How has a modern and ingenious CV to be like?
We already know that Sportyjob offers the feature to upload a CV-video, since we discussed it circumstantial in our Sportyjob-blog. But what about all people that are too shy to create a CV-video? Don’t worry, you still can publish just a “normal” CV on your profile. But in the last years a lot of things regarding CVs changed, so today we will have a look what a CV has to contain nowadays.
1. The picture and the CV – a never ending love-hate relationship
The picture-affair… It has been pinned in every corner of the CV but never found its place to be. Indeed, you won´t need to rack your brains about that when it comes to create your Sportyjob-profile, but for sure now and then you will need to send an application-PDF and there your picture is an indispensable part. Asking your parents for advice, they will tell you that the pic has to be top right. This definitely is not wrong, but maybe might be a little old-fashioned. A few years ago, everyone was talking about a special cover sheet with a big picture in the middle of the sheet just above your contact-details. This approach as well is revised, especially since it seems a bit snobbish. That means it has to be found a method of embedding the pic that is somewhere in between these two procedures. Unfortunately there is no sample solution, but it is likely to insert the pic into a kind of contact box on top of your CV – like this your rather “boring” contact details will get some color and the picture has an adequate place.
2. Structure – what do HR-people really want to read?
Of course we can’t provide a best practice example, but in general this approach has established itself:
1st part: Contact-details: It definitely is enough just to list your contact-data and, if existent, your own homepage and your social media-profiles. Better to unveil them immediately – HR-representatives will search for them anyways.
2nd part: Education – this part is meant to show your latest education or academic studies, is doesn´t make sense to note down your primary or your secondary school if you studied. Try to give a brief overview about the most important (that means job relevant!!) tasks of your studies or education using some catchwords.
3rd part: Professional experience – the fundamental part of your CV. List all your relevant places of work, temporary jobs etc. chronologically, that means the recent one needs to be on top. Regarding your experience it still applies that gaps are unlovely, that’s why you should list all your activities, even though it only might be a six-months surftrip. Depending on the company and sport job you are applying to, this even could be a plus. Try to not only mention your jobs and activities, but also to describe them via catch phrases, so anyone can bring some idea of your tasks to his mind reading your CV. Furthermore its always a good thing to note the locations and websites of your former employees, so that HR-representatives can gather information without spending too much time (we all know: time is money!).
4th part: Freestyle – from this part on you are allowed to freestyle a bit- that means according to the sport job you are applying for and your personal skills, you e.g. could mention categories like “Projects” (for instance your current projects of your academic studies), “Honorary Posts”, “Further Qualifications” (like languages and IT-skills) or “Awards” and “Interests”. Please be careful with “Interests”, since here you should only list those hobbies that are absolutely relevant for the job – if you don’t have matching interests you should rather omit this point. What you furthermore could mention is a reference, this usually is done in English-speaking countries but is getting more and more common in other countries.
3. Layout – plain, colourful, stylish?
This again is an issue where we can’t give a proper solution. One thing is certain: Please try to avoid using layouts, which can be purchased online. According to your skills, you should design those two life-changing pages yourself, since they are a mirror of your personality and therefore should be created by yourself. In principle your creativity is without limits here as long as your CV still is clear arranged and easy readable.
That’s it so far – one last advice we can send you on your way with is to mail your CV-docs in only one PDF which has to be quite small, so you won’t blast your potential boss’ mailbox.
Regarding the CV in your Sportyjob-profile the only thing you have to care about is completeness – in all other steps you will be guided by the platform – dead easy!
In one of our next sport job blogs we will discuss another really annoying and nerve-wracking issue: The application picture.
Have a good one,
your Sportyjob-Team
Sport+Job=Sportyjob