How to make a perfect resume

Hello friends!

Continuing our series of texts on Money and Profession, today we are going to talk about Curriculum. We’ll explain what a CV is, the etymology or origin of the word, explain what companies need to know (and what they don’t need to know), as well as specific tips on how to make a perfect CV, that is, using all your experience. training, courses already taken and complementary activities.

Curriculum, in Portuguese, comes from the word resumederivation of currere. Currere, in turn, meant in Latin to run, to follow a path. Currículo vitae already has the following idea: the course of professional life (in modern terms) or literally Curriculum of Life. When we say Curriculum then we mean about the professional path achieved up to the present moment. Information about the near future may also be included.

For example, in 2 years I will finish my PhD. I can put this information in the future, because I’ve been studying for two years now. I then put the start date and the estimated completion date.

However, it is always important to remember that although Currículo Vitae literally means, literally, Curriculum of Life, there are data that do not need to be written, such as place of birth, having 3 brothers or things like “I am a dedicated person, aiming to offer my services to the company, in order to grow together”. To make it clearer, let’s think about what the company needs to know – and what must necessarily be on the Curriculum.

What companies expect from a CV

I worked with Human Resources, the area of psychology that deals with recruitment and selection of personnel for companies, for 6 months. Despite being a short period of time, I had the opportunity to do more than 1,000 interviews. Here are tips on how to behave in a job interview

This way I can explain how it works on the other side. Whether through an employment agency (which outsources the Human Resources service) or within the company itself, there will be someone responsible for carrying out the Recruitment. Recruitment means the whole part of getting candidates to apply for a certain vacancy. In the recruitment process, in addition to advertising the vacancy to let people know about the possibility of employment, the person working in this area will have to see thousands of resumes.

If I did 1,000 interviews during the time I worked in the field, I must have seen 10,000 resumes or, who knows, even more. In short, the person will not only see your resume, they will see yours and hundreds more that same day. This is the first and perhaps the main point to take into account when writing a resume: you must write no more and no less than necessary.

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If you write a 5-sheet resume, not even 1 sheet will be read. If you write two paragraphs, neither. The person who will receive your resume needs to know about your training and your main experiences for the desired vacancy. For example, I have experience with Human Resources, as I said, but if I want to and I am applying for a vacancy in clinical psychology, I must make it clear, I must highlight my experiences in clinical psychology (I can even put my experience with companies at the end, as it may be relevant for psychological assessment), but I have to be clear about what I want with that curriculum.

So if you have two areas or three areas of professional experience, make two or three resumes. For each vacancy, you can use the appropriate resume. If this is not possible (such as online registration), focus on what you most want to work on and describe these experiences up front, right at the beginning of your resume.

But let’s move on to more practical tips, this way everything will be even clearer:

Tip 1 – Speak only the truth

It may seem silly to say this here, but there are many people who believe that they can say lies on their resume, increase their experience, say that they worked and didn’t, etc. This is not possible. If you say that you worked for 3 years and later it turns out that this is not true, you will automatically lose your job. If you say you have a degree that you don’t, the truth will also come out sooner or later.

There is no point in lying on your resume at all. It will just be a waste of time for you and the company. And besides, this demonstrates an immense lack of character. If you don’t pass one vacancy, you could be called to another. But if you lie, you simply won’t be called by the company or employment agency ever again.

At the agency I worked for, it was very common for us to evaluate a person for a vacancy. For some reason, someone else got the job. But if another opportunity arose the following week, we would call back the person who had been evaluated positively. So the rating has to be positive and if you lie you will be disqualified forever.

Always tell the truth, however, know how to use true information. You can omit an experience or training, this will not be a problem. But adding things that are not true will be meaningless.

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For example, if I worked 6 months with HR, and if I’m writing a resume to return to this area, I have to say that I worked 6 months. I can omit that I have already taught English or reviewed doctoral theses (because there is no necessary link). If asked, I can speak. But I can’t just add false information.

Tip 2 – Be brief but complete

This means: say everything you need to say, everything that is necessary for the company to know, without filling the gaps, as they say. Say what is necessary, do it completely, but without having to write 3 pages of resume.

As the curriculum varies greatly from person to person, it is interesting to think first – looking at ourselves. Think: what are my qualifications? What areas would I like to work on? What are the experiences that I already have in the area or that are similar?

For example, if you just graduated and still don’t have experience, you can point out activities done in college that are related to the desired area of expertise. Write down as many of these experiences as possible that can help you get an interview, a dynamic or the vacancy. Other activities should be evaluated to see whether or not they make sense.

Let’s say I’m looking for a job as a web designer. What experiences do I have in the area? What sites did I make? What kind of knowledge do I have that helps in day-to-day work? Did I do any volunteer work, for example, giving computer classes to low-income people?7

That is, evaluate the vacancy. Evaluate what you already know (do you have courses, college, graduate) that is related to the vacancy. Write everything on the resume plus experiences or activities that will be in everyday life at work. This way, the company will know that you already have experience, you already have contact with the profession.

So say as much as possible without stretching too much. 2 resume pages is more than enough to speak all the information. Less than half a page is not enough. The ideal is between 1 and 2 pages of resume.

Tip 3 – Cherish what’s good about you

Taking into account your professional objective, remember everything you’ve already done that the employer felt to know to hire you. Your resume will usually be the first impression the company will have of you. Maybe it’s the last and only one if you don’t write well. So take it easy and write what’s best for you. For that, here are some options:

Organization by dates: organizing experiences by dates means that you will choose to write about your experiences in two ways:

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1) In chronological order – that is – you start from the beginning of your experience, and, scrolling down, the reader will be able to see the following experiences. For example:

2010 – intern

2011 – analyst

2013 – junior analyst

In this way, the curriculum follows from the oldest date to the most current date.

2) In reverse chronological order – this is the opposite of the above. The first experience that appears on the resume is the most recent. The following are the second-to-last experiment, the third-to-last, and so on:

2013 – junior analyst

2011 – analyst

2010 – intern

3) Organization by qualities: you want to highlight qualities of activities carried out, but they are not necessarily in chronological order. This for several reasons.

Example, let’s say I worked in sales from 2006 to 2008. Then I worked as a Police Officer for 1 year and then as a security guard for another 1 year. In 2011, I went back to work with sales and work until the present day. Instead of writing in chronological order, it is better for me to select the experiences with sales and put the other experiences as – “Other experiences”

The sequence would be like this

2011 to 2013 (current) sales

2006 to 2008 – sales

Other experiences

2010 – security

2009 – PM

That is, in this way, just by looking at the company or agency interviewer, you will see that you have 4 years of sales experience. For reasons that will be explained in the interview, you will say why you changed areas and why you recently returned. The important thing is that you are valuing activities in sales.

Therefore, evaluate what you have the best, think about the vacancy and organize the order by what will most value your resume.

Conclusion

Currently, knowing how to make a CV is very important for you to be hired. If you don’t know how to write a good CV or if you don’t know how to value what’s best about you, it’s important that you learn. The tips given in the text will help a lot to write a Perfect Resume. However, it is very common for people to still have doubts about details or even the best arrangement for their experiences.