5 things to keep in mind when preparing your undergraduate CV

The biggest difference between an academic CV and a professional CV is the work experience.

However, when you’re a student applying for an opportunity, no one expects you to have the work experience in the first place. Go ahead and create your CV today.

Here are some tips that’ll help:

1. Use a CV template
A lot of people think using a CV template means that they’re cheating. But that’s hardly the case. Starting with a CV template can make putting together your CV a less dauting task. And remember, templates are meant to be edited to your liking.

2. Focus on your achievements
Whether it’s for an internship or a scholarship, when you’re applying for an opportunity, showing what you’ve done rather than what you think you’re good at is always more impressive. No matter how small you think your achievements are, enumerating on them creates a better impression of you.

3. Include your extracurricular activities
Another thing that you can use to fill that work history gap in your academic CV is your extracurricular activities. The extracurricular activities that we take part in while in school also have the effect of enabling us to develop skills that are useful in the professional world.

4. A little work experience goes a long way
Previous internships, part-time jobs and other gigs that you have worked can also be a way to enrichen your CV and to show that you have some experience in real-world scenarios.

5. Talk to a TA or someone else in your field
One way to get working knowledge about the field that you are in is talking to other people in that field. You can speak to your TAs or other professionals in your field to get an idea of what a working CV in that field looks like.