How to write a strong resume/CV (WITH A TEMPLATE) (Get Accepted to Your Dream University Part #10)

- Hey guys, welcome.

Today we're gonna talk about CVs and resumes,

specifically for admissions.

So if you're sitting and wondering

what you should do you with your CV, how do you write it,

do I need to provide all the documents

to prove everything that you're mentioning?

I'm gonna answer all of those questions in this video.

So if you're interested, continue watching.

(upbeat music)

We are going to look at a template

provided by Stanford University.

It's a template that I've used.

It's a template that you should use.

And it says that for every 10 years of work experience,

you should one page of your resume.

And there is a pretty formal standard

that I would advise you to follow.

Let's look at this template.

You start with your first and last name.

Please don't play with fonts.

I know it's very tempting

to download some template from the internet

and to use a font that is super creative,

but unless you're a designer,

I would stick to something really formal,

really easy to read.

Sometimes fonts make it harder to read.

So please stick to this.

So you have first and last name,

your telephone number, your email address.

They say use Stanford address, but you don't have it.

Again, we're looking at Stanford's guidelines.

Then you're going with a summary.

Summary paragraph highlights your

accomplishments tuned to a target job role.

Key accomplishments or skills can be included with bullets.

If you're applying to your master's program,

it's very important to mention

here's something that's relevant to your master's program.

Maybe you've one a research

on a topic that you're gonna study,

maybe you have some work experience,

maybe you have some awards that are worth mentioning.

I have my CV ready to download together with my book.

The link will be below.

So basically I mentioned all of the awards

that I think are worth mentioning,

like Opportunity Award by the U.S. Government

and DAD by German Award.

And some Olympus that I won,

some progress that I made with my company,

'cause it was relevant to whatever I was doing

and I was applying to my master's program.

Then you go to your experience.

You start with something recent.

And if you don't have any work experience,

this section is replaced by your education,

where you go more in depth about your education.

But if you have some experience,

if you've done some internship,

it's really, really worth mentioning it here.

You go with your organization name, city and state.

One like organization description.

Don't include for recognized firms.

So if everyone knows what Mercedes Benz does,

and everybody knows, you don't have to describe.

If it's a smaller company, less more known,

then give a one liner of what it does.

LinguaTrip is a study abroad booking platform, whatever.

Your job title, what were you responsible for?

If you were a sales person,

don't tell them that you were selling stuff,

'cause that's obvious.

Instead focus on brief description of accomplishments

with concrete actions and quantifiable results.

I always tell you, numbers, they play a magic game,

and they play a magic trick with your application.

The plan was to generate

$3000 in revenues, I generated $10,000

and I was awarded number one sales person

in my department in 2018 quarter four.

Typically, three five bullet points.

Include budget, number of people managed.

If you managed people, please write that down.

Like, managed team of 10.

If you've done something extra, I would always mention it.

Like if, as part of your sales job,

you went to a conference in New York

to represent your company, please put it here as well.

Or maybe organized, you organized a conference.

Like mention that, 'cause it's also really important.

And it talks about your experience.

Then, mention your previous jobs if you have them.

Again, in the same manner,

but you don't have to be so specific.

You don't have to go into

too many details about your previous jobs.

'Cause what matters is like your recent experience.

If there's something notable,

like please mention it for the previous jobs as well.

If you have anything older than 10 years,

but I think the majority if you won't,

they offer you to create like an

additional experience section

where you would put organization name and title.

Then we're gonna go to education.

So basically, this is what they're offering

to Stanford graduates to use,

but it's a good manner to use this

to apply to Stanford or to apply to any other university.

'Cause again, if you are taking the highest standards,

I'm sure other universities would appreciate that.

In terms of your education,

you write your degree institution, degree name,

subject area, year.

I would also write your GPA and tell them what's the scale.

So for example, I wrote five out of five,

so that they know that five out of five.

And if you were like top 5% of class

or something like that, or like class manager,

if something like that exists in your country,

you can also write that down.

'Cause again, this is more like professional,

'cause this is more intended for graduates,

but I love this structure.

This is why we're talking about it.

And I used it for all of my applications.

All of my students use it for their applications.

One pager maximum.

Really easy, like you can copy paste whatever's here.

The link will be below to download this file.

For education, I would write everything down,

like your Bachelor's, if you have it.

Your additional education,

maybe you've done study abroad

in your high school and your middle school,

with just GPAs, just mention them there and that's it.

And then something additional

like language competencies, community service.

In my case, I mentioned languages, travel, and ballet,

and like whatever you like to do.

That would add some additional information

about you as a personality.

A very important question,

do you need to provide all the documents

supporting whatever you wrote there?

No you don't, but it should sound realistic.

If you're telling them

you're the winner of all the Olympiads,

you're a Ph.D. at the age of 23,

you've done this, this, and that,

they're gonna be suspicious, they're not gonna believe you.

And I've talked to admissions officer

from one of the top universities,

and she says, "Yes, we actually."

Especially for like, oh what she said?

Like for some countries from Asia,

they see a lot of like

something that looks like fraud to them.

There are too many accomplishments that they cannot verify.

When they Google company, it looks like it doesn't exist.

When they Google an award, it looks like it doesn't exist.

They cannot verify and it looks like

too many accomplishments for a 20 year old person.

And they just disregard the application

because they think you are misleading them.

And this is something that you should

just learn about America in general.

Everyone wants to believe you.

When you come to the office,

you don't bring like papers with you.

You just raise your hand and you swear

that you're telling the truth.

When we got married in San Francisco,

they were like "Were you married before?"

We were like, "No."

In Russia, they would tell us like bring all of your papers.

In America, they would be like,

"Can you swear that you've never married before?"

We're like, "Yes, we can."

So this is it.

But if you are lying,

there's something you're intentionally

like misleading people,

then they would just disregard your application.

You don't wanna do that.

So, no, there's no need to provide additional proof,

but yes, you need to be honest.

And if you haven't won anything, don't write it down.

Find something else.

Maybe if you realize, if you're looking at the CV,

and you're like oh my God

I don't have anything that she's mentioning,

I don't have work experience,

I don't have this, this, and that.

Okay, if you're not applying to top university,

maybe you don't even need it.

If you're ready to pay out of pocket,

maybe you don't even need it.

But if you're looking for financial aid,

if you're looking at high ranking universities,

that maybe take a year off, not off,

but take a year where you would

go and get some work experience.

Maybe invest more time into conferences.

Maybe invest more time into publications.

Like do something that would make your resume stand out.

And this is why I'm doing this thing.

This is why I'm recording this video,

so you could take action in advance.

Not like three months before your deadline.

This is super important.

So, look at the application.

You can Google some sample CVs.

Download the template.

You can download my CV together with my book

where I'm talking about my admissions journey.

All of the links will be below.

Thank you so much for watching this video.

I hope this content was useful.

If you have any more questions,

please chat in comments.

Ask questions, ask other peoples' questions

and I will pick up some

very interesting and some common ones.

If you're not yet subscribed, hit subscribe

and I will see you soon in the next videos.

Bye bye.