Make Your CV Stand Out From The Rest Of The Pack

One of the biggest issues before those filling in application forms for the various Business Schools and Management Institutes is how to craft a CV that would stand out and catch the Admission Committee’s attention.

The expert advice would be to keep it accurate, concise, current and gap-free. Add to this list certain others like clarity and relevance, your chances increase substantially.

Lisa Mortini, MiM Recruitment and Admissions Manager for the USA, Canada, and Latin-America and a member of the Admissions Committee at London Business School, puts forth three points to help the applicants.

The expert advice would be to keep it accurate, concise, current and gap-free. Add to this list certain others like clarity and relevance, your chances increase substantially.

Writing in the Admissions Office Blog @ LBS, she says while the CV is all about the candidate, it is also about ‘them’, namely, the Admissions Committee. The CV is to be read by them and thus the applicant will have to cater to their needs in providing the kind of information they seek.

Member of the Admissions Committee would want to know if you are a capable student and if you have the academics, skills, and knowledge needed to cope with the program.

They also need assurance about your capabilities and drive to be a successful student and evidence of taking positions of responsibility as well as motivation to do well.

Then, there is the question about your fitting in with the values and culture of the Institute. They would want to know if you have a well-rounded personality showcasing activities that will make you a contributing team member and other such qualities.

Thus, the CV has to be tailored to answer these questions and meet the expectations.

The second point is about relevance. How to differentiate your application from among a virtual forest of mass-produced and generic Cvs and cover letters.

This means including information that helps in differentiation and demonstrates motivation. Every CV you send should be individually tailored to its audience.

Mortini says applicants should draft a full list of all the projects, skills, and experiences on a blueprint CV. This list could then be used to pick and choose which elements should feature more prominently on the final version,without creating time gaps or omitting important information.

At this stage, it has to be decided which achievements would he truly significant. The more recent examples of success could be highlighted with concrete examples.

Universally in-demand skills, such as analytical, inter-personal, teamwork, leadership and creativity should always be featured. Specific soft skills, knowledge, technical aptitude, and commercial awareness could also be highlighted.

At every stage, back up your claims with solid examples. Instead of claiming leadership or good communicator skills, highlight specific projects or internships within your sector of interest, challenges or risks undertaken, international exposure gained and languages spoken, etc.

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With an increasing number of employers using scanning software to ‘read’ Cvs to cope with large number of applications Admission committees are also following suit. Under the circumstances, CVs have to necessarily be ‘structured and succinct’, easy to read at a quick glance by admission officials hard pressed for time. This requires keywords and achievements to virtually to pop out of the page.

The trick is to put in ‘measurable achievements and quantified experience’ by using amounts or percentages to establish targets and assess results like saying “Designed a social media campaign which helped increase our customer base by 8% over three months” than a plain “participated in a social media project.”

Action verbs like increase, decrease, implement, produce could be used. The timeline should be easy to follow with a clean layout. Reverse chronological order (most recent first) is to be used in in all sections. Explain any time gaps and give your exact internships dates. Finally, do spell-check everything, from the name of your university to your email address. (Image Courtesy : www.teluguone.com)