One of the most important aspects of landing the job of your dreams is staring with a powerful résumé (or CV, as they’re called in my part of the world). Either you present yourself well enough to get the interview or find yourself missing out on something great. Ultimately, it’s about selling yourself as best as you can so make sure you take the time to do it right.

Keep it short. The point is simply to get your foot in the door, so two pages of only the most essential information should be enough. Whenever something can be attached and referred to separately, do so and use the extra space for the crucial bits.

Keep it neat. The layout should make finding the relevant information easy and is often done chronologically from the present working back. Again, it helps when you don’t have too much of your life story spewed across pages that could quite easily be left out.

Keep it relevant. Include all the important dates, institutions, qualifications, activities, and achievements. Briefly talk about what you’ve learned in the experiences you’ve had and how those could be applied to the job you want.

Keep it interesting. The section on your hobbies can be a great opportunity to make yourself stand out, be it through your involvement in martial arts or volunteer work you do on weekends. Anything to make you memorable will always be a plus.

 (To download your completely free copy of the South African or International edition of Work in Progress, right-click and save the relevant link. Then open, enjoy, and repeat as needed.)

“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” – Pablo Picasso

There’s been a lot of understandable concern about privacy online. What are your views? Does it bother you that information about what you do is being gathered and used if doing so turns out to be in your best interest? Or should certain things remain only for us to know and not for others to use against us?

(To download your completely free copy of the South African or International edition of Work in Progress, right-click and save the relevant link. Then open, enjoy, and repeat as needed.)