What Makes a Curriculum Vitae Stand Out?
You'll generate a better response with your curriculum vitae if it is well organized and is packed with relevant information to match and support your professional, academic or research objective.
As a Job Placement Specialist for the University of Washington, Bothell I worked with students submitting curriculum vitaes for graduate programs. In this capacity, I applied several unique strategies when writing each curriculum vitae. The first was to prioritize and list the most relevant academic, research, volunteer or work history experience first within the curriculum vitae. The second was to include an Objective and Summary of Qualifications section at the top of each C.V. The third was to incorporate many of the strategies and resume writing techniques you'll learn by perusing the resume tips in this site as well as in my sister site which offers 40 Free Resume and Job Search Workshops.
These strategies proved to be extremely effective and boosted the acceptance rate of students applying for highly competitive graduate programs - many of which accepted only one to twelve students out of 300 to 600 applicants. My endeavors and success in this arena were recognized and commented on by the Director of Student Activities as a result of students reporting their acceptance into graduate programs.
Preparing effective C.V.'s presents a unique challenge due to length, which can make them boring and result in important data being buried or lost in such a long document. As a result, prioritizing your top skills and experience to be presented in the first or uppermost section of your C.V. makes sense. Then detail additional educational, employment or academic experience.
In this way you will maximize important criteria which you do not want to be overlooked by academic or hiring committees.
Who Needs A Curriculum Vitae?
A curriculum vitae is often required for those applying to graduate or professional programs, employment with international firms, or when promoting oneself within professional and academic fields.
How Do Started?
Writing a curriculum vitae can seem overwhelming but can be made easier by organizing your background. To begin, put each of the headings listed above--and any others that are relevant--at the top of several sheets of paper (using a computer makes this even easier). Once you've done that then begin filling in your information for topics such as those listed above.
Remember To Be Descriptive
When describing your background be descriptive, use numbers and paint a broad range of your experience. For example, compare the following section from Sandra's before curriculum vitae. It is representative of what the rest of her C.V. looked like.
| Professional Goal: | Nurse Practitioner in rural setting. |
| Education: | June 1996 -- Bachelor of Science in Nursing, University of Utah |
| Employment: | August 1972 - Present |
| Staff Nurse - Duties include primary care of patients. Harborview Medical Center | |
| June 1988 - August 1990 | |
| Staff Nurse - Member of the IV Team. Harborview Medical Center |
Now compare the after curriculum vitae, shown below, that I created while working with Sandra. Which one does a better job of pulling together the best of Sandra's qualifications for acceptance into a Nurse Practitioner program? This program specialized in training of Nurse Practitioners for rural community service.
| | |||||||||
| goal of providing rural community service utilizing my extensive primary care background. | |||||||||
| Over 18 years Registered Nursing experience includes:
| |||||||||
As you can see, Sandra's after C.V. starts off much stronger and summarizes her top skills at a glance. You may be thinking, "But, I don't have any valuable work experience." If that's true, then follow a similar strategy but instead list whatever academic, volunteer or cocurricular activities that form a foundation of skills or knowledge that relate to and support your objective. The section from Sandra's C.V. shown above was then followed by many of the topics listed earlier on this page.
$9,000 Salary Increase
The first resume workshop in this site shows how Fran's after resume resulted in a $9,000 salary increase. Fran wanted a $33,000 Corporate Customer Representative job but her resume created an image of her being at a $20,000 to 24,000 salary level -- that's $9,000 to $13,000 beneath her goal.
What Level Does Your Resume Market You At?
If you are curious to see what level your resume is marketing you at … then be sure to read and use the graphing techniques in my first workshop. By graphing the job titles used in Fran's resume it's easy to see why her resume failed … and once you understand this … you will understand why the majority of resumes fail. You'll then understand how to analyze your job titles and see if you are better off using them or replacing them with skill headings that market you more effectively.
Most People Have Job Titles that Weaken Their Image
I estimate that at least 85% of all job seekers have job titles unrelated to their current career goals … and that they are much better off using skill headings rather than job titles to land higher salaries and double and triple their interview rates.
For example, Fran had been a Directory Operator but in most people's minds that doesn't sound like she's at the level of a Corporate Customer Representative making $33,000 … that's because most people don't view directory operators as providing true customer service. Most people say that Directory Operator sounds like someone making only $20,000. However, by using the 12 Questions in my Proven Resumes Series, Fran wrote a new description of her duties as a Directory Operator that described her being selected out of 100 Directory Operators to provide specialized Customer Service to the Governor's Office and Political Dignitaries in the Washington State Capitol … now that information begins to change our image of Fran doesn't it? That makes her sound much more like someone being able to command $33,000.
Which sounds like a better match for the $33,000 Corporate Customer Service Representative goal… her old job title of Directory Operator … or a skill heading like Customer Service Representative to State of Washington Account. In Fran's actual resume we used the heading of Customer Service Representative but you can see how you can play with skill headings to control and elevate your image … this is one strategy I explain in detail with examples throughout my book, Proven Resumes: Strategies That Have Increased Salaries, and one of the strongest things I can offer you as a resume writer … just in case you don't have the time or patience to write your own.
Going from 0% to 100% Interview Rate
By using skill headings that matched her goal, Fran went from a 0% interview rate to a 100% interview rate -- meaning none of her prior resumes had landed an interview but her new resume landed an interview for each position she applied for.
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