Written by Halil Çiftçi
In my previous article, I gave you some advice for interviews, and in this article, I will list the most common mistakes that trainees and internship candidates make in their CVs and a few tips on how you can improve your CV. I also mentioned the importance of first impressions you will leave on the recruiters in the interviews. As with interviews, your CV will be the first document your recruiter sees about you, and since you’ll be competing with many candidates, it’s best to double-check your CV and make proper arrangements based on the unique requirements of each internship position’ to make yourself stand out as a candidate. As a fresh recruiter, I examined hundreds of CVs, and I noted down all the mistakes that caught my attention. I will try to help you as much as I can with the help of my past experience.
Before we begin, let’s define the difference between a resume and a CV. The term curriculum vitae comes from the Latin phrase “course of (one’s) life.”, and a CV can be as long as you want it to be and is an evolving document that chronicles your professional development and career (Williams-Nickelson, 2008). However, a resume only includes your skills and qualifications for a specific job, and unlike a CV, a resume should typically be one or two pages long. Because CVs are most commonly used in academia, you may need to prepare one if you plan to apply for masters or doctoral programs in the future. Although organizations usually ask candidates for CVs for the internship and traineeship positions they sometimes use CV and résumé terms interchangeably. If you are not sure about whether you should send your CV or resume you should contact the institution you applied for.
When it comes to preparing a CV formatting is one of the most important features as it will be the first thing recruiters will pay attention to. A good format should highlight the most important information on your CV, such as your name, your previous employers’ names, and all the institutions’ names that you be part of in the past. Moreover, a good format isn’t just about highlighting names, it also includes things like how to line up all the sections, how to place those sections properly, or give your CV a holistic structure by avoiding white spaces. To sum it up, a good format helps you easily demonstrate all these salient features to recruiters and increase your credibility. I’ll give you some tips to help you develop these features, and I’ll talk about the most common mistakes internship candidates make on their CVs so you can avoid them:
In a literal sense, white spaces refer to the empty spaces between each section. As I mentioned before format is the primary feature of the CV that recruiters pay attention to, and good usage of white spaces can help you to have a perfect format and might give you the chance to get a face-to-face interview. The two most common mistakes I noticed while examining candidates’ CVs were using too many white spaces to make the CV appear longer or sending a messy one-page block of text where all texts are mixed up. Doing the proper arrangments following four sections can help you to avoid such mistakes:
If you haven’t had any professional help to prepare your CV, I’m assuming you are using free CV builder websites. I did the same. After all, you are probably applying for an unpaid internship position, and purchasing a CV preparation service may not be ideal for your budget. Even though you’ve prepared your CV on a free website, that doesn’t mean you can’t play around with some of its features. Convert the free version of your downloaded CV to word and change some features to have a good format.
Double-check your CV after you’ve finished preparing it. Sometimes a typo in your email can cost you an interview, and in any case, grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors reduce your credibility. Maybe you can show your CV to a friend to check because it’s very common to overlook some mistakes in a document you spend a lot of time on.
If the institution didn’t indicate in which format you should send your CV (PDF, Word, etc.), it’s better to contact them and ask it before sending your documents.
How you going to order all the sections on your CV is another way to improve your format. If you don’t have a clear idea about this, you can use the following structure:
As an intern candidate, you have the freedom to add links to your CV these days, where almost all internship postings are online. Maybe you’re a developer who doesn’t just want to explain their projects in writing, but also wants to show them off, or you’re a new designer who wants recruiters to see your previous work. So, with these links, you can grab the attention of recruiters and make it easier for them to navigate your application. However, in any case, you need to meet certain criteria and make sure that you are presenting these links correctly. A well-crafted link not only makes your CV shine, but it also increases your credibility.
The contact section is probably the most important part of your CV because recruiters will want to contact you after you’re shortlisted. While the chances of mistakes are very low here, I encountered many misspelled emails, phone numbers, and sometimes even misspelled names. Such mistakes can cost you a good internship opportunity. Double-check or even triple-check your contact information so you don’t regret it later.
Things that the contact information section must include:
If you manage large groups on social media platforms such as Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter, you should include them on your CV to demonstrate your managerial and leadership abilities, especially if you’re applying for marketing departments.
A professional summary about yourself is optional. You can add it to your CV after contact information. Sometimes recruiters might be inattentive and just give a glance at your CV. Therefore, you should include your key achievements and soft and hard skills here, that you don’t want recruiters to overlook.
Unless the institution requires a specific format, begin listing your schools with your most recent degree and include other degrees in reverse chronological order.
Things you should include:
Example:
As a fresh intern candidate, the certificates can be the backbone of your CV. Here are a few tips on how to use these certificates effectively on your CV:
Student Advisor:
-Guided new students in finding accommodation.
-Guided more than 100 students to find accommodation.
Full-stack Developer Intern:
-Identified and reported bugs.
-Identified and reported bugs, saving the company 25% of its costs during my internship period.
You can shine your CV also with your skills. However, like the rest of your CV, you should also be concise in this section and choose your skills carefully.
The number of skills you can choose from is endless, but if you’re applying for an internship or traineeship position, it means you’re at the start of your career. You don’t need to add too many skills to your CV because doing so can overshadow your most important skills and make it look unprofessional.
Science corner:
According to a study, the top four soft skills that attract the attention of employers are listed as follows (Gray & Koncz, 2017):
All languages you add should be divided into four categories: writing, listening, speaking, and reading. Different internship positions may necessitate a variety of language skills. For example, if you are applying for a job as a copywriter, your employer will be interested in your writing skills, whereas another employer may be more interested in your speaking skills to learn about your meeting management skills.