Curriculum Vitae is a document prepared by you about yourself. That’s the foundation upon which is built the credentials of who you are and what you represent. Consequently, no other testimonial can have precedence over this document, called the “CV”, in abbreviated form.
Curriculum Vitae is a document prepared by you about yourself. That’s the foundation upon which is built the credentials of who you are and what you represent. Consequently, no other testimonial can have precedence over this document, called the “CV”, in abbreviated form.
Curriculum vitae is a Latin word, which means, ‘course of life’. This course of life document over time has come to be restricted to include, academic and professional accomplishment, its history and a few details about the person, one is. Normally both those advertising the job and those applying for, confuse between curriculum vitae and resume. They are not synonymous. They have different meanings. By market practice in the European Union and the United States of America, a CV is considered and meant to be a very detailed document that is supposed to provide deep insight into educational qualifications, professional career, objective and purpose of the individual, the meaning of life and existence to them. The idea being to be able to not just know the academic and professional details but significantly discover, albeit on a limited basis, who the individual is, the thought patterns, the values held, etc. Resume is a very short, to the point document, about self. This is culled from the curriculum vitae, for making an application for a specific job/assignment. A resume usually would not exceed two pages.
Locally here, we liberally smudge these dividing lines, so when a resume is asked, a CV is filed, and vice versa. CV’s or resumes have to be in alignment with local traditions and customs. Not so rampant these days, but say a decade or two back, the father’s name and designation was mentioned; it “assisted” the decision makers in hiring! Nepotism could flourish easily. CV’s are designed and constructed locally with the intent to create influence upon the mind of the readers; mention of extraneous aspects, is directed towards unabated growth of nepotism in society. The mention of religion, caste, creed, sect or any socially distinguishing comment must be strictly avoided. Those who do mention, with intent to do so and not because of innocence, must be rejected, without even giving such a chance for an interview.
Like a nominated ambassador who goes overseas, before starting to do diplomacy there, he has to present his credentials to the highest office holder of the host country; a CV is akin to that type of credentials, that leads to establishing validity to the personal credentials, for the recipient to believe and trust upon.
CV’s must be prepared with great care and caution. There should be no ambiguities, anomalies or inconsistencies. The dates must remain aligned and must satisfy continuity; gaps must be explained. Some prefer to go to professional curriculum vitae writers. It can be helpful, but the risk is the writer may exaggerate the skill set or say things that you may not be even aware of. In an interview, the candidate had the audacity to ask the interviewer,” what you are asking... is it written on my CV?”. Callousness at its best, the candidate had not even read his professionally prepared CV.
Some prefer to mask their CV’s, either by understating their inadequacies or overstating their abilities. Both are dangerous to pursue, especially the former, that of camouflaging the CV. That’s outright dishonesty. In fact outrageously belligerent. Deceptive writing gets exposed during the course of the interview. Never should any attempt to test the intelligence of the interviewers, by checking mating details. CV’s do not have to be dipped deep into a reservoir of positivity; it should be balanced. The words used in a CV should be passive, not aggressive. Avoid remarks or statements that indicate” overselling “.
A CV is the story of life, but it’s not the his/her life. (Primacy of this thought is borrowed from novelist John Barth). The CV must remain a document that describes what is significant, and not a tabulation of events or facts of life. Many applicants misguidedly think that a mention of a brand will make way for them; those who move to smaller organisations from bigger ones, usually are victims of such thinking. It is no doubt that having worked in a well-known brand adds to credentials, but it is just one element on the CV, never misconstrue it for being ‘the element’. Without underestimating the brand value of the institution worked for, while writing CV, care should be exercised to bring forth the brand that is “you”. It is your brand’s uniqueness that will take you places. So build your own brand, do not use other brands as crutches, because they do not last long.
Currently, head hunters and HR managers prey upon social media platforms for seeking out good candidates. The potential job seekers hence put up their CV on such sites. I have a personal disdain towards this hunting in the wilderness. There is nothing better than advertising and seeking applicants directly. Equal opportunity is afforded in total. Indeed, this mechanism is tedious and laborious, but shouldn’t the best be found and hired. Many organisations do take the CV’s of the candidates but place greater reliance on their own ‘ assessment centres’. In such an environment the candidate is required to go through multiple tests, of varied nature, ranging from tech skills to psychometric tests. The candidates have to literally work an entire day at the organisation, where the evaluation process gets going upon entering the office. CV’s role is diminished. Any mismatch between who you are and what your CV says gets exposed very speedily.
Many FMCG gloat over their hiring mechanism. They act tough in interviews; make the candidates uncomfortable and show general disdain. This approach is fine, if the yearly intake is not more than three employees, but if you have batches of management trainees and several batches of experienced staff, to take from the market, such an attitude would not draw much talent. They rely heavily on their unique performance management and evaluation process; it is also a fact that their attrition rates are low. This can be explained by the less number of hiring done. In my personal experience I have seen attrition more in the first two years of joining an organisation.
CV’s carry scholastic details, which in reality, serve the purpose of getting the door ajar of any institution; otherwise it is the emphasis on who you are; what values you carry, what goals you wish to pursue, etc acquire more significance. Personality traits dominate technical proficiency. Many skills of yester years are continually getting replaced by technology; highlighting other traits on the CV, is now more a demand. This is also necessary due to dynamic change in the competency check models; the change is drastic, from academics to creativity, innovative skills, communication skills, leadership attributes, full scale social skills, etc. There is growing reliance on self-awareness. This is an aspect that is not written in a CV, but gets discovered through multiple layered discussions, with the employing organisation.
During the course of interviews, the elements of self-discipline are discovered. The control over emotional responses; the ability to handle a dissenting challenge and the availability of empathy in the personality are today more dominant aspects while hiring. While interviewing, I would set aside the pre- read CV, and ask the candidate to tell me something that is not stated on the CV... Those who are confident and have an all round personality of good scholastic record and humane traits, usually responded well, with clarity and confidence; while those who would come prepared only with their CV’s would fumble, become nervous, and demonstrate lack of self-confidence.
The demand today is to have high emotional stability -- with heightened cognitive skills of seeing beyond the current and the immediate; of having the foresight to draw new horizons or frontiers of thought and action. These characteristics cannot be captured in a CV or. Resume -- these can be discovered only by way of conversation. So, young readers prepare your CV’s and résumés to get you through the door... The rest would depend upon how you fare in the interview.
The writer is a senior banker & a freelance columnist
