How to write a professional CV?
General notions
The Curriculum, academically called Curriculum Vitae, was originally called Curriculum Vitae et Studiorum. It is the document with which a person lists their personal data such as name and surname, describes their course of studies and any certificates or specializations, and work experience. Anyone who is in a position to look for a job, i.e. must document their level of knowledge and work experience for professional improvement, must draw up this document and present it to the company concerned or to their employer. It is called briefly, in common language, a CV. In order to provide more complete information it may also contain a photo of the person concerned.
Composition of the Curriculum
The drawing up of a curriculum is based on a precise order in which personal information must be provided. In the first place you must enter your first and last name, date and place of birth, address of residence and possible domicile. A fixed or mobile phone number, or both, any work experience, knowledge of any foreign languages and the level of knowledge of them. It must also contain, if possessed, any computer knowledge and authorization to consent to the processing of personal data in accordance with current legislation.
Optional information
It is important to know that the more information is expressed in the curriculum, the more knowledge is given of oneself, one’s abilities and one’s higher cultural level is the possibility of achieving the goal of one’s insertion into the job or professional advancement. Therefore, in the event that those who draw up their curriculum are in possession of any certificates of participation in training courses, masters or have obtained work or training specializations, it is appropriate that these additional data are also included in the document.
Purpose of the curriculum
The purpose of the curriculum, in addition to providing one’s general data and cultural and, when it exists, professional training, is above all to convince those who read it of the reasons why they should hire one person instead of another. In short, it is a real advertising campaign of oneself. A commercial, a documentary where in a few pages our whole life must flow fluently and excitingly, even if in reality sometimes it has not been really exciting.
The standard and professional CV
The standard curriculum vitae, the European one to understand us, consists of special spaces with special questions already entered, the same for everyone, to answer without thinking about it. Knowledge of languages, for example, either you have or you don’t. The same goes for any certificates and work done previously. The professional curriculum is something else. It’s where you have to invent experts in advertising strategy, it’s where you have to do a great deal of marketing work on yourself. You have to highlight all the strengths of our character, our professional background and our culture. Of course, one should not exaggerate with the list of one’s own experience and training, if this is not really so extensive and not even if, all in all, one is telling the truth. Humble people are those who do not boast about themselves but prove it with facts in everyday life and even then they do not care about anything, they let others compliment them. At most they nod and give thanks.
How to improve a resume
Once you have drawn up your curriculum, having taken care to include all the information useful to identify us, especially for our qualities and experiences, this should be read and reread several times. At the cost of learning it by heart. Only a careful rereading allows you to notice a punctuation error, a misprint that has escaped despite the rereading, a period that, when you reread it, does not sound so good even if grammatically correct. You have to imagine that you are the recipient of the document. read the curriculum and say within yourself: however, I want to hire this one; or all the opposite: but how do you hire someone who writes like this? This careful analysis will also reveal gross errors, or rather confused periods. With a lot of patience, errors are corrected, the fluidity of the text is evaluated and, if necessary, parts are cut and rewritten, periods and times are modified, in short, a continuous restoration is carried out until one considers it perfect, until one has the absolute certainty that the person with that curriculum MUST be hired, it is indispensable.
The letter of presentation
An indispensable accessory that must accompany a good professional curriculum is the cover letter. Unfortunately this very useful tool is little used by us in Italy. Few people know that those who read the curriculum, if they are serious and prepared people, read the document in a handful of seconds. This is not because they avoid dwelling on details or discard a candidate even before having given the right evaluation. Absolutely not. From the very beginning, these people have acquired the ability to immediately identify a candidate’s strengths and negligence. Of course, human error is always there, but it is difficult for those who analyze the curriculum by profession to make a mistake in the assessment. This is where the cover letter comes in. A document in which the candidate exposes the main things of himself, (which are then repeated in the curriculum) in a more discursive and at the same time slightly vague. It should encourage you to read the CV carefully.
Main rules
The cover letter, like the curriculum, must also follow a specific path. First of all, it must be headed: Dear Dr Rossi, manager, etc., etc., etc. Whoever reads it must feel that it was written exclusively for him. It must contain a hint of their qualities and their training and education but above all it must explain the reasons why the company should take the candidate and at the same time express the desire to take part in the project the company deals with because it is totally shared. Show therefore, even before being part of it, in perfect harmony with the company’s philosophy and projects in progress. Let’s say, without going around looking for words, that you have to be a bit prude. Garbati, courteous but pimply. If you really can’t be, not even a little bit, then take a step back in time, with your memory, imagine yourself at the court of France and remember the words of Henry IV: Paris is worth a mass.