"What" and "Quantify" Approach - for Preparing your CVs

Introduction

If someones asks me to define a CV, i would quickly Google it and say: " A curriculum vitae (CV) provides an overview of a person's experience and other qualifications. (or) It is a brief account of a person's education, qualifications, and experience, typically sent with a job application."

Since definitions have always failed to explain the true purpose of any term, i would simply say - its an important tool to market yourself and to make a positive impression on the interviewer in a very short time. A CV can make or break an interview. It can differentiate you from your competitors and can also give a direction to the interview.

Most of us know the basics of writing a CV and there is a lot of information available in the internet which can guide us in preparing a CV. So I'm not interested in discussing that.

But while preparing your CV, you often get a question - "What points should I include and what should I remove?". This is one of the toughest questions to answer and we oft get stuck. Some points seem important and some relevant. So how do I decide what to add/remove? Also, we often fail to structure our CV and end up making a poor CV.

This is common with almost everyone. So one needn't have to worry about it. There are ways to solve this issue. The "What" and "Quantify" approach is one which helps you decide what all points to add/remove. So while preparing your CV, you could try this approach and then meet your CV mentor for a final verification.

The average recruiter only spends 20 to 30 seconds glancing at a CV, which means that you have to grab their attention very quickly indeed. At the same time you also need to leave a positive impression on him. So for every point that you want to add, ask yourself these two questions - 1) What? 2) Did i Quantify?

1) What

The "What" talks about two things:

a) What is the point all about? (try to answer this in one word)

b) What is the value it is adding to your CV? Why should i include it in my CV?

How would this help me:

Let me first talk about - a) What is the point that I'm going to add in my CV?

The answer to this question would help you find out the relevance of the point w.r.to the section in which you are adding that point. Based on this you could decide if that point fits in that section or whether you have to change it. You could also find out whether the point is a new one or if its already conveyed somewhere else and depending on that you could make the necessary changes. Remember, never repeat a point. Its a Crime.

Example: Students usually tend to write - "Have completed so and so certification in Java" in the achievements section or "Mentored the new hires and trained them" under the Responsibilities section. The answer to "What?" would help you understand the essence of it and as to which section does the point come into.

b) What is the value it is adding to your CV? Why should i include it in my CV?

You cannot afford to just add points with the motive of filling the page. Every point should add some value to the CV. So try to identify the importance of that point. This would help you to identify the words you need to highlight and bold them.

If you're satisfied with the answers for both the questions then go for - "Did i Quantify?"

"Did I quantify?"

Every point that you add should make sense for the person who is reading you CV. We usually add points like "Achieved a gold medal in painting competition" /but how many have participated?/, "Played guitar in an event conducted at IITB" /did someone like it? how big is the event?/, "Initiated and implemented an automation framework for my project" /did it help you? or the organization? and How?/etc.

All these are very important points and can give a very good impression to the interviewer. But these points are open ended. They look abrupt. You need to quantify them by giving more information i.e. try and add some number to it - to make it look complete.

Instead of writing "Initiated and implemented an automation framework for my project", mention it like "Initiated and implemented an automation framework which has reduced the overall execution time of my team by 50%" or "Played guitar in an event conducted at IITB" could be written as "Played guitar in a nation wide event conducted at IITB which had a participation of over 2000 and was highly appreciated by the print media."

Quantifying helps in giving a holistic view and completeness to the sentence. It is very important to quantify (esp.) the achievements in your CV.

These are obvious points yet by asking the two simple questions "What" and "Did i Quantify" - your CV could really look better.

...Hope this helps!! :)