Why is your CV so important?

What is a CV?

It seems a pretty obvious question doesn’t it, however for such a vital component in the process of employment both its definition and purpose seem drastically elusive. Through my experience as both the employer and a recruitment consultant the best CVs are a precise summary of academic and work history. They are in essence, forms of self advertisement, but be careful, it’s easy to stray into self-propaganda. Yesterday I had a 7 page CV which was obviously not a summary. The longest CV that I have ever had was 29 pages long. Now we all like to talk about ourselves but a CV should be clinical and to the point. So for the purposes of this article, the question should really be rephrased as “What Should a CV be?”

It has long been my belief that your CV is a tool to open doors, so that you, the owner of the CV, can be interviewed for the position that suits both your set of skills (from the perspective of the employer), and your ideal vocation.

So consequently; when writing your CV you should start with the end in mind, the art of which is crystallised within understanding the purpose of your CV, its ability to market you as an employee, matching what you can do with the position that you are looking for. You would be surprised by the amount of people I have assisted in the past that have wanted to go for a career in things that they have no natural ability for. So write your skills down and be honest with yourself. If you want to be a brain surgeon but have no experience, you won’t get short listed. You need to find a position in which it’s parameter of expertise fits yours and the way to that is to highlight those experiences in your CV.

Bear in mind, when writing your CV, that when you apply for a position it will most probably be electronically and you’re application will be one among many. So how do you make yours stand out for the right reasons?

The purpose of a CV is to open doors for you to obtain an interview, it is not your life story. With that in mind think of the layout. Look on the internet for templates, create one yourself or use the ones we have prepared. Have your name, address (or just the town that you live in) and all your contact details at the top and even at the bottom too! Do not include national insurance numbers or bank details, and yes believe me people really do. Write a brief outline of your expertise and experience, the skills that you excel at, and your achievements in each role. If you want a job in sales then emphasise all your experience in that particular area and say why you would stand out in that type of role. Your CV should be no more than 2 pages long and at the most 3. Get friends and family to read your CV and see if they can spot any mistakes. Double check everything and save the CV with an appropriate title i.e. not CV version55, this may give away the fact that you have been busy editing your CV on more than a few occasions! Instead make the title your name, this will mean that the recipient can find your details immediately in their email system. There are certain, very common mistakes that I have seen injure potentially good CVs; an unprofessional email address, a CV with no contact details on, (I did try telepathy but it just didn’t work), and inappropriate word contractions (text talk). Remember, don’t give the recipient a reason to relegate your CV to the ‘no’ pile.

Once you have your list in front of you then you can focus on what potential employers are looking for.

So why is a well written CV so important?

In the shipping and freight forwarding industry, one thing is certain; no one has time to wade through a mountain of CV’s. This means you have to get your message over quickly, precisely, and accurately. It has to be surgical rather than colloquial. Your CV represents you; it reflects your work and should be perfect. With many people out of work you have to stand out and you have to stand out for the right reasons. Imagine you had a 100 CV’s to sort through; your first task would be to filter out all the badly presented CV’s. So the ones with mistakes, that have no relevance to the vacancy, that are badly laid out or difficult to understand will all be put on the ‘no’ pile. Don’t let it be yours.

With all that done, you will now be ready to target companies and recruiters with your fantastic new CV.

If you don’t get a response initially you may need to go back to your CV and do a re-write. This may be frustrating but this is your future career and you need to invest time and effort into it.

If you are still not receiving a positive response to your CV then email me a copy and I will give you completely free expert advice. caroline.frostick@redrecruit.com

This article appeared on the IFW website, www.ifw-net.com, on 27th October 2010