Are you making this extremely common CV mistake? A must read for executives who are starting their job search.....

We are fielding an increased volume of calls from executive level candidates who find themselves in the unfortunate situation of looking for a new position. This situation is understandably daunting, especially for those who haven’t been in the position of looking for several years.?Tapping up an existing network should always be your key priority, but networks are finite.?And so, your CV will typically be your calling card to new contacts – be this to open up new contacts or when applying for a live vacancy.

Finessing this document to ensure it provides maximum impact is essential. Your CV should be viewed as a door opener to future conversations.? A brochure of your value if you will. More than half of the CV’s that we receive, especially from those who haven’t produced one for a long time, need a lot of work. Too often CV’s read as a list of positions, with some context added to bulk the document out.

We could provide numerous pointers to CV writing, but there’s one area that you need to nail: key achievement data.

Those who have been with the same employer for several years haven’t particularly had to reflect on this data, or on how they’ve achieved against goals and targets. Our point sounds obvious but, as we have already stated, more times than not, this data is lacking in CV’s.

As an executive, your primary objective is to devise and / or execute a strategy.? Whatever that strategy is within your given function, there’s more than likely a goal, target or achievement the business required when investing in you. By adding context to why you were initially employed, and then linking key achievements to this provides the reader with your understanding of the value, impact and contribution that you’ve created. It demonstrates that you are results oriented. At the level in which you operate, it is likely that the recipient will have a good inclination of the company you have worked for.

Furthermore, like most, they are time poor.?They will not take the time to dissect your CV.?There’s a thrown around statistic that decision makers only read CV’s for between 10 and 15 seconds.?If the CV potentially appeals, I’d suggest that’s a little exaggerated, but it does highlight our point. It is programmed into us to seek quantitative figures on CV’s.

Like the majority, we are quickly scanning CV’s for percentages and pound / euro / dollar signs. In other words, how much impact and improvement has this individual created through their time at a given employer (revenue growth, cost savings, market share expansion being prime examples).? Furthermore, key figures serve as a conversation starter during interviews. They provide a hook.? You should be prepared prior to interviewing with narrative to these figures: What you inherited, how you built strategy around the challenge, and how you executed said strategy across the team. This will make you come across far sharper. Clearly, you’ll need to be able to back up statements on your CV. Make sure all figures are accurate and backed up by evidence of how you achieved them.

This advice might sound basic but we receive too many CVs that don't include any objective data not to mention it!!