Writing Your Curriculum Vitae
by ShahToday, I was handed an awful CV from a guy who wanted a job. Alas, I couldn’t read TFCV because it consisted of 4 pages, detailing his life.
This got me thinking - there are many who are just like the above mentioned guy and who don’t know how to write a CV.
Below are the guidelines which I use - well, I do admit that there are many other ways to write it but I believe that my way is the best (because I rule :P)
The entire CV should fit on 1 A4 paper.
Font type: Arial 12
Top center - Your name in full (bold)
Top left - Your address and phone number
Top right - Your e-mail address and web site/blog
[Paragraph] Education - List only diplomas and degrees and year graduated
[Paragraph] Current job
[Paragraph] Experience/Past - List all prev. workplaces you’ve worked at and projects worked on. Include dates/time periods. You should only include the workplaces where you worked on really impressive projects. Discard the rest or add a URL to the complete list.
[Paragraph] Open Source Contributions - List the main contributions (incl. URLs.) Add a URL to the complete list (in case you’ve shortened the list.
[Paragraph] Skill Set - Break it down into 3 parts (assuming you’re a programmer)
- Languages|Architectures
- Platforms|Operating Systems|Databases
- Development & Process Tools
[Paragraph] Publications - List of all papers, books & conferences you’ve been published or referred to in/attended. Add URL of the complete list if the list has been shortened.
[Paragraph] Activities - Blogging (URL of blog(s) and description of content,) matter which you advocate (e.g open source.)
[Paragraph] Specialties - List of things you’re interested into.
Bottom centre -Add [this document is available online at URL] (PDF)
You may be wondering as to why the CV is short. Well, the short it is, the more confidence it appears you have - for you’ll be ‘judged’ by your social skills in the interview (whatever has not been written in the CV - like your hobbies in real life will make up for small talk.)
Note: You may write nothing and e-mail the URL of your LinkedIn profile. You don’t need to add any recommendation because your online activities will help build up your secondary profile.
Have fun writing your CV.
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