What’s your CV saying about you?

CVs; we know are important career advancement tool. A well thought out and written CV can open doors. Unfortunately, many CVs are bland and do not elicit the wanting to ‘know more’ from recruiters. A CV should be;

Compelling and Verifiable: The CV must immediately communicate your unique selling proposition. The chances are your CV might not be read from beginning to end so you ought to put best foot forward quickly. You can go with chronological or reverse chronological or even the functional CV approach; but the important thing is for your account of yourself to show right from the start that you deserve a chance to interview. Don’t oversell in an effort to impress, any exaggerations can  make you ‘too good to be true’.

Competent and Versatile: Don’t weigh your CV down with a long list of the responsibilities and duties of the jobs held to date. You must show that you have the main skills required but also generic skills of wider use such as  team working, effective communication, problem solving and willingness to learn. For higher roles, you need to show your expertise in strategic thinking, leadership and managing results. Playing the ‘technical skill’ card alone is not enough. Self managed and self driven individuals are assets and have the edge because many organisations have little time for what they might consider hand holding. 

Clear and visually effective: Your CV should have a good flow to it and clearly respond to the requirements of the position. If possible, find out the culture of the organisation advertising the vacancy and what it values in people so that you can reflect those attributes where you can. Make sure the layout and point size is kind to the eye. If recruiters have to squint to read your CV, it might be trashed quickly. Leave out jargon. When you use plain English you demonstrate respect for your audience.

Credible and Vibrant: Some CVs can feel like ‘cut and paste’, as document rather than a ‘personality on paper’ that it needs to be. Don’t have one standard CV that you ship out with every application. Adapt them to each job because no two jobs or organisations are the same. A CV is not an end in itself; it’s to help you get to the next stage in the recruitment process. Ask, if the vacancies were to be filled on CVs alone, how will yours measure up?

Consistent and value-added; you need to come across as confident and well matched for the position but avoid over-promoting yourself. Hiring managers sometimes look for  reasons to disqualify a candidate where there’s a huge stack of CVs to go through; so make sure that yours shows direct benefits the potential employer will get as well a track record that signals that you are likely to be successful in the new position in the company overall.

 Now take action: Is your CV doing you justice? If not bring it up to date.