A curriculum vitae (or résumé in the US) is a concise summary of your skills, achievements and interests inside and outside your academic work. Employers may initially spend a very short time studying your CV (perhaps just 10-20 seconds), so it must be engaging and convey the most relevant points about you in a clear, accessible way. The primary challenge is to make it easy for the recruiter to find exactly what they are looking for. You will need to focus on their core requirements and adjust or adapt your CV for each specific application.
Remember the purpose
Your CV is to get you the interview or meeting, NOT the job itself – highlight what you have achieved so that the reader wants to learn more by meeting you.
Be evidence based
The content of CV should be reedited and modified according to job requirements. It may not be proper to enumerate what you have done. Refer to some resumes from different industries and learn how to prepare your own CV.
Be clear
A well laid-out CV is inviting to read and easy to scan quickly.
Use simple language - avoid jargon, acronyms and technical details which may not be understood.
Avoid writing in paragraphs - space is limited and prose makes it slower to find key points.
CVs are (mostly) a record of what you have done, so completed tasks and activities are written in the past tense.
Be concise
Keep it to one or two full pages (only academic CVs can be longer).
Use bullet points to package information succinctly.
Avoid too much context, excessive detail or unfocused material that will dilute the impact of your most relevant messages.
