A topic as eternal as the concept of CV itself.
The CV of a perfect candidate… perfect on paper… and until the day the work environment puts it on trial.
As a recruiter I so much wish candidates would be more sensitive with word choices when it comes to their self-description. At present, it seems that superlativity, i.e. positive exaggeration of skills and capabilities has become a standard approach for the CV preamble.
I wish candidates would imagine us, recruiters, scrolling through dozens of CVs, each self-praising to the utmost in the opening paragraph… To say that one stops taking such preamble seriously is truly a very moderate assessment of the impact such wording does to the chances of the candidate to be considered.
So, the glance of the recruiter drops straight down to the professional experience part of the CV leaving the opening paragraph unconsidered. If there is not much to get impressed by, scrolling continues further down through non-maritime experience straight to education.
If the education matches the vacancy profile the CV gains reassessment. So does it if the non-professional experience suggests transferrable skills.
But if you have neither academic background nor industry experience do yourself a favour, give your ego a break and focus on linear career progress starting at the bottom of career staircase of the position you aspire once to occupy. Invest your free time in gaining required knowledge by exploring the web or involving chat GPT, for example.
Focus on not repeating the mistakes you will inevitably make and you will for sure succeed!
But please do yourself a favour by avoiding overdecoration of yourself with skills and experiences you in reality do not possess. Even if you get hired the truth will come out shortly and this is where your employment will get at risk.
At the very least, your superior, realizing that you are not what you promised to be, shall be upset, irritated and frustrated. The main question in his/her brain would be whether to dismiss you right away or to wait a bit and see if you are capable of a record-beating learning curve. As if that would not be bad enough, you will also have to deal with the broken trust your colleagues had initially put in you based on your CV….
So better be realistic on your CV and in your interviews. Be careful with choice of words describing your strengths.
A CV overloaded with superlativity is, in first place, the perfect candidate for the recruiter’s bin and, furthermore, the strongest risk factor to lose a job just acquired.
Do not write your CV for the bin! Stay realistic and it will pay off!