Tips on writing a good CV

What is a CV?

Your CV is your marketing brochure through which the prospective employer decides whether he wants to see you for an interview or not.
What is the purpose of a CV?

The purpose of your CV is to fetch you an interview call.

How to write a good CV?

Include the relevant information. Your CV may require a little bit of modification according to the type of opening you are applying for. You may need to expose different facets of your personality and work experience for different openings.
Prioritize the information

A recruiter is not interested in knowing your father's name on opening up your CV. He would rather prefer to know about your educational background, if you are a fresher and your work experience, if you an experienced job seeker. Prioritize the information in the CV to maintain the attention of the recruiter.

Emphasize at right place

Learn to emphasize at right place in the CV. If you think, any of your particular achievements gives you a cutting edge over other job seekers for a particular opening, emphasize on it. For e.g. if you are a fresher and you have been a topper of your college or university, it is worth mentioning and emphasizing in the CV. Similarly, if you are an experienced worker and your particular achievement has been acknowledged by your employer, which you think can add more value to your CV while applying for a particular position, emphasize on it.

Use more impactful words

Use words which demostrate your control over things. For e.g. managed, achieved, counselled.

Use figures

Use some figures to show the extent of your activities and their impact. For e.g. Planned raw material requirements for 10 manufacturing units of the company, across 5 states.

Don't be verbose

Try to keep your CV precise and to the point. Don't fill it up with extra words. You might land up losing the recruiters attention.
Don't dump the information

A neat CV attracts the recruiter more than the one which has information dumped on it. Provide all the relevant information but in a neat and attractive manner.

Check for spellings and grammar

Try to keep your CV free of any spelling mistakes and bad grammar. They put the recruiter off.
Key areas of a good CV

While writing a CV you must first think, what is it that you want to communicate to the recruiter through your CV. Now, write your CV keeping your objective in mind. Following are the key areas which if well written catch the immediate attention of the employer.
Executive/Career summary

A well written, short and simple executive summary at the beginning of your CV will catch the immediate attention of the recruiter. Keep it short and to the point while trying to focus on your key strengths and achievements, relevant to the position.

Work experience/ Educational background

If you have a work experience, mention it after the executive summary in a chronologically descending manner with the job profile. If you are a fresher educational back ground should find this place in your CV. Mentioning acievements rather than responsibilities is more impactful.

Mention about your achievements
Mentioning achievements out of work also plays an important role. For e.g. Elected college vice president during graduation. This demostrates your leadership quality.

Avoid using "I"," my" in your CV
The recruiter knows well that you are talking about yourself in your CV. Avoid the use of words like I , my in your CV.
It makes you look egomaniac.