CV as a sales deck

What is your biggest challenge about creating your own CV or resume? Give it a serious thought before you read further. Some of the biggest obstacles I hear from people are personal.

• I don’t like talking about myself. 
• My career has been all over the place.
• I have too many gaps in my resume.
• I haven’t done anything quantitative.

Well, okay, but the good news is: It doesn’t matter. 

While preparing a CV, most people mistakenly think it’s about themselves or their career history. It’s not.

In fact, a resume is merely about your suitability for the job. When the recruiter/recruitment manager reviews your CV, they’re not seeking to know you. They’re only interested in whether you can do the job they have vacant in their company.

This means you don’t need to talk about yourself. You also don’t need to explain the gaps in your resume or that odd burger chef job you did for a year. You only need to present the qualifications and experience that will convince the recruiter/recruiting manager that you are good enough to invite for an interview.

How do you do that? Map your skills to the job requirement.

Identify the job you want: Before you even open a document to write your resume, go through LinkedIn / Naukri / Monster to identify a job that feels right for you. If you are interested in a specific company, go to their website to see if they have positions suitable to you. If you know someone who does the kind of job you want, explore their LinkedIn or other public profiles.

Break it down into skills: Read the job description carefully and identify skills / experience that you have. Write them down. Best way is to draw a line down the middle of the page and list these on the left.

Introspect a bit: On the right side, list all the skills / experience you have. Highlight the overlaps.

Write your resume: Create a resume focusing on the parts you’ve highlighted, essentially showing the reader exactly what part of their expectations you meet.

Perhaps like this.

With the above, your summary section on the CV would be something like:

iOS developer with 4 years of experience in business analysis, development, testing and debugging. I’ve worked with Swift and other iOS frameworks. I’ve held full cycle responsibilities, having familiarity with APIs and third-party libraries.

Remember that it’s okay if you don’t have all the skills. Or exactly as much experience. Say, if you know Python, but not R, supplement similar skills and apply anyway. If you have three years of experience, while the JD asks for five, mention that clearly, but apply. All the best.