To CV and how to CV? : CV Deconstruction for Fresher , Non-Tech roles

We have all been there and done that, in moments where we started to make the first few versions of our CVs where we lacked the exact clarity on what are the do’s and donts of it. Below is an attempt to logically arrive at some reasonable set of rules for making your CV.

Let me get you started with some CV making Jargon.

Top Loading your CV: Putting the strongest and most relevant parts of your CV on top of irrelevant parts (holds true for between sections ,between subsections and between lines) ie. ordering content by relevance and quality, vertically.

Front Loading your CV: Keeping the most impactful content in the beginning of your lines ie. ordering content by relevance and quality, horizontally.

It is desirable to front load your CV because it is believed that readers usually only read the first half of your lines when going through CVs in bulk, so they should understand the most important bit in the first half.

Now getting to the science of achieveing this,

Your CV is made up of two attributes, you want to solve for optimal values of these two attributes to make the apt CV :-

1. Content
2. Arrangement of Content

Content can be further broken down into two aspects:-

(i) Aesthetics ( Bolds, Underlines, Fonts, Font Sizes, Bullets, Uniformity etc.)

(ii) Linguistics ( Understandability of Statements, Grammatical errors, Spellings etc.)

Arrangement of Content can also be further broken down into two aspects:-

(i) Spacing ( Spaces between words, lines, subsections and sections etc.)

(ii) Ordering ( Order of sections, subsections, lines and words etc.)

1.1 Content: Aesthetics

• Fonts :

Avoid using derived fonts, use true fonts like Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri

You may choose to have a separate font for headings than for content but do not use more than 2 fonts on your CV

Minimum Suggested Font Size: 9 ( Although 10 is recommended)

• Bullets :

I recommend the use of bullets for better structuring, however only use them for sentences, not for headings or sections

Make Sure you maintain uniform bullet size and type across the board, Recommended Bullet Type: Circles or Squares because of intuitive radial symmetry

• Bold and Underlines

Use bolds to highlight the “must read” terms/phrases in your CV, these should usually be impact words or something very relevant to the work at the firm you intend to apply to Avg. no of bold phrases :- 0.75–1 words per line

Use Underlines for the EXTREMELY important words/phrases in the CV

Avg no of underlines: Not more than 3 in the entire CV

• Case

Use lower case ( except sentence starters and proper nouns) for all sentences in your CV, except for headings where you can choose between Title and Upper Case

• Uniformity

Make sure that notations in your CV are uniform throughout

eg.,

If you have used “Millions” in one place, do not use “Crores” in another

If you write CGPA in 2 decimals ( eg., 9.23/10.00, then write 2 decimal places for other scores as well, so do not use 85% for grade 12 marks, use 85.00%)

• Alignment

Make sure that left alignment in your CV is perfect to every millimetre

Right Alignment is usually harder to achieve, however desirable, if you cannot reach this, at least make sure that you have minimal whitespaces present to the left of your right margin.( ie, your sentences should cover >90% of your line and one sentence should be exactly one line, it should not extend to two lines)

1.2 Content: Linguistics

• Understandability

It is often possible that we get lost in the zone of our work and forget that the recruiters may not understand our internship/ PoR/ Achievement if we use peculiar terms/phrases/jargons which are local ( to your institution, company etc.) by nature and make no sense, globally, so it is necessary that we keep the content as lay-man as possible so that anyone can understand to the full scope, the work that we have done.

It is often a good idea to get your content read through by some friend/family member to check if they can understand it, if not, it signals that you need to make it broader and present a more “High-Level” view.

• Grammar

Doulbe Check all spelling and grammatical errors ( Yep, that was deliberate)

Triple Check all spelling and grammatical errors !

Do NOT end lines with a full stop

Try to avoid using 2 worded superlative words and replace them with a single word

( eg., using Extravagant instead of very costly)

Common grammar errors :-

(i) Not leaving a space after commas, semi colons

(ii) Not using punctuations in the right places (usually commas, colons, semi colons)

(iii) Using Apostrophes in the wrong places ( eg., your, you’re)

(iv) Missing out on commas where required

2.1 Arrangement: Spacing

• Spacing between two sections ( eg., Between Internships and PoRs)

This is not required because sections are separated by headings

• Spacing between two sub-sections ( eg.,PoR-1 and PoR-2)

This is critical as it provides a breathing space for the person who is reading, usually one line space is enough, you can also separate 2 sub sections by drawing a line (recommended) to make it look more structured.

• Spacing between lines of a subsection

Usually not required unless there is a sub structure inside your sub section( eg., If you divide your PoR work into say, Sponsorship Related and Management Related, you may need to have a space between the two sub structures.)

• Spacing between words in a line

Standard one bar spacing, make sure no two words stick to each other, remember to leave a space after punctuations like commas and semicolons.

2.2 Arrangement: Ordering

• Ordering between sections (like Academic Scores, Internships, PoRs)

Academic scores should come first, next try to place something other than PoRs or internships ( because thing at the top are more likely to be viewed, Internships and PoRs ( Positions of Responsibility) are anyway important sections and are always viewed), but if you have any distinguishing extra academic or scholastic achievements, they should come next, followed by either of internships or PoRs (whichever one is your strong suite), similarly from here on order sections in order of how strong they are and how confident you are,if quizzed on them.

People with Workex can keep the workex section first.

• Spacing between subsections (eg., Internship-1 and Internship-2)

Follow Chronological descending order here (last entity is placed on top), in case of a chronological tie, order by relevance and strength of the subsection (eg., put a brand firm internship where you did a impactful live project, above a startup internship where you did a research project)

• Ordering between lines of a subsection

Follow a logical linear sequence for an internship or work ex (usually chronological)

Order by strength of work done in case of PoR ( eg., You want to put a sponsorship work above, say content writing work)

For Achievements, order by level of brilliance and uniqueness

• Ordering between words of a sentence

The Optimal Order is: Action Verb ( Past Participle) + What you did (Impact) + How you did (Process)

Example:

(Not Desirable)

Did python programming using NLTK to gather insights from 1,000 rows of text

(Desirable)

Derived [ACTION VERB] insights from 1,000 rows of text [IMPACT] using NLTK in python programming [PROCESS]

Do this and you should be good to go! All the best for the recruitment season :))

Disclaimer: I have made these guide, keeping in mind Business/Finance roles and Freshers of people with less than 2 years of workex, however most of the content can be used for most other roles.