How to Write the Perfect CV如何撰写完美的简历

Imagine meeting a stranger at a party. What makes for a successful encounter？ Lesson one is to heed the wisdom of a shampoo commercial from the 1980s： you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Lesson two is to remember that you do not need to wear a beret or a fur stole in order to stand out. Lesson three is not to forget that what you leave out matters as much as what you say.

想象你在聚会上遇到一个陌生人。如何制造一次成功的邂逅？第一：可以看下80年代洗发水广告所体现的智慧：你不会有第二次机会给人留下第一印象。第二：记住，显得与众不同未必需要戴贝雷帽或毛皮披肩。第三：不要忘记，未说出口的内容和说出口的言语同样重要。

These same principles， it turns out， apply to writing a CV. A resume is not a list of every job you ever had. It is not your autobiography. It is， like that haircare advert， a marketing tool. Your audience is made up of recruiters and hiring managers. Like cocktail-party guests， they do not take a long time to decide if they want to keep talking. According to one study， such professionals spend an average of 7.4 seconds skimming a job application. Here are a few tips on how best to ensure that these seconds count.

实际上，以上这些原则同样适用于简历撰写。简历不应该简单列出你曾从事过的所有工作，也不应该像自传那样详尽记录个人生活和职业经历的所有细节。简历就像那个洗发水广告一样，是营销工具，受众群体是招聘人员或招聘经理。就好比鸡尾酒会上的宾客，他们花不了多长时间就能决定是否要继续跟你交谈。研究显示，这类专业招聘人员浏览一份简历平均只用7.4秒。本文提供一些诀窍，让你的简历在短短的几秒内就能抓住对方的注意力。

The CV’s number-one task is not to put the reader off1. If you are thinking of adding a watermark with your initials think again： you are trying too hard. Use a clean， simple format and avoid fancy fonts （Arial or Helvetica are fine： Century Gothic is not）.

简历的首要任务是不要让招聘人员失去浏览的兴趣。要是考虑在简历上加上带有你名字缩写的水印，那请三思：这么做有些过了。简历排版应整洁、简单，不要用花哨的字体（Arial或Helvetica可以接受，但Century Gothic不行）。

Adding colour does not mean using a teal background. Nor does it mean using purple prose2. Cliché can be a reason you are passed over for an interview. So can typos; spell-check and proofread over and over. You would be surprised how often someone forgets to include their name and contact details. Dispense with hackneyed descriptors （“cultivated and passionate professional！”， “a keen eye for detail”）—facts should speak for themselves. But not all facts. You may think including your ranking on “Over-Watch3” is a quirky way to illustrate how quick you are on your feet4. A recruiter may conclude that it shows you spend hours on the sofa tethered to a gaming console.

增强简历的吸引力并不意味着要使用蓝绿色背景或过于华丽夸张的语言。陈词滥调可能会让你失去面试机会。错别字同样可能，因此要一遍遍地进行拼写检查和校对。你会惊讶地发现，经常有人忘记写上他们的姓名和联系方式。此外，避免使用陈腐的表达（例如“受过教育、充满激情的专业人士！”“注重细节”），要让事实说明一切，但并非所有的事实都适合在简历中体现出来，比如：你也许以为在简历上加上“守望先锋”游戏中的排名是展现自己灵敏度的一种独特方式，但招聘人员可能会由此推断你花了大量时间坐在沙发上玩游戏，无法自拔。

Do not hammer your CV out in an hour—take your time to polish it. Condense， filter and distil until what you are left with captures the essence of you. Anyone’s CV can fit on a page， even if you have held residencies in the world’s eight top hospitals or are Christine Lagarde5. Forget the personal statement—no one has time for that. If you spent three weeks in the summer， when you were 17 keeping the books in your uncle’s hardware store， no one needs to know that if you are now over the age of 25. The older you get， the more you should prioritize work experience over education.

不要仓促地在一小时内就把简历完成，要花时间润色打磨。精简、过滤、提炼，直到这份简历能体现你最重要的特点。任何人的简历都可以精简到一页纸上，即使在世界上排名前八的医院里有过住院医生的经历，或者像克里斯蒂娜·拉加德这样的知名人士，简历都可以非常简洁。不要进行个人陈述，没人有时间去读那个。如果你现在已经过了25岁，那就没必要让人知道你17岁那年夏天在叔叔的五金店帮忙做账，做了三周时间。年龄越大，就越应该把重点放到工作经验而非教育背景上。

Tailor your resume for every application by making the relevant tweaks and highlighting different areas. Otherwise you are like the bore who tells the same story to every person he meets. Not everyone—and not every recruiter—is interested in the same things. If you can quantify an accomplishment， do. A second-year law student who just completed his summer internship having worked on six M&A6 deals？ Put that in.

根据申请的具体职位和要求，对简历进行适当的修改和调整，突出那些与你申请的职位最相关的经历和成就。否则，你就像个讨厌鬼，对每个遇到的人讲同样的故事。并不是每个人，包括每个招聘人员，都对相同的事情感兴趣。如果能量化你的成就，那就量化。比如，一个二年级法学专业学生，刚刚完成夏季实习，期间参与了六个并购交易？在简历中写上吧。

Reasonable gaps in a resume are not cause for concern. Life happens and sometimes people take time off; you do not have to explain that you spent three months between jobs hiking around Machu Picchu7 to clear your head and recharge your batteries. A ten-year gap from the workforce may be another matter. So might constant job-switching， which is as much of a red flag to recruiters as admitting to never having had a long-term relationship might be to a stranger at a party. But if this describes your work history then you probably have bigger problems that a CV alone， no matter how masterful， will not fix.

个人简历上出现一些合理的职业空白期无伤大雅。生活中会发生各种事情，有时候人们需要休息一段时间。你不需要详细解释你在两份工作之间的三个月里去马丘比丘徒步旅行是为了理清思绪和充电。长达十年的职业空白期恐怕就是另外一回事了。频繁更换工作在招聘人员眼中可能同样是一个警示信号。这就好比在社交聚会上向一个陌生人坦白自己从未有过长期稳定的恋爱关系。但如果你的工作履历就是这样的，你将会面临更大的问题，那么无论你的简历写得有多好，都不足以解决这些问题。

Once you have sent your application， refrain from emailing prospective employers to see if they received it. You risk coming across as that annoying person， who texts to see if their previous texts have got through.

一旦你发送了求职申请，不要发电子邮件询问对方是否已收到。你可能会给人留下烦人的印象，就像有人发消息确认之前的消息对方是否收到。