Don't Read This If You're Happy
With Your Style Of Writing A CV
An effective and compelling CV is an essential tool in the career search for higher-level positions. So you?ve got to get it right. Certainly, your CV must be well written and carefully structured, as well as being chock full of concrete details and specifics. But what is paramount is that, all the while you are thinking about, writing, and re-writing your CV, you keep in mind its true purpose. Definition and Purpose A CV is longer than a resume, usually 2 to 3 pages (sometimes more), and affords you the opportunity to present quite a bit more relevant information than a resume does. Still, as with a resume, you need to get all your best selling points and most pertinent details right up front?just in case the reviewer never gets past the first half-page or so. Never forget that you?re marketing a product?yourself. Curriculum vitae is a Latin phrase meaning ?course of life,? so a CV is a brief run through your professional life. But does the prospective employer really care about your life? Not much, really. What the hirer is interested in is what you can do for the company. So, although your CV is about you prima facie, all the emphases should be on how your skills, abilities, and experience can benefit the organization. The person reviewing your CV wants to know why he or she should take the time and go to all the trouble to interview you. The purpose of your CV, then, is to pre-sell. You sell yourself and close the deal in the interview. Your CV aims to pre-sell the hirer on the idea of an interview. That?s the key. Structure Most CVs have a standard structure that will vary according to the specific position sought and the competition. Here are the standard components, usually in this approximate order: Name and contact information Brief personal profile, stressing key skills and attributes Work experience/professional history Job-related achievements Special skills and qualifications Education Now, keep in mind that these are only loose guidelines. In writing a CV you?ll want to do whatever it takes?changes, additions, deletions, re-arrangements, compression or expansion of certain areas?to best market yourself. For example, if formal training and education are extremely important for the job, and if you have an MBA and most of the other candidates don?t, then get the education section up front, right after the profile. Use any tactics you can to convince the hirer that you are absolutely the best candidate and that it would be utterly foolish not to grant you an interview. Tactics Because, remember, you are pre-selling with your CV, your chief goal is to get the reviewer to call you for an interview. But how do you do this? First of all, keep in mind that a CV is far more than a bald list of dry-as dust job-related facts. (In fact, a growing trend is to write the CV in the form of a biographical narrative.) Also, strategic omissions can make the reviewer want to hear more. And whenever you can, draw conclusions and show the reviewer how your skills and experience can benefit the organization. If you just keep in mind what you?re really trying to accomplish, you?ll be fine. Your CV is a pre-selling tool?the first step toward getting an interview. But if you get the first step wrong, the second step usually never happens. So make sure you invest the time, effort, and maybe even money to write it well and get it right. To your career success, Martin Allen
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