Looking for an internship or your first job? Struggling to summarize how awesome you are in just one page? How about deciding between “problem solver” or “team player” as the thing you know doesn’t describe you yet looks like a must to include? Building a CV is quite simple, but building the perfect one can be a nightmare.
IE’s Talent Management: Recruiting team revises dozens of them every day, from entry-level positions to some of the highest roles at IE. I’m very lucky to have learned from them during my internship, and you are just as fortunate to stumble across this article. Here is a comprehensive guide to creating a stellar CV by IE’s Talent Management team.
Complete your career training.
Did you know that there is a department at IE dedicated to helping you with your professional path? Talent and Careers have mandatory training for all students and a wide range of resources such as templates, interview guides, and CV revision workshops. Our first advice is to complete everything they offer. Their template is especially useful. It has a clean and organized look. The format allows you to have everything a recruiter wants to see in a coherent manner. I can’t recall how many funky-looking CVs I’ve seen my coworkers struggle to revise. The rest of their templates are just as practical. Take full advantage of the resources provided by the Careers team.
Tailor your CV to the application
This is especially true if you are looking into more than one role for your job or internship. For example, I have one CV for consulting roles and another for marketing roles. It’s not as if I have two identities, it’s about highlighting different aspects of who you are. Adjusting your application to the process can be very useful, especially if you are applying to a company that could be using AI. Unfortunately, AI filters are a thing. They don’t care about your dreams or work ethic, just how many keywords in your CV match their criteria. So, if yours says “problem solver” but the job posting says “solution finder”, consider giving it a tweak.
Don’t exaggerate
Let’s be honest for a second. We all have embellished our CVs a little bit. And that is perfectly fine… until you dig yourself a little too deep. There is nothing worse than exaggerating your skills and qualifications, especially if they are obvious. This happens a lot with things such as languages. Even though they might seem innocent, you could run into an actual test and expose yourself. And trust me, once you get outed as a liar you can say goodbye to that company forever.
An even worse situation could be not getting caught and getting the job. Remember when you wrote “Advanced Excel user”? Well, I hope you are one because your boss will expect you to be so. If you have no idea what you are doing you will be out in a blink.
So what?
“Member of the Marketing Lab” – so what? “Organizing a digital campaign for ABC company at the Marketing Lab” – a bit better, but so what?
“Organizing a digital campaign for ABC company at the Marketing Lab, increasing brand awareness by x% as a result” – now that’s perfect.
You need to reflect the results of your action in your CV. If not, the recruiters don’t know what impact you had on your work. You might as well have stared at a wall the whole time. These results don’t need to be stellar, just good enough that whoever reads your CV will know that if they hire you, they can expect someone who will contribute to the company and is aware of the impact they have on the company, no matter how small it might seem.
Final recommendation
Even if you have done all of the previous recommendations you might not get the job, and that’s fine. There is a reason why recruiters exist in the first place: to make sure that the right candidate fills in the job position. If you didn’t get the job you wished for, then maybe it wasn’t right for you at the time. You are just starting your professional career. Who knows, maybe in the future you don’t want to work at a company that used to have your dream job.
Still, next time you apply for an opening, be sure to come back and see if you are up to IE’s recruiters’ standards.
Wherever your CV takes you, I wish you the best of luck on your professional journey!
