As a technical recruitment portal, we receive several applications daily. Whiles some of these CVs are outstanding and fit the roles they’re applying for, many CVs we receive are not properly structured and does a poor job in showing the talents and professional experience of the applicant

Excellent CVs possess the following

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Professional summary is a short profile about the applicant highlighting key programming languages, libraries and frameworks.  Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) pickup key words on applicants CV. Hence using the professional summary to highlight an applicant’s skill is always a good idea

GOOD SAMPLE

“Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer experienced in all phases of software testing, from planning to execution. Proficient in designing comprehensive test plans and managing test executions for both mobile and web applications using a variety of tools. Skilled in requirements analysis, test case development, defect investigation and management, API testing, performance testing, test reporting, and test automation. Expertise includes working with tools such as Cypress, Playwright, Katalon Studio, and Selenium.”

Reason

Personal information such as age, religion, marital status can lead to bias. It is therefore better to leave it out

Write your professional summary in the third person absent structure ie remove all the “I am” “Me” “My” etc. as many pronouns throughout a CV comes across as monotonous whiles lacking direction and professionalism

EDUCATION

Education is easier read in this structure ie

• Year
• Name of School,
• Course of Study
• Achievement

GOOD SAMPLE

2012- 2016 University of Ghana (Legon), Ghana BSc Business Administration, Second Class Upper (2:1)

• Awarded “Administration student of the year” for year 2015

Reason

A concise way of presenting information for easy reading and comprehension. Also state a high CGPA ie First Class or Second Class Upper. Anything lower than that leave it out.

This is where other achievements in school is highlighted eg.

• Graduated top of class
• Awarded for sportsmanship, talent, or made the deans list
• Contributed to a research paper

All school related achievements goes on the education section

SKILLS

The decision to offer a job beyond having academic qualifications is also heavily based on skills and expertise within the chosen field.  Signaling skills in a distinct section on the CV is good practice

GOOD SAMPLE

Programming and Scripting language: Python, R, C, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, PhP, XML and Android.

Database Languages: MySQL, SQLite, Firebase (Real-Time, Database, Storage, Authentication), NoSQL, Microsoft SQL

Engineering programs: MATLAB, Modeling and Simulating with cp2k, AutoCAD

OR

Fields of Interest: Software Quality assurance, Test automation, Cross browser testing

Technical Skills: Manual testing, Regression testing, Test automation (Cypress, Playwright, Selenium), Test management, Exploratory testing, Test planning, Mobile testing.

Reason

This is a concrete way for ATS to pick up on the keywords needed for the shortlisting. Making the process of identifying the candidates with the right skills easier

CERTIFICATES

Certification with the right verified key makes a difference in trusting that an applicant has the relevant skills they claim they have.  Especially in the field of technology where applicants first degree does not have to be in computer science

GOOD SAMPLE

Training / Short Courses

Software Testing Management Edx

Software Testing and Automation Edx

System Administration and IT Infrastructure Coursera

Formal Software Verification Edx

Cypress Automation Test Automation University

Server-side Development with NodeJS Coursera Certificate key

Reason

Veracity of necessary certification is important in technical jobs.

Prove that an applicant has the requisite training in the programming language is achievable by taking courses on a free online Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS), Free Google Progams, edX

Share certification links and authentic certificates keys for recruiters to view

PROJECTS & AWARDS

One hallmark of good technical talent is their ability to contribute to the overall tech community by contributing to open source projects. Participating in hackathon, conferences and pitch fests are good indicators

GOOD SAMPLE

Business Intelligence Project: Customer Service Repeat Caller Analysis, Google Fibre Google

• Prepared Stakeholder Requirements , Project Requirements and Planning documents
• Created a data model and performed ETL processes for Google Fiber using Google Sheets and BigQuery, following the business requirements
• Created and delivered interactive dashboards and reports for Google Fiber and other sources using Tableau

AWARDS

2021 Winner MTN FINTECH Pitchfest for “Buddy Save”, a peer-to-peer savings accountability platforms

Reason

In a competitive job space, wining a competition, hackathon or pitchfest signals that a candidate is an active member within the community aiding the applicants chances in being shortlisted

CONCLUSION

CVs submitted for technical roles require clearly outlined and defined details to push applicants to the top of the list and beat all applicant tracking software (ATS)