Effective CV and Cover Letter

May 9, 2010

© 2010 Deloitte Vietnam

1. Planning your application

2. Creating your CV – Do‟s and Don‟ts

• Common structure

• Good first impression

• Do‟s and Don‟ts

3. CV Contest 2010 - some observations

Key points

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© 2008 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu


• Don't just sell what you have, sell what the buyer needs! So it is important to

look for the information about the company and position you are applying for.

• Be selective about who you send your CV to;

• The employers are looking for the most suitable candidates, not the best;

• Do understand yourself so that you can match your strengths with employers‟s

requirements

‒ Managerial qualities: leadership, planning and organizing, persuasiveness

‒ Professional qualities: Specialist knowledge, problem solving, analytical skills,

communication skill, writing skill

‒ Entrepreneurial qualities: commercial awareness, creativity, strategic thinking

‒ Personal qualities: interpersonal sensitivities, flexibility, resilience, personal

motivation, trustworthy

A CV is a selling document

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© 2010 Deloitte Vietnam5

Understand the employer’ expectations

Attitude

Knowledge

Skills


Understand the selection process

Offer


Objective at each selection stage

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To identify candidates

with suitable knowledge

and skills


with relevant skills


with right attitude

By checking if:

• Educational

background is relevant

to the role;

• Applicant has logical

thinking;

• Applicant‟s English is

acceptable ;

• Applicant understands

about the company and

the job requirements.

By checking if:

• The applicant can apply

theories to solve real life

cases;

• The applicant „s English

level is correct as

assumed from the first

round;

• The applicant has

appropriate IQ and EQ

indices.

By checking if:

• The applicant has

suitable appearance,

gesture, emotion etc.

• Knowledge, skills and

attitude are tested at the

same time

• Note: Requirements will

be different depending on

each role‟s requirements

Screening Test Interview




• Cover letter:

‒ A letter sent to Human Resources Department if not otherwise specified in the

recruitment notification

‒ Subject line: indicating the position you are applying for

‒ Content: showing your interest in the company and the position as well as

your career objective

• CV:

‒ Part I: Personal information

‒ Part II: Education and Training

• Including achievements and professional training, if any

‒ Part III: Working experience

• Including achievements (if applicable)

‒ Part IV: Additional skills and competences

• Any other skills (computer, research, design, etc.)

• Language proficiency: only include if highly developed

• References: do not list too many

‒ Part V: Declaration

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• Cover letter: should be concise, straight to the point and short

‒ Key words and phrases relating to the job need to be included

‒ Try to get inside the mind of the reader by the tone of your writing

‒ Remember: Many recruiters will look for reasons to screen you out, so the

objective of cover letter is to keep yourself in within the first 30 seconds.

Creating a good “first impression”

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• CV: should be presentable, reader's friendly

‒ Information: ranked from essential to additional

in accordance with reader's priority

‒ Length: be mindful of cultural characteristic (US,

UK, Europe, Vietnam, etc.)

‒ Experienced recruiters can tell a lot about you

after just 1 minutes of scanning though your CV.


What can recruiters tell about you by reading your CV?

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Good quality paper

Clear layout

Easy, readable

written English

Explain complicated

subjects simply

No spelling mistakes

Relevant

information

Appropriate

qualifications

Business-like,

organized

Communication and

writing skills

Concise thinker

Showing respect to

reader

Good judgement

Qualified to do the

job

Your CV Personality interpretation


• Be yourself:

‒ Remember that you may be asked about anything or everything you have

included in your CV.

‒ All employers are looking for trustworthy employees, so misleading

information is dangerous for your future career path

• Develop your personal style: it's not what you say, but the way that you say it will

differentiate you from the crowd.

• Contact information:

‒ Essential to inform which contact is the most reliable to reach you

‒ Full address is useful

‒ E-mail address should be as business-like as possible

Describing yourself

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1. Ask yourself:

‒ Does this CV sound like me?

‒ Is my English clear and easy to understand?

‒ Have I provided all the information required for that

position?

‒ If I were the reader, would I feel like selecting this CV?

2. Check carefully, word by word

3. Ask for reviewer‟s opinions

4. Print out, using good quality papers and proper,

presentable A4 envelope

5. Check address on the envelope and send out.


DO’S

Identify your short-term and long-term

career objectives;

Be honest when analyzing your skills;

Identify key achievements which are

relevant to your application;

Be creative in your approach in your CV,

but follow the basic structure;

List the latest events first (parts II & III);

Run grammar and spell check function

but remember that not all mistakes will

be eliminated;

Ask some experienced friends or

lecturers to review your CV and cover

letter and advise on word usage.

DON’TS

Set unrealistic targets

Include unnecessary details about

temporary jobs, unless really relevant

Undervaluate or over valuate your

achievements

Use too many specialist terms or overly

formal language in your CVs

Use lengthy and complex sentences

Use fancy typeface unless it‟s a design

position

Waste space – it‟s OK if your CV is only

one page long

Some Do’s and Don’ts for fresh graduates



Irrelevant information or experience

Wrong concept about HR, such as “reducing labor cost by contract

negotiation” (?)

Experienced in marketing, media, IT => HRE?

Career aspiration was not shown clearly in many CVs

Some focused too much on academic achievements without highlighting

career objective

Majority, both in HR and Auditor applications, did not show which career

path they would want to pursuit,

Presentation problems

Background color

Usage of paragraphs and spacing

Inconsistent format: Margin, alignment, font size, layout

Most of applications for Auditor position have problem of non-user friendly

or unclear format

English: spelling and grammatical mistakes

Remember: CV is NOT an essay


• All CVs showed great efforts – some are

really good and thoughtful

• Majority of CVs had clear structure

• Many have spent time decorating their CVs

and some were very impressive

• Remember:

1. This is only a students' contest – more

for learning purpose. So failing the

contest does not mean that you would

be unsuccessful candidate in real life

2. Practice makes perfect – this is the

chance to improve your CVs before real

submission

3. All of you are the winners today!



Documents

Effective CV and Cover Letter