How to Write CV

Could you send me your CV please? The ‘inside salesperson’ is salesperson’s jargon for someone who supports the salesperson and advances their case internally when the salesperson isn’t there. A CV can do the same thing for a person seeking a job or promotion.

PRESENT IT WELL

Nowadays it is very easy for the CV’s presentation to be first class, so anything else is an inside suicide note. Make sure it is also in pristine condition, every time. An actor of the old school with a booming voice that made every phrase sound as if it were by Shakespeare was frequently out of work and always short of money. He used to go around the local shops trying to cash cheques. One day he tried four or five places and got four or five polite refusals from shopkeepers who knew him.

By this time the cheque looked somewhat crumpled and dilapidated. His final try was at the laundry. ‘Would you be so good as to cash me a small cheque?’ he said. ‘I’m sorry,’ came the reply, ‘but we still have an old one of yours that bounced.’ ‘Oh well,’ said the actor, ‘could you at least iron the bloody thing?’

Nowadays, of course, it’s highly likely that you’ll send in your CV by email, but if they want hard copy make sure it’s highly presentable, not like a well-thumbed cheque. It is up to you how complete your CV is, but you don’t have to put anything on it that may damage your case. You can probably miss out the wrong job that only lasted six months, and a slight exaggeration of your role in your present company may help your chances of getting a more senior job with a competitor, as long as it’s not too far from the truth. You’ll have to substantiate it. Make the document fit in with the style of the job, formal and professional for the accountants, witty and outrageous for creative jobs.

WHAT’S IN IT?

Following your name in bold, write a first paragraph describing who you are and what you’re like: ‘An energetic IT project manager, with wide experience in complex projects, predominantly focused on bridging the gap between the business managers who generate the profits and the IT department who support their endeavours. Experienced influencer and coach. Decisive, commercially focused and passionate about service and quality. A proven record of delivering first-class results in major global companies.’

Now put down your career history starting with your current job and going back to your first. Make sure that each job has an illustration of the impact you had on the results, preferably financial, of the organisation you were working for. Don’t just say what you did; say what it did for the company. Then put in your personal details, education and qualifications, contact numbers and addresses and outside interests.

Research shows that a quarter of all CVs contain lies. Most firms don’t test skills; so it’s possible to get away with an exaggeration of your computer or other skills, but still quite dangerous. The humiliation when your boss uncovers your deception will give you a very rough start. A lie never ceases to be a time bomb, and it’s so easy to forget what you said if it wasn’t the truth.

If the job seems ideal for you, and you seem ideal for the job, don’t pretend to meet a criterion set by the employer, rather work out in your preparation why the criterion is unnecessary and/or how quickly you could become able to fulfil it in any case. Use a covering letter to accentuate the particular experience you have to do the job. If there is an attribute in the advert or job description that you don’t have, point the gap out and balance it with a strength that you do have that more than compensates for the lack. That way, forewarned by the letter they’re more likely to read on when they hit the gap in the CV.

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