Writing a Successful CV
Writing a successful CV...
A CV has to represent you when you are not in the room. It has to be your story and in your words paint an appropriate picture, it needs to be stripped down to the facts and not the opinion or emotion. These are the ‘bare bones’ that will be brought to life when you arrive in the flesh.
It is however, all too easy for that moment never to happen if the CV fails to find its way through all the other files that the interviewer has to consider.
Hints and tips...
There are guidelines and techniques to consider when trying to accurately capture the facts about your career – some of these are set out below:
- Give all contact details and some personal/family details
- Include a profile section at the beginning of the CV – this will enable the reader to form a ‘pen picture’ of you
- Use bold, underlining and italic fonts to emphasise key words
Consistent grammar and tense and format is important
- Give a brief description of each employer’s business particularly if not a well-known name
- Keep in mind the ‘So What’ factor
- Always reference proven aspects of your roles
- Show clear details of academic qualifications and educational bodies in which you studied – it may be checked
- Maximum 3 pages
- Use spell check and use a friend if your grammar is weak as this is not always picked up on the spell check
What you need to avoid...
- Being too vague in your profile i.e. using words such as ‘qualified’, ‘versatile’ and ‘looking for new opportunities’
- Amusing email addresses
- Gaps in your CV
Develop your personal brand...
Just as organisations create a brand image we need to think of ourselves as brands and understand what we stand for and what sort of impact and presence we want to create.
Create your ‘Brand Statement’:
- Think about what you really value about your work and what is unique to you – from this create sentence which will define ‘Your Brand’.
- Don’t get frustrated that this CV never seems finished. It is your history and it is the privilege of the victors to write and rewrite history. You shouldn’t want the last chapter to be written too soon.
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