You worked hard on your education. Now it’s the time to apply for a job, so you must know How to make a Good CV for job to ensure an interview call?

In my previous post, I told you about my discussion with Smith (an HR manager in a multi national company) regarding the common mistakes in CV. I also asked him to give me some tips on how to make a good CV which at least ensures interview call.

My question made him smile.

Smith told me, “When every sector is changing very notably in present scenario, then why your CV should look old and ethnic? Why don’t you use infographics to make your CV effective, eye catching and easy to understand?”

My eyelids broadened a bit by listening it. “Infographics in CV?” I asked him surprisingly. He again smiled on me to show his agreement on his statement to use infographics in CV.

It raised my curiosity to know in detail. Smith asked me to visit his office on next Saturday, so that he could show me few of the innovative CVs’ with the intelligent use of infographics.

On Saturday, when I arrived at Smith’s office, he was busy with some interviews. He asked one of his collegus, Ms Daisy to help me to know about how to make a good CV.

She started to tell me, “There is a throat cut competition for jobs across the world. Today, pile of CVs’ reached to HR people for every single job. HR personnel can not go through each and every CV in very detail while short listing the CVs’ for giving the interview calls.”

“In this case, innovative, creative, eye catching and easy to understand CV is your only weapon to win the battle.”

“Very true Ms Daisy. But how to do this?” I asked her.

She smiled and continued, “It is very easy with the general awareness and normal computer skills.”

“To do this, you can focus on preparing graphics based CV. It may include infographics, photos, images, icons, timeline (as you see at Facebook) and many other interesting features.”

It recalled me that Smith also said me the same last week.

“Can I see any good CV in which infographics are used”, I asked her.

“Yes, you can”, she replied.

She brought a folder from her working table and shown me few of the very good CVs’ in which I saw the intelligent use of infographics. Those CVs’ were really amazing.

“There are even wonderful opportunities to prepare your Video CV which you can directly mail to your interviewer (in case, online CV is accepting by the company) and can send by CD/DVD (to make possible to watch your CV offline).”

“Don’t you think, this kind of CV will be 100 times better than a traditional text based CV?” Smith joined our conversation by giving me another shock to prepare Video CV.

He already ordered cappuccino, and added to me, “One of the major advantages of this kind of innovative CVs’ (infographics based as well as Video CV) for HR personnel is that their time saves a lot to go through your CV.”

“Another major advantage of these CVs’ is that you can exhibit your presentation skills to HR personnel before your interview.”

“Last but not least, the one more very important advantage of this kind of CV is that the chances increased for your CV to get read thoroughly by the HR personnel rather than just scan your CV at a glance.”

He asked me, “Will not it make a big difference for you in the battle field of job and career? Will not it increase the chances for you to get interview call?”

“Of course yes.” I almost shouted with bright eyes.

I wrote down few points after keenly observe those good CVs’, and listing here for your ready reference.

How to make a good CV with innovative ideas?

• You can use timeline or tree structure to show the history of your educational qualifications rather than simple bulleted list or numbered list.

• You can use different types of charts to show the fields in which you can perform.
• You can use graphic scale (marked with 1 to 10) to show your strengths.
• You can use different infographics to show your skills.
• If it is not your first job, then you can use pie charts to show your job history, i.e. in which companies you worked for which duration.
• You can use various popular icons and images to show your hobbies, business travelling, awards and achievements, salary increments etc.

Ms Daisy also gave me a tip when I was leaving their office, “Don’t make your CV very untidy and difficult to understand by overuse of info graphics. Otherwise it has no use.”

I gave my sincere thanks to Smith and Daisy to let me know how to make a good CV for a job which at least ensures an interview call.

If you find this article helpful for you, please write me your comments, feedback and queries in the comment area below.

Author: Sameer Goyal