Chapter 5
CV
How to write a CV is always a very speculative topic. I have seen internet gurus advising different things.
Someone says to not put a picture, someone says it should be 1 page, other people advise the total opposite.
This article is based on several assumptions that worked for me. It is up to you to use them or not.
My Assumptions Are:
- AI will be the first judge of my CV.
- Probably after I have passed the AI filter, a real human will glance over the CV.
Therefore, I Conclude
- I need to fill my CV with key words for AI.
- The structure of my CV needs to catch attention to pass the "glance" filter.
- I want them to see the human behind these pages.
I am sure that humans want to work with humans. Especially with the rise of AI, when we are rethinking our humanness. Therefore, I do not treat humanization of my CV as something not professional.
Therefore, This Is How I Act:
Templating
I had many conversations with HRs on whether you should use a template or not, how long your CV should be, whether you should include your picture or not. There is no consensus and it is always a matter of taste.
In the pre-AI era it was important that your CV is not super long. 3 pages was the max and I think that it should stay 3 pages max.
Nevertheless, people were always trying to keep it to just 1 page.
Well, now HRs might just look through your CV, but I suggest that all the heavy reading and "match to vacancy" is done by AI. Therefore, if you have something to say and you need 2 pages for that, I think that it is no longer a crime.
2 Key Ideas:
- AI will read my CV to see how well I fit the vacancy.
- HR will probably open my CV to glance over it.
Order does not matter.
Therefore the action point would be:
- My CV needs to be filled with key-words, which a robot could match to the words in the vacancy.
- My CV should not look boring, so that it attracts human HR attention.
Regarding key-words, you have to think as if you were an SEO (search engine optimizer), but I guess now it is called AI...O. Well, helpfully you can use AI to optimize your resume to include as many key-words as possible like: "Java, backend, microservices, REST API" and so on.
Regarding the look, my personal opinion is that you should go to Canva and find a pretty and readable template which will catch your human attention, therefore it has the potential to catch HR's attention.