A Good Account of Yourself?

by Steve Holmes

Does your CV promote your professional assets or it is another boring list?

1) issues with structure and design
2) issues with content
3) solutions to these issues

1) issues with structure & design

Some CVs follow the US template from a WP program, which looks unoriginal, fails to carry structured information and usually relies on disembodied lists titled "Profile", "Objectives", "Achievements" or whatever.

The idea is right, to summarise what you are offering, but it really must be as sophisticated as you are, not the same old rubbish about you being a proactive self-starter and team player, cringe….

Many CVs follow an archaic British concept from the days of typing on stencils, huge left-hand margins, no attention to design or typesetting to make the document attractive

Are you trying to say that you are so inept with your WP program that you can only type in the default 12 point Times Roman that inevitably takes up 3 pages or more, that you are so useless with margins and paragraph styles that you cannot even fit your own CV to an attractive page?

2) issues with content

If your information has no overall plan and poor decisions have been taken in terms of what to give priority to, what headings and heading styles to use, how to prioritise information…. This tells people that you don't think clearly.

If the information is stale and skimpy, often culled from job descriptions or assembled in an unstructured list…. This tells people that you cannot communicate.

If the information falls between two stools because it attempts to be effective by quoting results and trying to paint a picture of roles as opposed to mere chronology but these things are not done well enough…. You look mediocre.

3) solutions to these issues (outline concepts)

Think of your CV design as a workspace, a framework for communication.

• Obviously you lead off with your name, but do you need all those personal details or can they be relegated to page 2?
• Succinct introduction? Write it last when you know what your USPs really are.
• In your case, what is most important? Work record? Technical skills? Education? Potential in a new career? Whatever it is, this is what demands prominence.
• What else needs to be included and what simple heading style will work?

You now have a framework.

Marshall your basic information so that it can be placed within that workspace.

• USPs: list the main points you need to get across; these might be: experience, track record, training, skills-mix; methodologies, change programmes, what it takes for a new type of role in a new sector. This mix will be summarised in your application letter and it can help to roughly draft that first.
• Evidence: the rest is basically corroboration: be ruthless with irrelevant facts; summarise detail (they can ask at interview); build the job/role narrative to arouse interest.
• For each theme that you are working with (or each job you are describing), briefly.
• Create some context: company scenario; situation you first encountered; changes.
• illustrate your involvement: roles, levels, structures, visions, plans, implementations, initiatives, very briefly described.
• offer your results, which can go way beyond targets and figures; your new product saved the company from ruin; you gave a not-for-profit organisation a national profile; you revolutionised the way the company's business structures....
   
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