This year in the company we had a lot of internship applications. Until this year, we always evaluated applicant’s cvs one by one and almost called everyone to the office and talked with them. But this year the applicant count was amazing (a lot more then we had expected) and we have noticed that we cannot call everyone to the office and interview them even if we had spared a month for interviews. We changed our tactics a bit then.

It’s always a pain to evaluate someone from a paper and with a 1-hour interview. You will probably “judge” him wrong. You will probably be harsh with him and won’t find the real juice in him. Sadly, you don’t even look for the juice. Because you either don’t have time or you have a lot more applicants who are waiting in the queue.

In order to be called to an interview, an applicant, has to be distinctive. Some keywords are mostly important. If you have some kind of a job experience (no matter what but it’s better if it’s related to the field) you will be noticed instantly. Because you are probably the only one who has written “something” to the CV.

If you have been active in the communities (university, international, etc), write them down. You make a difference with these. You took a responsibility and made it happen. It’s a proof that you are reliable! Whatever you did, I’m sure was impossible without having a team. You either worked in a team or you managed the people in these team. That’s incredible! I mean you can “really” work as a team and that’s really important for a company to consider because nothing can be accomplished without someone else working with you in a company.

If you are applying to an internship (or even a job), please write a cover letter. It really makes a difference. It shows that you care and it gives a chance to shine, if you can write something distinctive. But don’t make it very long.

If the company you are applying asks you to fill some forms, you should. I really mean it. Don’t see these forms as a “detail”, they are an opportunity for you to shine! Company asks you to fill it to better evaluate you, because they care about their applicants, they know that you cannot judge anyone with a single piece of paper or a 1-hour interview. They want to have better credentials to judge you. It’s really good if you fill them, they allow you to shine. However if you don’t fill them, you might not even evaluated and be discarded. Why? It shows that you don’t care even they do. Why would I try to hire someone who doesn’t care what I ask of him?

Google the company you are applying. I mean it. If you want to improve yourself on PostgreSQL don’t apply Oracle or if you want to make your career on .Net, don’t apply to Zend (Of course if the companies doesn’t explicitly tell that they want to hire that kind of a guy). You are being ridiculous. Even if you are a bright guy, your CV won’t be probably evaluated. Why? Because they cannot give you what you want! They won’t probably change their way of doing things just because you have applied or even if you are hired.

If you are called to an interview please be prepared. Google the company again, ask other who had already gone to an interview, learn what they ask on interviews (oh, social networks…). Trust me, luck favors the prepared one. You are lucky to be selected between probably hundreds of people, prepare a little bit more and don’t screw the opportunity.

These was my two cents for CV evaluations. They are all valid for internship and job applications because they are not really different for me. An intern is a future employee who the company trains him as it sees fit. It’s better to hire someone you trained and you know then hiring a complete stranger right?

Kingdom of Roi: http://roysimkes.net/blog/2011/06/evaluating-a-curriculum-vitae/