How To Create Your AMAZING CV!

Hi and welcome to issue #11 of THEHRCareerCoach newsletter!

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This month, I want to talk about something crucial when it comes to advancing your HR career – creating an amazing CV! ??

Making sure your CV looks professional, up-to-date and is personalised to the vacancy is essential when applying for that dream job. Below are some tips on how to structure your CV and the various types of information to include (and leave out) for impact.

Let's begin by looking at how to structure your CV.

Personal Details:

Make sure your name stands out. Include your email, phone number, and LinkedIn profile if you use it. Personalise your LinkedIn profile to your name and ensure you have a professional email address. If you have an old email with a fun name create a new professional one for job searching, this also allows you to store all your correspondence in one place.

Avoid adding age, date of birth, marital status, or other unnecessary personal details that could create bias.

Personal Profile:

This is your opportunity to make an immediate first impression at the start of your CV. Remember you only get 7 seconds to make that initial impact, so use this wisely. Tell the employer how you fit this job description. Use some of the language from the advert and ensure that within here and the next skills section, you highlight that you have the skills and experience they are asking for.?You want them to visualise you in their vacant role.

Skills:

Make these stand out by bullet pointing industry-specific skills you possess. Avoid generic and buzzwords and instead use their language. If they call project management program management, use their term. Show them you have the skills they are asking for in the job description.

Employment History:

List your work experience in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent job first. Provide a very brief summary of the role you did and the nature of the company you worked for. Include start and end dates.

If you have had a long career or have moved jobs quite a bit you only need to detail jobs over the past 10/15 years, and it is fine to group temporary or freelance roles under a timeframe.?This is also true of jobs that don’t relate to the one you are currently applying for. You can summarise these highlighting any successes, e.g.

?Prior to this I worked in various administration and customer facing roles, where I built excellent customer relations and implemented improved procedures that generated significant time savings for the team.

Key Achievements:

Under each role you have described above showcase your key achievements for each that demonstrate results, with quantifiable evidence, e.g. managed a working group in partnership with Trades Union to introduce initiatives that reduced sickness levels from 8% to 4%; implemented a refer a friend scheme that saved ￡100,000 p.a. recruitment costs. Use action verbs at the start of your sentence for impact.

Voluntary Work:

If you have done voluntary work related to the role you are applying for or that has developed key relevant skills, include this as a section.

Education & Training:

Include industry-specific training and university/college level qualifications. Only include school qualifications if you are a school leaver.

Interests:

Only include if they demonstrate significant achievement or can be linked to the vacant role.

In summary:?

??Try to keep your CV to no more than 2 pages, Executive level roles may need to be longer.

??Make sure the spacing, layout, font, and size are similar, no need for fancy graphics or fonts as they can be distracting, especially if selection software is used.

??Check (and double check) spelling and grammar.

??Keep things factual.

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My last and most important tip is to take the time to personalise your CV for the job you are applying for.?It shows commitment and that you are genuinely interested in this particular role.?Using language and key words from the job description to match to your skills and achievements, demonstrates your alignment to the organisations culture and values and goes a long way to helping your CV be AMAZING!??

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If you want help to craft an amazing CV as part of your wider job search or feel ready to go all in on a journey of self discovery to get clear and confident on your next career move, I am here to help you.

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