CV Making
Guide
Overview
● What all goes in your CV
● CV Making Pointers
● Content Specific Guidance
● Action Verbs
What all goes in your CV
What all goes in your CV
Education Details Academic Achievements
● Purpose: Convey Academic background ● Purpose: Convey ‘Consistent’ Record & Awards
● Content: Qualification, CGPA, School grades ● Content Examples: All India Ranks, Scholarships (NTSE,
KVPY), Olympiads
Work Ex PORs
● Purpose: Convey about nature of work handled ● Purpose: Convey leadership and ability to work in teams
● Content: Responsibilities, Impact created, ● Content: Positions in student bodies, Advisory positions
Achievements during Workex, Leadership, Initiatives held, Membership in various teams, Responsibilities
Internship & Project Information Extra Curricular
● Purpose: Show quality of project work, Experience in ● Purpose: Diversity, Skill sets, Level of proficiency in
a professional setting (for Freshers) various fields
● Content: Summer Internships, Projects / Papers ● Content Examples: Awards at national and inter-
Published collegiate level, Contribution to team
CV Making Pointers
Consistency & Sentence overflowing (1)
● Use common denomination like mn/m/cr, $ across CV
● Single sentence in cv; don’t let it overflow – Cut down redundant words
Consistency & Sentence overflowing (2)
● Time consistency (like Jun, Mar, line alignment, Italics)
● Table gridlines – Use same border size, use same size bullets, same font across cv etc.,
Right Balance of White Spaces (1)
● Too small sentences across the section – elaborate by quantifying or add multiple points with ‘|’ separator
if they are of similar nature.
Right Balance of White Spaces (2)
● Adjust Character spacing to balance out line spacing – use with caution. Don’t overdo
● Spacing between sections – Do not give wide spaces between various sections of CV
Balance of bold texts
● What to bold – action words, quantitative data
● Too much excessive bolding defeats the point
● Balance between highlighting quantitative data in point vs qualitative like the nature of project in points
containing both
CV colors
● Use grey scale - light grey, dark grey and black. No specific recommendation.
● Can use darker shades for header and lighter shades for sub-headings eg., for multiple work-ex within the
main header of Professional Experience
Black Text
Black Text
White Text
White Text
Content Specific Guidance
Quantify the Impact
● Do not make points to generic or qualitative alone as it does not highlight the impact
● Use numbers, approximates, percentages to quantify
Front Loading
● Take quantifying part and achievement/ power verb part forward by framing sentence accordingly
Action Verbs
● Better words to demonstrate impact. But don’t use fancy word for sake of it – understand meaning
● Avoid repeating same power verbs too many times across cv or in same section
Note: If the meaning changes it would not be acceptable without a proof again. Eg., if assisted in project/ part of team – you
cannot frame it such that it conveys as if you were the only member
Points to Remember
DO’s:
● Decide what aspects of your personality you want to reflect and present on your CV
● Go through several resumes to get a good ideas about how to make a line look better
● Keep school achievements to a minimum (unless it is significant like NTSE, Olympiads, State Level Sports, etc.)
DONT’s:
● Avoid technical details as the recruiter might not be familiar with it, focus on time/ cost saved and other
outputs
● Avoid College-specific terms or events that the recruiter might not be familiar with
● Avoid repeating achievements in the same field (e.g. seminar and BTP in the same topic, coordinator and CG/
Manager in the same fest). It is obvious that you cant reach the higher level without excelling in the lower one!
Action Verbs
Action Verbs (1/2)
Action Verbs (2/2)
General Principles for Finance-oriented CVs
“Top load”
• First half of your resume is the most critical. Put your “best foot forward” in that
• What’s the best foot forward?
• Depends on your previous profile and is case-to-case; figure out your “CV Anchors”
Quantify yourAchievements
• Secured a Gold Medal in National Physics Olympiad
• Received Gold Medal ([Link]%ile) / XX,XXX candidates in Indian National Physics Olympiad
Highlight Impact Created
• Potential XX% increase in investment by [ ] for capacity expansion based on recommendations
• Secured XX% savings for [ ] by developing a model and analyzing [ ]
Hygiene factors
When you go for CV reviews, etc, best to have already addressed
• Spell check
hygiene issues – review previous CVs before making your own, and
• Spacing
review (and get it reviewed) multiple times
• Formatting
Examples of “CV Anchors”
Academics, Professional Work Experience
Qualifications
Scholastic Achievements,
Internships
Certifications
Research Projects Competitions
These are not the “be all end all”; there can be several other CV Anchors – you must think about what
sets you apart and makes you potentially a valuable resource?
General Principles for Consult-oriented CVs
“Top load & Frontload”
• First half of your resume & first half of a line is the most critical. Cover the “R-C-A”
• What’s the best foot forward?
• Depends on your previous profile and is case-to-case
Spikes and sectionalbalance
• The “WOW” factor – Focus on two sections at least; Longer engagement along with impact
• The “All rounder” – A Jack of all Trades or an Exceptional Master?
Quantify and highlight Impact Created (For every section)
• Developed a new algorithm that reduced loan processing times
• Reduced loan processing time by XX% by developing a new algorithm
Hygiene factors
-Before you go for CV reviews- Check hygiene factors, review CV
• Spell check
repository, carry CV print outs
• Understandability
-There are as many opinions as reviews; Exercise wisdom
• Spacing & formatting
Adding value in each section
Work Experience&
Academics,Professional
Internships
Qualifications • Focus on soft skills as well;
• Keep it temporally relevant “Workplace initiatives”
ScholasticAchievements, Positions ofresponsibility
Certifications &Competitions • Moving beyond the role towards
• Participants, description & the work
scale
Research Projects Extra CurricularActivities
• Focus on impact and avoid • Participation vsWinning
jargon • Regional vs National
What can you do before CV freezing:Clubs & Competitions
Are you an INTERESTINGGO-GETTERwho willADDVALUE whileWORKING INTEAMS?
General Management
A Well Balanced CV- Good mix of Proponent for Social Welfare- Activities
1 Academic Achievements, Extra-Curricular 3 undertaken for the benefit of Society,
Activities, PORs, Internships and/or Work Country and Humanity in general. Could be
Experience is preferred. Social Work, NGO Internships, Youth
Conclaves, Build India Summits etc.
Focus on PORs- PORs show Leadership Choice of Words- Use Power Verbs/
2
and Team Work, values every GenMan 4
Resume Action Verbs like Pioneered,
Company looks for. Clearly explain the Revamped etc. PlaceCom will provide the
activities undertaken, achievements as well list
as yourrole.
Marketing CVs - Pointers
● Make a balanced CV (academic, PORs, extracurriculars)
● Don’t make a skewed CV towards acads or extracurriculars or your work-ex.
● In addition to highlighting your numbers in a project - do highlight the "skill" you learnt
● PORs and Extracurriculars: They serve as the best way to showcase multiple skills- team player,
leadership, negotiation and so on.
● Points lying outside academics should definitely be mentioned and their impact shown clearly.
● Certified Courses if any
● Work experience, projects or internships related to marketing
● Case competitions related to marketing
Operations - Guidelines for CV making
Professional Experience
✓ Prioritize work- experience/internship in a leadership/ managerial role or an operations related role
✓ Highlight new initiatives or special projects taken for productivity improvement, cost optimization, improvement
of service level of customers, if any
✓ Mention about Six sigma, Kaizen, ISO or any operations related training which you have completed
✓ Use terms like operational excellence, continuous improvement, quality control, stakeholder management
wherever applicable
Positions of Responsibility
✓ Mention Position of Responsibilities where you have managed a team and made an impact
✓ Focus on activities where you have taken end-to-end responsibilities (eg: logistics, planning and execution of
event)
Sample resume points
Work experience
Position of Responsibilities
Some key words which can be helpful
Words Context
Increased Production parameter/revenue/reliability
Improved Output/productivity
Achieved Any awards/improvements
Led a team of 30 people in XXX department to deliver YYY
Spearheaded A cross-functional team/cost reduction initiative
Reduced costs/ cycle time/energy usage
Decreased Costs/Energy/Man-power/Cycle time
Saved Costs/Energy/Man-power/Cycle time
Initiated XXX initiative/Projects
Conceptualized A new design/process/idea
Supervised A team of 30 people in XXX department to deliver YYY
PM Tech – Some guidelines
Why What How
The impact of your Don’t mention the Beware from throwing
work needs to come responsibilities you technical jargon,
out. Not necessarily in were given, explain the explain in simple
numbers! problem you were terms.
solving.
Developed UI &APIs using Node & Express to supportAWS S3;achieved latency of
5.8% in connection with SQLserver 2005 OLAPdata source.
Achieved ~6% improvement in app deployment latency by developing an application
which provides an easy-to-use interactive platform.
CV Structure
