So recently I was helping my best friend to edit their CV and it got me thinking of this a lot more and as usual I went into research on best CVs and resumes. I am learning that a CV and a resume are not the same thing so. A resume is a one- to two-page document presenting key facts about your professional experience, educational background, and skills while a CV (Curriculum Vitae) is a longer document that details the whole course of your career. A resume is used for job search, a CV in most purpose it’s for academic purposes, I can’t believe I have been mixing the two for a long time, shame on me. What we were not sure is if the resume was too lengthy or should they keep it one page. In my quest to upgrade my own since the good lord knows I have been applying internally and externally for the longest time possible, I discovered the following vital things about the resume I would want to share today!

When it comes to writing a resume, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. The biggest mistake we have been doing is to prepare a CV and have them in our drop box ready to flush to any job that we see online. We take all jobs as the same and that’s wrong. Our CVs ought to change with the competencies required for each job level. I slowly have come to realize that the key is to tailor your resume to the specific needs of the employer. Research the company culture and give your resume a test of that, I came to realize while applying for a Norwegian job that the company I applied for were more interested in my skills and experience than my educational background, so I guessed, a one-page resume may be all that I need.

Short is better for a job that could be of high demand since employers who are processing hundreds of resumes (especially if this was advertised on the Brighter Monday website are not interested in reading lengthy novels, On average personally when reviewing CVs for candidates on the job I hire, I take between 15 seconds to a minute to decide if I will revisit the CV or not. I feel most employers would want to review resumes faster. Sometimes recruitment is a scam. My senior lead once told me that if you don’t have more than a Bachelor’s degree, and less than 10 years of professional experience, a one/two-page resume will be perfect for most applications. In her words “anything more than 2 pages with less than 10 years’ experience, call it a CV and not a resume, you sell yourself short and it seems you are begging”

There are however those traditional companies that puts premium on educational credentials and in most cases there will a a tress on the notices to provide your CVs when applying. These companies will be interested to see academic achievements and research to gauge competency, so I advise that you research and if you can get a few insiders for the employer learn from them on the application needs as this will go a long way to saving you the hustles on irrelevant writings.

The best practice for resumes is to make it easy for an employer to see your value. The faster they pick the value you can bring to them the easier you generate interest from your resume to get a second chance to meet them in person for a more in-depth discussion on the values you highlighted. Hope this helps your resume writing process. Keep on applying to those jobs and don’t get discouraged!

© JMS 2022