🚀Entering Tech #011: How to write a stellar CV

Some trivia before we begin. Answers are at the bottom of this newsletter. 

A CV—short for Curriculum Vitae—is a document that briefly summarises your work experience for prospective employers.

They’re basically sales pitches that tell employers why they should buy hire you. 

In many cases, CVs are the first impressions of the corporate world; they’re the first thing your bosses and managers will learn about you. 

So to make a great first impression, you have to ensure your CV stands out. 

How do you curate resumes/CVs that shine? We spoke to two HR executives and here’s what Chiazagom Anisiebo and Felix Bissong have to say.

1.📈 Show results

A great CV is the enemy of a math teacher—you have to show your results without focusing on the workings. In the tech world, what matters is what you’re able to build and how fast you’re able to build it. If you’re applying for a role as a product manager, your CV must show how many [successful] products you have built.

“We want to see your achievement, not your job description. It’s also important that your achievements are quantifiable,” says Bissong.

Instead of just stating what you did in old jobs, show what your efforts produced. Here’s an example:

❌ Responsible for building a newsletter product. 

✅ Contributed to the 4x growth of a digital product within my first 18 months in the role.

Measurable metrics—results—are what matter, and they’ll make your CV stand out.

You may have heard this before but your CV is not your autobiography. It’s your corporate FAQ. 

Only essential information regarding your corporate or work history should be added. Take out information like your date of birth, your primary and secondary schools, marital status, and your physical addresses.

“A lot of people have unnecessary information in their CVs. The thing is, only relevant job experiences should be in your CV. A lot of times, you don’t even need to add all your past roles, especially when they don’t align with the role you’re applying to,” Anisiebo says.

Your CV is selling you and your skills to potential employers. It’s the real-life elevator pitch!

3. 📑 One size doesn’t fit all

CVs are not like wristwatches, one size type does not fit all. You have to create CVs for every job you’re applying to.

The CV you send to TechCabal is not the one you’ll send to Zikoko. Each job has key requirements, and if your CV doesn’t measure up to them, it’ll be tossed aside.

For every job you apply to, modify your CV to showcase the skills and requirements they’re looking for, if you have them. 

Both Anisiebo and Bisssong agree with the sentiment. For Anisiebo, she says “The goal is to create a CV that will get you in the door. Your CV should be crafted with keywords that match those in the job descriptions. If they don’t match, the HR Information System (HRIS) will not pick it up”

If you’ve applied for jobs recently, you’ll notice that companies use sites like Bamboo HR, SeamlessHR or Lever to collect applications. These sites use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to qualify or disqualify candidates based on how their CVs match the job description. So if you have just one CV, you’re probably going to get a lot of nos. 

There are tools like JobScan and SkillSyncer that help make sure your CV has the right keywords for a job application.

From Bissong’s view, the way to go about this is to first understand the sector, then the company, and finally the job description. “Edit your CV to fit the role, align your professional experience to the job description” he says.

For example, a data analyst job might call for expertise in the Python language. A CV that states “proficient in all data languages” will not scale through, but one that specifically mentions proficiency in Python will.

To be clear, we’re not asking you to lie about your skills. We’re asking you to make sure you specify the skills you have that match the job’s requirements.

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4. 📶 Size matters

In today’s trivia, you’ll learn how long the average recruiters spend on one CV. A hint: it’s not that long.

Like tech recruiter Joseph Gichuhi said in this edition of #EnteringTech🚀, recruiters get hundreds and sometimes thousands of applications, depending on the role. The longer your CV is, the less time recruiters will have to focus on key aspects of your application.

The optimal length of a CV should be two to three pages.

5. Choose the right format

Finally, the format of your CV will also play a role in which jobs you get interviewed for. You need to make sure your CV is styled to the global standard.

This means no spelling errors, no wrong punctuation marks, and no—we can’t stress this enough—Comic Sans font! Choose a legible or standard font like Arial, Times New Roman, Garamond, or Open Sans. No cursive or showy fonts are needed—unless of course, you’re applying to be a clown. 

In our conversation, Bissong gave a step-by-step analysis of how your CV should be formatted. “The first thing we’ll see is your professional summary or header, that’s what piques my interest,” he said. And this part should be short, the recruiter said. “I often advise people to match the professional header or summary in their CVs to their LinkedIn headers.”

Next, you should list your professional experience in descending order. “What should be first is your current or immediate past role. And in it, you should add the dates of employment as well as your achievements in the role.” Bissong says every job experience you list should not exceed five lines and a minimum of three. 

The recruiter also talks about the importance of adding relevant certifications as a boost but urges applicants from adding references unless it’s specifically required.

Job hunting is undeniably hard, but we hope these tips will help you craft a compelling sales pitch for yourself. In closing our discussion, Anisiebo shared a final word we think everyone will benefit from, “If you apply and don’t the job, don’t take it personally. Oftentimes, it’s not a comment on your person or skill, it just means the company is looking for something different at the moment.”