site ).

    I have a different perspective than this post (And I’m the one hiring).

    I agree it is all about marketing so focus and write with your audience in mind. A few tips:

    Keep it to one page. If you can’t focus on your CV, you won’t focus on work. I need employees who can prioritize and get things done – and who are considerate of my time.

    I’m hiring the person. Personal details are extremely relevant. The more I connect with you, the better your chances. This is country-specific and some things expected in Israel are illegal to ask in the USA. I want to know your age (we figure it out anyway), hobbies, youth groups & camps if they were significant in your life. I like seeing a photo (some employers I’ve talked to don’t). List your social media contacts especially Linked In – we search for you (and our common friends on Facebook) as part of the hiring process. If we have absolutely nothing or nobody in common, chances are you wouldn’t be a good fit in our company.

    It is much more important what you have accomplished and your experience than what your SAT was (and I am saying this an alum of Columbia, BTzalel and Hebrew U). List your education after employment. In your employment focus on your accomplishments and responsibilities in each position.

    DO NOT SEND THE SAME RESUME TO EACH COMPANY – The CVs that really stick out, were writen for me. Do your homework and learn what the company is and what they are looking for. The most important part of the CV is the one line objective. Cater it to the position for which you are applying.

    Don’t forget the cover letter -

    Sell yourself. The cover letter is your opportunity to let your personality shine through. Include what did not fit into you CV and highlight the main points. Let me know why you are special and what advantages you offer. You can even just tell me about yourself as a person.

    Finding the right job and finding the right employee is a win-win situation. I hope this helps.

    Good Luck.

  • Trackback by lettersandessay (Ley Marie) on Mar 12 2010 at 2:46 pm

    Twitter Comment


    RT @wchingya: 10 Tips for Writing a Great CV ~ [link to post] – nice list by @miriamschwab (A good CV is all about Marketing)

    – Posted using Chat Catcher

  • Trackback by wchingya (Ching Ya) on Mar 12 2010 at 3:33 pm

    Twitter Comment


    10 Tips for Writing a Great CV ~ [link to post] – nice list by @miriamschwab (A good CV is all about Marketing)

    – Posted using Chat Catcher

  • Comment by Deena
    Twitter: on Apr 11 2010 at 11:54 am

    Charlie, I liked your ideas shared here except the picture and age. Age is debatable because age is a factor in a person’s productivity but picture is a little creepy and well, for lack of a better word (please forgive me) – rude.

    As for the actual article, it’s an interesting list but one thing I disagree with is that you said that the first buffer is your CV. I think the first buffer is networking. A huge percentage of jobs are never listed. This is probably more the case in Israel than in the U.S. and Canada. I do not see this as a negative thing (even if it is difficult) because people want to hire someone with whom they have somewhat of a personal connection. So, when that option presents itself, I think it will often/usually be chosen over an awesome CV. (Of course one hopes that the person found through networking is good for the job as well but that’s a whole other story…)

  • Comment by Charlie Kalech
    Twitter: on Apr 11 2010 at 12:12 pm

    Deena,

    I appreciate what you wrote about the photo – as I clearly stated, this is a personal preference. I am used to seeing people’s faces (or at least avatars) when I communicate online. Even my mail program is integrated into the FB Profile photos of my contacts. Since I am a visual person, this helps me connect with people, including those whom are under review for a job.

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