Do:
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Make sure the words you use mean something.
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Make sure the CV sounds like you 'own it'.
Do not:
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Use meaningless or clichéd phrases.
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Use third person phrases.
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Use 'over the top' phrases.
Make Sure your CV is Credible and that you 'Own' it.
Style and Language.
The language you use and the information you choose to provide will contribute to the fleeting impression the potential employer gets about you - perhaps precise, organised, accurate, neat, honest, straightforward, enthusiastic or- perhaps - voluble, dishonest, disorganised, vague, boastful, or just full of bulls**t.
Like holiday brochures, CVs seem to have developed a bizarre language of their own. When a holiday brochure says "a perfect place for a relaxing beach holiday untroubled by the distractions of everyday life" it really means "there is nothing to do here except lie on the beach". When a CV says "a highly motivated team player with excellent communication skills who can contribute to all aspects of the team's work" it could mean "I am desperate to earn more money, I talk a lot but I have no specialist skills for this particular job".
So review carefully the words you have chosen to see if they mean anything. To give the best impression of yourself, be as specific as possible about your skills and background and avoid general statements.
A better version of the above might be "an ambitious individual who would eventually like a Management appointment, I enjoy teamwork and can contribute software development skills to the team. I am skilled at Powerpoint presentations."
Here are some common examples:
"highly motivated" At what? Do you really mean ambitious? Do you only want the job if it could lead to a Management position? Or are you just motivated to be part of a team so that you have someone to go drinking with?
"team player". Does this mean you are useless at anything on your own? State what skills you will bring to the team.
"excellent communication skills" Are your communication skills oral or written? Do you mean you are good at Powerpoint presentations, or are you a particularly persuasive person in conversation?
"can contribute to all aspects of the work" Really? You can do everything that the team is responsible for? Probably not.
"highly professional". How?
Read more about being specific about your skills.
I hate CVs that are not 'owned' by their subjects. Avoid like the plague third person phrases like "David is an expert ventriloquist……" or "He has great experience of operating dummies".
Read more about 'owning' your CV.
CVs should be written in the first person, but it is normal to omit the "I am", "I was", "I have" etc. So you can say "Expert in Computer Aided Design. 13 years experience of application to bridge design", and the first person is understood.
The occasional "I" phrase can lend emphasis though and make it sound a bit more personal, e.g., "15 years experience of atmospheric modeling and expertise in all the main modeling packages. I was the first person to use atmospheric modeling to forecast pollution levels in Timbuktu"
CVs are sometimes written in the present progressive tense, e.g. "Possessing 15 years experience and consistently achieving sales objectives".
This is an awkward style and sounds like it's about someone else. Your personal profile and the description of your current job should be written in the simple present tense, i.e., " possess 15 years experience and consistently achieve sales objectives". This sounds a more direct and believable description than the earlier version.
Description of previous jobs and previous achievements should be in the past tense ("achieved 10% p.a. increase in sales growth for five years, was responsible for…"). Descriptions of current responsibilities and skills etc. should be in the present tense (I am a fluent German speaker, I am responsible for...).
The way you describe yourself in your CV will provide as much information about the type of person you are as it will about how suitable you are for the job. You probably want to give the impression that you are honest and realistic about your abilities and this impression can be successfully conveyed by choosing realistic descriptions of yourself. 'Over the top' descriptions can only too easily convey the impression that you are subject to chronic bouts of exaggeration or just downright dishonest.
If I said this website was "the most amazing website available on the subject of CVs, full of the most fantastic information and essential for you to use if you want to get a superb job" you would think- rightly- that I was grossly exaggerating and probably dishonest. If I said it was a "very useful website with some interesting information which could help you get the job you want", you might think I was reasonably honest and realistic.
Make sure your CV is Credible and that you 'Own' it.
Another unfortunate impression that 'over the top' descriptions can give is that the CV was written for you by someone else and that you do not 'own' it. If I saw something in Mr Smith's CV that said that he is "amazingly accurate" I would immediately assume Mr Smith had not written the CV. "Amazingly" and "wonderfully" are the kind of words you use about other people, not yourself. This would immediately lead me to wonder about the credibility of other parts of the CV.
Another example - a CV provided on a web site as an example of a good CV uses the phrase "meticulous attention to detail". Meticulous means "marked by extreme care in treatment of details". Is this true? Or is it desirable? If someone is so obsessive about detail I would only want to employ him if the job was one where attention to absolute detail is the prime requirement. Does the subject of the CV really 'own' the idea that he is meticulous about detail? Is it an impression he really wants to give?
In general, the best way to describe yourself is to concentrate on characteristics for which your own judgment is most credible. If you say you are enthusiastic or keen about something or enjoy something, no one can deny it. If you say you are extremely good at something you are less likely to be believed, unless you can back the claim up somehow, e.g.,you can describe yourself as an 'expert' at something if you can back it up by qualifications or achievement.
You can say you were "successful" if it can be backed up by evidence but, beware, this is often a redundant word, e.g., to say you "successfully achieved targets" doesn't mean much. Either you achieved them or you didn't, so just "achieved targets" tells just as much.