Your job search
This is one of the hardest things you'll have to do in your career and with The Great Resignation, intense competition from other job seekers and remote working, it is one of the most exciting and challenging job markets I've seen in years.
The right job is vital. Being happy in your job and the feeling of fulfilment will have a hugely positive impact on your self-worth, and your personal relationships.
Besides whom you are, your CV is your most important tool in a job search. It is your first impression with employers and the difference between your dream job or rejection.
A great CV makes searching for a job search easy. Applying to a job without a good CV can leave you frustrated and demotivated. Sound familiar?
So, what do I need to include?
A CV is your professional showcase that must be presented in an easily understood and standardised format. It needs to be a solution to the employers' problem i.e. their vacancy. It is your most important document for securing an interview, and ultimately a job.
There are 3 standard layout types.
Chronological Focuses on work experience in reverse chronological order.
Functional Focuses on skills and experience, and useful if you’ve had a gap in employment or are transitioning your career.
Combination Enables you to highlight the skills and experiences that are relevant, while still showing work history in the format that employers prefer.
Long gone are the days when recruiters and employers sit in uninterrupted silence and carefully read multi-page resumes from cover to cover. Most large corporations use Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) to manage their recruiting process, which means you need to get through an automatic screen before your CV is even viewed by an employer.
Think of an ATS this way. Let’s say you are looking for a winter coat on Google and know you want it to have zips, a hood and multiple pockets that is proven to keep you warmer than another coat. If you are a ‘coat’ that doesn’t have a hood or long sleeves, then the ATS system won’t match you and your application will be rejected.
Even more importantly, an ATS system is also deployed to sift out and reject candidates if there are any desirable elements in a job. If you don’t have these then again this is likely to reduce the effectiveness of your application.
If, however you make it past that above step, it has been proven that most recruiters spend 6 seconds on average reviewing a CV. They need to quickly discover key facts relevant to the role with achievements and make a split-second decision that could decide your future. Can you pass this test?
What is an applicant tracking system (ATS)?
An applicant tracking system (ATS), is software that organisations use to manage their recruitment process. Vendors include Taleo, PeopleHR, GoHire, and many more.
Most applicant tracking software uses a process called CV matching, which extracts your data into a format readable by the software. CV matching pulls your contact information, work history, and skills from your document.
When a recruiter is searching within their ATS for a candidate, those that best fit the keywords of the job description will show up first in the search results. This is why thinking about these guidelines is important in altering your CV for each application.
Before writing your CV
If you're unsure about your career objective or haven't quite settled on a goal, you'll find that writing a powerful and effective CV is very difficult. Remember, your CV must present just the right mix of meaningful information relevant to your goal.
Without a goal, you don't know what information to include, what skills or successes to highlight, and what details to omit. You're forced to include everything, and the result is usually a CV that does not capture interest because it's not focused.
Have a clear goal before writing your CV. Employers need to understand who you are, why you’ve applied and the relevance of your career history. It's not their job to figure that out.
Once you have a clear goal, be clear about who you are. Usually this refers to a job title such as Project Manager, Marketing Executive, Contracts Lawyer etc.
Be sure to include this critical information right up front, as a headline or in the first sentence of your introduction. Your goal is to immediately communicate essential information that creates the context for everything else they will read in your document.
For example, if you define yourself as a ‘Sales Professional’ employers will be looking for key qualifications such as annual sales results, awards, winning key accounts and their value, retention, and so forth.
If you define yourself as an ‘Accountant’ they'll be looking for something entirely different accounting and finance experience, knowledge of accounting software, attention to detail, and strong analytical skills.
By defining yourself up front, you establish expectations and help readers better appreciate and absorb the information that follows.
What does the ideal candidate look like?
Study the job description and decipher what problems the employer wants solved. Employers don’t care about you. They care about solving their problems. This is the only reason why they are posting a job.
Why are they posting this job? Who is the ideal candidate for the job? Which skills does the ideal applicant have?
Write down a brief description of the ideal applicant. This will help you decide how to represent yourself when creating your CV.
Having defined the ideal candidate consider what information will support your claim. What qualifications, experiences, knowledge, and achievements do you possess that will prove you are, in fact, an effective Marketing Management Professional?
Preparing your CV
Your CV essentially is the ‘blurb’ on the back of a book, a precis of you, of direct relevance to the role, to invite them to read the book, i.e., interview you! You must convey this quickly to portray that you are an ideal candidate for the types of jobs you are pursuing.
In your job search, you will need to create a CV for each application. This enables you to
Tailor each CV to suit the job description
Optimise your keywords for ATS
Choose your strongest achievements vitally important to the role
To make this easy, start by building an achievement document which covers off all your successes to date. This will be an ever-evolving document that contains all your work history, that you can pick and choose to tailor for each application.
So, what detail do I need in my CV?
Header
Personal Summary
Core Skills
Career Experience
Education
Some examples of optional things to include are
Public Speaking
Publications
Volunteering
Awards
Your CV header
Your CV should first include your, basic contact details and links to your LinkedIn profile and where relevant websites, email address, portfolio etc. Do not include a picture unless this is vital for your role such as for modelling or being a TV presenter.
Your CV Summary and Introduction
Bad example Experienced professional seeking employment in marketing industry.
Good example Marketing Manager with >20 years’ experience of achieving 75% ROMI from integrated marketing strategies for Diageo, Adidas and Under Armour.
Bad example Creative problem solver who loves to work with great people.
Good example Customer service professional who has achieved peer beating NPS spanning more than 10 years for Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Your CV Skills Section
You should have a table of skills on your CV. Skills are extremely important to match with the job description as this helps match you against a role/s. Only list those you can reference within your career experience.
Your relevant work experiences
This is the most important part of your CV. Highly relevant experience in a field is the first thing employers look for. Even for entry level jobs employers want to see relevant experience.
Your Work History
Work experience is displayed in reverse chronological order, with your most recent job first. If you do have a previous position you wish to highlight, ensure to cover this off in your summary.
Each work history entry should include:
Employer Name
Dates of Employment
Job Titles with months and years
The most crucial aspect of your career history is to write achievements. What you achieved not simply what you did, in its simplest form benefits not just features. What matters most are the results in those positions. Write these in bullets, underneath each job title held.
CV Sample achievements
Bad example Promoted with full responsibility for the company’s best client.
Good example Promoted to manage our highest valued client (>£5m) and developed this relationship from £5m to £10m annual revenues in less than 2 years.
Bad example Completed all projects under time and under budget.
Good example Completed 100% of projects on schedule, 85% ahead of schedule and saved 15% against projected budgets.
Writing Effective CV achievements
The following section has questions to help you quantify your performance. Spend time answering these for each job you've held. This will help drive your worth.
Questions to drive performance
Did you make money for the company? Increase market share?
Did you outperform other departments, or competitors?
Did you achieve cost reduction synergies?
Did you develop new process that became best practice?
Did you regularly meet/exceed all your KPIs?
How did your performance compare to prior years?
Questions to ask yourself that need to be included in your CV
What are you most proud of?
What did management/clients commend you for?
What do your performance appraisals say?
What do you do that others can't or don't do?
Questions to create strong personal summaries
What is the most important thing you accomplished in a role?
Why were you hired?
What major challenges did you overcome?
How did your performance compare to legacy?
Sample action words to use
These are helpful verbs to use when writing your achievements.
Developed
Launched
Spearheaded
Reduced
Delivered
Improved
Adapted
Solved
Implemented
Embedded
Executed
Most of your CV time should be spent writing compelling achievements. Make sure these are focused on performance, results and are specific with numerical value where possible.
Education
The education section contains some or all of the following
Name of School, Degree Earned, Grade, Dissertation
Extracurricular and Leadership Activities
Training and Certifications
Additional Professional Development/CPD
Guidelines for the education section
The more senior your career, the fewer education details to include.
For younger professionals, add in achievements or leadership roles.
Don’t let your education shadow your experience.
CV Additional information
Here you can add additional facts and information that don't fit into one of the previous categories. E.gs are
Professional Memberships
Presentations and Publications
Language Proficiencies – note as either fluent/native, advanced, intermediate
Technical Competencies – if you are a software Super User highlight it!
Volunteering
So, if you are currently applying but getting zero success, ask yourself are you spending the time to develop an achievement-led CV that meets every aspect of the job you are applying to? Have you added strong factual achievements of relevance to the role and have you tailored your CV for each application?
If the answer no to any of the above, use this guide as a reference and give yourself the best chance of securing your dream job!
If you still feel you need support with creating your new CV, I can help. I have supported 1,000s of professionals globally at every stage in their career. Please view my website for further details about myself, testimonials and the services that I offer,
Comments