Been in a role for a long time whether it be self-employed or employed so haven’t needed a CV? What to do? Don’t panic and follow this step by step guide to achieving an attractive, attention seeking and professional resume.
Create a list of your career history, noting dates, role titles, company names and basic remit to start.
List your key achievements to date – keep to examples which demonstrate where you have gone above and beyond the call of duty or made a real difference. Simply noting down projects you have managed to time and budget does not demonstrate an achievement as such (you were paid to deliver the project). However if you have implemented a new programme structure to the business or dealt with particularly difficult stakeholders etc. then talk about it.
Perform a skills audit – start by drawing a line to represent the project timeline, then note down core areas you have exposure to such as writing the business case, planning, Risk & Issues, supplier management etc.
Take a template from the internet to start – fill in the areas you can easily do, such as dates and achievements etc. then refer to the following blog posts which will assist you in filling in the gaps:
Now you should have a good solid document to work on – you’ll need to spend some time tweaking and rewriting, but you will soon find that what seemed a wall too high to climb is merely a hurdle along the way to getting back into finding a new role.
Your CV is the most important starting point for you to market yourself to potential employers – as a marketing document you need to ensure it is clear, concise, relevant, has a unique selling point (USP) and is personal to you.
To begin
Don’t pull your hair out we have all been there and although it may seem difficult to start with – you will soon develop a creative flow. Play around with a few CV templates and find a style that works for you. Then consider the following:
Use positive statements and an enthusiastic tone – use an active tense such as managing rather than managed and facilitating rather than facilitated.
Talk through your demonstrable experience – giving workable examples.
Avoid generic statements such as “good communication skills” and actually demonstrate how you have used the skills effectively to achieve something or get something done.
The space you devote to a matter suggests the importance you give to it. Be careful not to dedicate half a page to education and a line or two to your achievements or role remits.
Account for all gaps in the CV – if you took a year off to travel; that is fine just ensure you list it.
It is very important to make a good first impression – remember you are not the only person applying for the job! You will have competition and if you are not a strong contender – your CV could be rejected within 20 seconds of being viewed.
Make sure the job you are applying for is something you can realistically do – take care to place emphasis on the skills required for the role.
Address the application specifically to the name on the website / advert and write a cover letter matching up your relevant experience.
Put in the effort to make sure you are selling yourself in the best light.
Here are some links to articles which you will find useful moving forward:
Following on from our guest blog on Wednesday which addresses managing your workload at Uni – today I wanted to delve into some areas university students will find useful once you have graduated, as securing that all important first role is more difficult than you think.
When I was at Uni, I was promised that once I graduated with a good degree that I could practically walk into any job – in fact they also fed me with other unrealistic expectations such as large salary levels for starting out and going straight into middle management etc. Having spoken to a number of recent graduates and students recently it would seem that the same expectation levels are still being set by the universities – I can see from their perspective that they need to “sell” the places but it is also unfair to set people up for a big disappointment. Taking positive steps forward I would like to address some things you could be doing now to enhance your chances of securing your first role post graduation:
Take on a part time role – this can be done during holiday times but also as easily done during term time too, I seem to remember a great deal of courses only actually requiring you in the classroom for a few hours a week. Therefore you could structure your timetable to complete your Uni work in the day time and take an evening / weekend / late afternoon job – not only will you enhance your student loan for the all important socials, you will be gaining work experience which you can later rely on for references and to put on your CV. Even jobs you don’t think will be any use to secure a professional role usually are, think about customer facing, time management, cash handling, problem solving, dealing with complaints / conflicts – all good stuff to demonstrate to your potential boss that you haven’t just fallen out of bed and into their office hoping for a professional job.
Voluntary work – Ask your tutors if they know any organisations or have any contacts who would be willing to let you volunteer your services to, ideally you will then gain some experience specific to the role you wish to pursue when you graduate and you may make an impression which could lead on to being offered a contract post-uni.
Use your contacts – ask your parents to put the feelers out within their offices and with their friends to see if they can secure you some work experience they always say; “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”
It is important to start working on your CV now – start adding pieces of information as it comes to you or as you experience it and ask your tutors to review it for you, make sure you ask for honest feedback and listen to those who can help you most.
Keeping it fresh, today I want to talk about 5 key areas you should consider and look to avoid when writing your CV.
Assume that everyone will know what it is like working at your current / previous places of employment – huge and easy mistake to make, every company is different and even departments in larger businesses work differently to each other. Simply declaring a job title and a couple of bullet points stating something like; “planning” and “reporting” is a futile exercise – planning what? Using what kind of planning tools? Complex pieces of work or straight forward? How big is the project and the team… See, it just doesn’t tell the CV reviewer anything they need to know.
Terminology, we’ve all done it – working in certain environments we adopt a different language and a plethora of acronyms. Make sure you translate these into English for your CV – no reviewer will spend hours trying to decipher the code so make sure it is readable by all.
Using past tense – keep the document positive and in the present. It may sound crazy to say that our employment history should be past tense but try changing your CV on just one role (i.e. managed to managing, reported to reporting etc.) and read it out – you’ll notice how positive and active it reads in comparison to the rest of the CV. Now apply it to all of the CV and see just how changing the tense can really make a difference to your resume.
Copy and paste your job description – your CV is a personal document about you, taking your JD and placing it in your remit you are selling yourself short, by all means use it as a starting point but make sure you add the reality of what each competency actually means in your role.
Just throw something together – it doesn’t work. Spend time researching online about what employers expect to see in a CV; then start by structuring and performing a skills audit. Really work hard to make sure the CV is selling you in the best light, check the basics such as spelling and grammar as a minimum. You only get one chance at making a first impression.
For further insights into CV writing tips and examples of profiles, career history bullets etc. look through my previous blogs – just click on the keywords: CV writing / CV tips.
