When applying for a job, it is important to present yourself in the best way. A convincing cover letter and a perfect resume are key to making it through to an interview.
What should the perfect resume contain?
- Name, address, telephone number, and email address
- Nationality
- Professional background
- Academic background
- Skills, further education, and special qualifications
Feel free to include details such as hobbies and interests, voluntary activities, a photo, or a link to your LinkedIn profile to provide a more complete picture of your background and personality.
How to structure your CV
Keep your CV short and to the point: one to three pages maximum, and all relevant information should be quickly found.
How to organize the information?
- The most relevant information should be at the top (personal details such as name and address), and less important information should be kept further down.
- This is followed by a list of professional and academic backgrounds organized chronologically starting with the most recent.
- Skills and knowledge, hobbies and interests, and volunteer activities are better placed further down.
What are the important layout considerations?
- Consistent (font, font sizes, colors).
- The font size should be easy to read. Please keep in mind that the choice of font size can improve the structure and clarity of your CV.
What to include
What to include under academic background?
- Only courses of study, training qualifications, and the highest level of school education are relevant here; elementary school is irrelevant.
- Please include the grades of the respective degrees.
What to include under professional background?
- Title of the position, company, location of the company, and the timeframe.
- Bullet points for each job outlining the core tasks you performed. This gives us a better insight into your activities and allows us to match this with the requirements of the advertised position.
- In general, the following can be said about all of your positions in your work history: Try to elaborate only on those positions that are relevant to the advertised position!
Absolutely avoid!
To ensure your application makes a strong impression, avoid including incorrect information, unexplained gaps in your career history, or overwhelming details. Maintain a clear and structured format, and steer clear of personal insights such as the occupations of your parents or siblings, or reasons for changing jobs.
Also, double-check for spelling errors and make sure there are no inconsistencies with reference materials such as grades or dates of employment. Finally, submit your documents in a widely accepted format—Microsoft Word files are generally discouraged.
Three important tips on the subject of cover Letters
- Describe skills and qualifications
- Avoid spelling and grammatical errors
- Be authentic
Answer the question: which of your skills and qualifications are relevant to your future employer? In your cover letter, use very specific examples to show how and why you will be of use to the new department.
Avoid formal errors. Make sure you spell the contact person correctly. Spelling and grammatical errors should also be avoided.
True: you have to fit the job. But the new position must also fit you. It won't work anyway if you have to constantly pretend to yourself and your new employer in the future - so it's better not to even start in the application. Stand by your own distinctive personality.