Campus Interviews - How to impress the interviewers with your CV and how to appear for interview

Till now we were just discussing about what all things a person needs to take care of when he participates in the campus placement program. Today lets discuss about the what are the components of a good CV and how to face the interviews.

CV - The Gateway for any interview

CV is the most important document for any interview. Its the only way through which an interviewer will come to know about you. CV serves the purpose of the introduction to the interviewer.

Recently I happened to receive many CVs and I was disappointed by the quality of the CVs I got. Some of the CVs were not in a proper format. Some had the worst fonts in all shapes and sizes while some lacked a proper flow.

In some of the CVs the data was not presented in a manner which could impress the readers. While others mentioned all the non relevant details in the CVs.

Out of almost 43 CVs I received I could just find 6 CVs in a proper format. Rest were in such a way that the interviewer would have thrown it away without going through it.

Lets see how to draft a CV which can be decent enough and good for the interviewers to read.

• Start with your name, address, contact nos. and your mail id. Provide your correct nos. and mail id so that the interviewers can approach you. A suggestion to have a professional mail id for all the job related work separately from your personal id. Mail ids such as supercooldude@gmail.com or cutiepieangel@yahoo.com dont look good for a job interview.

• Then write a few lines about your career objective. This is just a formality that you need to do, There are hardly any employers who bother to read this section. Most of the times its ignored. You can Google a few good lines, at the max 2-3 lines and paste them in your CV.

• Now write about your work experience/articleship experience. Write in detail about the work performed there. If you have done articleship at more than one place, mention details about all the places. If after the completion of your articleship and before the CA results, you have worked somewhere add that work experience prior to your articleship details.

•  After the articleship experience now its the turn for educational qualifications. People make a lot of blunders here. I have seen CVs where people write about their qualifications in just one line. This is not going to serve the purpose. My suggestions are prepare two tables. One for the professional qualifications. Mention the details of all exams CPT, IPCC, Final, CS, ICWA, CFA etc in this table. Write details of CA course first and then the other courses because you are appearing for the CA interviews. Keep the following columns in the table.

1. Exam
2. Year of passing ( Provide separate details if you have cleared individual groups)
3. Marks scored
4. No. of Attempts

• After the professional qualifications go for the educational qualifications. Start from the latest one to the oldest qualification i.e. in reverse order from M.com/M.Sc./MBA to 10th Std. Add the following columns in this table

1. Exam
2. School/College
3. Year of Passing
4. Marks Scored

• After this mention if any special achievements you have achieved at anytime in your life.

• Then comes a small section of the computer proficiency. Write about in what things you are an expert at in computers.

• After the computer proficiency mention about the your skills and your strong points.

• Now at last provide the personal details like Father's Name, DOB, Marital Status, Your Hobbies and Languages known

This format is an ideal format for the CV. It can make your CV look decent.

Write everything in bulleted points. Do not write in paragraphs because paragraphs irritate the readers of the CV. Also be consistent in the font type and the font size. Use the common fonts like Times New Roman or Arial.

DO NOT write your height, weight, religion etc in the CV as you are seeking a job and not making a CV for matrimonial sites. Also DO NOT give your photo on the CV.

DON'T be under the impression that longer the CV, the better you can impress the interviewer. CVs more than 3 pages are a headache for the interviewer. Try to limit the length till 1.5 page or max 2 pages. DO NOT mention the expected salary you want in the CV since you all are freshers.

There's no need to mention anything about the references in the CV. Its optional. Even a declaration stating the truth and correctness of the facts mentioned in the CV is also optional. Even a covering letter is optional for interview. DO NOT make your CV colourful. Keep it simple.

Remember CVs are just important for initial 2 minutes. An interviewer takes maximum 2 minutes to  go through the CV. So try to impress him in that short span of time. You have to market yourself via the CV. You have to make yourself saleable through that piece of paper so try to include all your achievements (like first attempt for CA exams, extra curricular achievement) in the CV to impress the interviewer.

How to face the interviews

USEFUL TIPS FOR INTERVIEW

1) Being Confident: Guys be confident. Being confident ...helps to win half of the game

2) Be strong in Technical Knowledge. Go through the various things like AS, SA, Companies Act, IFRS etc. Also be aware of the current affairs.

3) Don’t beat around the bush. Give answers to the point and in case if you don’t know anything then don’t be afraid to admit it in front of the interviewer

4) Present yourself in a proper manner. Try to market yourself as much as possible but in a proper way. Don’t forget this is the only opportunity where you can impress your hirers. Don’t be nervous before your turn.

5) Don’t be too choosy about the format of your CV. The interviewer just takes only 2 mins to go through your CV.

6) When it comes to Negotiation of your pay package, please try your hand on it if you are really good at negotiating things or else you will lose the job. Remember a bird in hand is better than two in bush

7) Always look into the eyes of the interviewer while giving answers. This makes him feel that you are confident.

7) Don’t be depressed if you don’t get any job. There is a job for each and every one in the world.

I hope these few tips will help you to perform well at interview and it will reduce the pressure of interviews.

Please give me your feedback by commenting over here or mail me on snehal.sukhadia@gmail.com

Till then bbye.....!!!