Getting employed by a prestigious company in Europe begins with building a good CV. There are lots of available templates – for example, the most used CV template in the IT industry in Europe is the Europass CV.

We would like to share with you five basic principles to build a good CV in the IT industry.

1. Concentrate on the essentials

• Employers generally spend less than one minute reading a CV before deciding to reject it.
• Make sure that the two first pages reflect your professional experience/profile since there are great chances the employer won’t spend more than a minute reading your CV.
• Add a summary section, where you list the length of your experience and your competence on key aspects of your professional experience, like for instance, “5 years working with Java”, “3 years in banking”, and so on.
• Focus on keywords, try to put as many keywords matching the job description as possible, like “banking, java, oracle”, and so on.
• If applying for an advertised vacancy, always ensure that you comply with the application process entirely, for example, if they asked you for a CV in docx, don’t send them a PDF file.

Example of Sprint CV automated IT skills report

2. Be clear and concise

• Use short sentences. Avoid clichés. Concentrate on the relevant aspects of your training and work experience.
• Give specific examples. Quantify your achievements.
• List the relevant technologies, software and methodologies used on each project.
• Describe your different roles and responsibilities.

3. Always adapt your CV to suit the post you are applying for

• Highlight your strengths according to the needs of the employer and focus on the skills that match the job. A simple trick is to put the keywords that you would like to highlight on the top.
• Avoid breaks in your studies or career. Try to fill those gaps with volunteering or personal projects which have transferable skills you might have learned during your break.
• Before sending your CV to a possible employer, check again if it matches the required profile.
• Do not artificially inflate your CV; if you do so, it is likely to be discovered at the interview.

4. Pay attention to the presentation of your CV

• Present your skills and competencies clearly and logically, so that your advantages can stand out.
• Put the most relevant information first.
• Pay attention to spelling and punctuation.
• Retain the suggested font and layout, for example, if they request a CV in Europass 2018 CV template, don’t send them your CV in another CV template.

5. Re-check your CV once you have filled it in

• Correct any spelling mistakes, and ensure the layout is clear and logical. Use MS Word and Grammarly to correct spelling errors, wrong expressions and/or grammar.
• Ask a friend to proofread your CV so that you are sure the content is clear and easy to understand.
• Quite often, it is a good investment to pay a specialist or a native speaker for a revision of your CV.

Conclusion

If creating and maintaining a CV presents a huge challenge, there is no need to worry about it. At Sprint CV, we want to help you improve your chances of getting hired. Our online CV generator tool will apply all these basic principles and the best practices in the Industry. We will use your professional experience and generate your Europass CV and/or any other of the many supported CV templates, in a fully automated way. Our mission is to save you a great deal of time and let you focus on other important aspects of your application.

Click here to see an example of a Europass CV generated by Sprint CV.
or
Click here to see an example of a Sprint CV  generated by Sprint CV.