How to Adapt Your CV to the North American or European Style

Versión en Español: Cómo adaptar tu CV al estilo norteamericano o europeo

Your resume or CV is the most important document when applying to a job opportunity or a university program. Although the overall application may vary between companies or universities, the one constant in each process is the resume. For the past six years, we have helped Latin American applicants transform their CVs to be consistent with the North American and European style in terms of language, format, structure, and content. Based on the success stories of our clients, we would like to share Our 10 Tips on how you can adapt your English CV to the North American or European style.

#1:  Think of your CV as a personal marketing document.

Think about how to sell your professional and academic experiences, your potential, and your fit with the position, program, or company. This is not the time to be humble. It´s important that you highlight the differentiating elements of your profile, your achievements, and the positive and tangible impacts you have had on your university, organization, and community.

If you are not sure which elements differentiate you, ask us.

#2:  Tailor your CV to the position or program under consideration.

Each hiring manager or admissions committee member is reviewing and filtering candidates based on certain criteria. Sometimes these criteria appear explicitly in the job description. Other times these criteria can be inferred by the communications published on their web pages, in their Mission Statements, and in their Class Profiles. As an applicant, it is important that you pay attention to these explicit and implicit communications when creating, selecting, discarding, and organizing the bullet points of your CV.

#3: Arrange the order of the bullet points according to importance and relevance.

Research shows that hiring managers spend less than 30 seconds reviewing each CV. Therefore, it is very important that you be strategic with the bullet points that will be read first. These first bullet points must contain your most important and relevant achievements, impacts, and experiences from the point of view of the person who will review your CV.

#4: Keep in mind that the format, structure, and grammar of your CV demonstrate your attention to detail.

The overall aesthetic of a resume in terms of fonts, margins, and spaces is like a photo: it says more than a thousand words. Everything must be consistent, organized, and aligned. Your CV must have an inverse chronological order in each section and be free of grammatical errors. A direct translation from Google Translator without additional review may put your application at risk.

#5:  Begin each bullet point with a different strong action verb.

The verb you choose to start each bullet point generates an immediate impact and affects the perceived importance or relevance associated with the achievement. For example, the word wrote implies an ordinary or routine activity while the word authored implies something more structured and thoughtful. Use a thesaurus to avoid repeating the same action verb at the beginning. A variety of strong actions verbs helps capture and maintain the reader's attention.

#6: Limit each bullet point to no more than two lines. Be clear and concise with your message.

In order to express the importance and relevance of each bullet point, it is important that you limit each bullet point to a maximum of two lines of text. The main goal of an English CV is to convey a clear and understandable message.

#7:  Eliminate the personal photo, date of birth, and marital status.

Unlike the Latin American market, the North American market effectively prohibits the inclusion of the applicant´s personal photo, date of birth, place of birth, and marital status in the CV. This is to avoid discrimination. The only personal data that should appear on your CV are your full name, your physical address, your email, and your phone number.

#8: Emphasize achievements and quantifiable impacts.

Whenever possible, each achievement or positive impact that appears on your CV should be quantified in terms that are easily understood. When you say you improved something, you should indicate the amount or percentage of the improvement (e.g. sales increased by x%) and how you did it (e.g. by designing a special marketing plan). With respect to the achievements and impacts that you cannot quantify, you should always look for a way to show the importance and relevance of your work (e.g. you presented the results to the organization's management team).

#9: Respect the rule of the thumb of one page per 5 years of work experience.

The expectation of hiring managers or admissions committee members is that a person can easily communicate five years of his or her professional experiences (plus academic history) in one page. In certain professions and industries, this rule of thumb is closer to ten years per page. The CV is an opportunity to demonstrate your communication and prioritization skills.

#10: Apply the particular grammatical style of CVs and avoid the use of pronouns.

Avoid the use of pronouns at the beginning of each bullet point and throughout CV. Conjugate verbs in the past tense for a position that has already ended, or in the present tense for a position currently held. Bullet points must be complete statements; don't write fragments. Each bullet point must always end with a period.

If you would like for us to assist you with the process of reviewing your English CV and adapting it to the North American or European style, we invite you to request a free consultation with us by clicking on the button Get Started or the button Request A Free Analysis.  You can also reach out to us directly by emailing us at contact@azuladvisors.com.