Your CV is your representative. It should magnify your strengths and hide your weaknesses if you are to get that job. Job seekers in South Africa under estimate the importance of a professionally written CV.
The following are the minimum requirements to be shown in the CV
Contact information
Make sure you display contact information. It should include at least two phone numbers that are reachable. Contact information is also incomplete without an email. Your email must be professional. Preferably it should just be your name and surname. Do not submit a CV that shows your nickname on your email. It’s unprofessional.
Categorize your information
Most CVs are not categorized. They show information which is cluttered. Always remember the person who selects CVs has a bunch of them, sometimes over 1,000 applications are submitted for one vacancy. If you are to have your CV selected, your CV must be brief and easy to read. Important information should not be hard to discover.
Education and experience should be in different categories. Recent experience should also be differentiated from old experience. Qualifications should be displayed in descending order, with the most important qualification on top.
Unimportant information must not be included. Stuffy CVs are usually not selected.
Use bullets, not big paragraphs
Long paragraphs are line comprehension article, they are difficult to read. Instead, use bullets to present your information. Bullets allows the reader to easily pick information. Your bullets should be brief
Content
CVs ordinarily look the same. You should make your CV stand out. You should present your strengths, backed by results that can be traced to your specific actions. Employers look for results that stand out. They are not interested in employing just another ordinary employee.
Achievements
Highlight your achievements in your specific areas of competence. These achievements must be a result of specific actions that you undertook. For example, if the organization managed a 30% reduction in their costs, what was your involvement. What specific actions did you take to reduce the costs. Can these results be reliably traced back to your actions?
Top three qualities required
Your CV should include instances that you demonstrated the top three qualities, being leadership, team work capability and innovation.