New migrants at orientation seminar in St Heliers, Auckland.

A winning CV is a concise profile of your qualifications, work experience and interests which will help you get that much-coveted interview and the job that you have always wanted and needed!!!

I am writing this article to provide guidance and assistance to new migrants and to those people who are gainfully employed but who are currently looking for a job. This is based on my own personal experience with job hunting.

So what really does make a winning CV?

A winning CV is a concise profile of your qualifications, work experience and interests which will help you get that much-coveted interview and the job that you have always wanted and needed!!!

I have been assisting new migrants in looking for jobs by restructuring their CVs. The common weakness I have noticed is that it is done the Philippine way. No offence to them.

Of course, they wouldn’t know how to do it the Kiwi way, especially if they have just arrived in NZ and nobody is mentoring them on how do it the way agencies or prospective employers would like them to be presented.

Here are the basic DO’s and DONT’s

    DO's

1. Personal Information - When writing about your personal information, just write your address, contact numbers and email address aside from your name. Writing your immigration status is also helpful in some cases and if there are some special immigration requirements for the job.

2. Career Objective – Write a concise one. What is it that you want to achieve with your career? Example would be - To be able to gain experience as a test analyst with exposure to structured test methodologies and pro-cesses adhering from good to best practice software testing standards.

3. Skillset Summary - Create a Summary of your work experience. Based on your existing work experience, summarise it eg, the number of years you have worked, any special areas of expertise you want to highlight, your communication skills and your soft skills. Present them as bullet points.

4. Computer Skills – Do you have any? Here in NZ, it is very important that you have computer skills even if you don’t work in the information technology industry.

Being technology savvy is a huge edge when looking for a job. Further, NZ believes that technology is a critical tool in the performance of business functions regardless of the industry that you are in.

5. Professional Certification or Affiliation – Are you a certified person in your area of expertise or the industry that you are in? That would be a big plus factor for you.

It will give confidence to the prospective employer that you have the industry standards needed to perform your job.

If you don’t have professional certification, be affiliated with a professional group. It will show that you are abreast with existing industry practices and standards.

6. Work Experience – Write your position title, the name of your company, the location of your job especially if you were working overseas and the duration that you were working.

When you get into the duties and responsibilities, write down key ones only and try to summarise them as much as you can.

You should have about 3-5 bullet points only.

You can also put in your achievements as the last bullet point for that job, if you think it will play a huge role in getting the interview and of course, the job!!!

7. Educational Attainment – Write your degree, year graduated, name and location of school. If you graduated from the Philippines, please make sure you write down the city and please include the country as well.

If you have further educational attainment, arrange them starting with your latest educational attainment first.

8. Exams Passed – Write the name of the Exam, month and year taken, Passed. If your score is exceptionally high, then feel free to put it in. Otherwise, agencies and companies are just contented knowing that you passed the exam.

9. Training – Have you undergone training? This would be very useful information especially if it is relevant to the job that you are applying for.

10. Interests – Write down your interests as these might help you secure the job. Sometimes, it is not just the hard skills that matter, you know.

11. Referees – Referees are critical in securing a job. Agencies or companies normally do this last. They normally conduct reference checks so make sure that your referees are those people that would give a good word on you.

It would also help if your referees are work-related ones as that gives confidence to your prospective employer too.

You can also write – Available upon request – under your Referee section if you don’t want to publish the referee list until you pass the round of interviews and you get an indication from your prospective employer that they are interested in hiring you.

If you have noticed, I have enumerated the suggested sections of your CV under the DO’s list. You can start with the suggested sections and use the DO’s list as the guideline in creating that Winning CV!!!

    DONT'S

1. Don’t Attach your picture in your CV - Although a standard Philippine practice, it is not required in NZ to attach your picture to your CV when sending your application. Agencies normally take a picture of you when you complete an application. Companies take a picture of you when you start with the company.

2. Don’t write your marital status - NZ is good with adopting the EEO policy as far as your civil status is concerned. So whether you are married or single, it doesn’t really matter to your prospective employer.

3. Don’t Write too lengthy duties and responsibilities which just means one and the same thing and which can be summarized into a one-liner.

4. Don’t Create a CV that has seven pages or more - Assess your CV and just summarise your work if it is 10 years old or more. Agencies or prospective employers don’t like looking at lengthy CVs. They prefer it to be concise.

5. Don’t Put a referee just because he/she is your friend - You can use this person as a character reference, if you are short of securing referees. Work-related ones are still preferred in securing that much-needed job.

I hope this article provides some insights with the preparation of your CV and in getting that dream role. GOOD LUCK!!!!