Background: someone sent me their CV for review. It was written by a recruitment agency. The individual is looking to make a career change from the military to private sector. This is entirely do-able, but the CV really needs to ‘hit’ hard for them. Here’s my answer to her:
For an employer reviewing your CV, really, they must:
… see benefit to themselves, they must see that you have skills they need, they must see that you are someone who can work hard and well for them, that you can provide the benefit they need, and more.
So, you want to highlight things you’ve achieved –
- how you’ve reduced backlogs,
- how you’ve worked with difficult people successfully,
- how you’ve provided accurate, on-time services,
- how you’ve kept an organized, up-to-date office,
- how you’ve ensured compliance to regulations,
- how you’ve done the work of 2 people (saving money, etc),
- how you’ve streamlined processes (again, saving resources),
- how you’ve learned new things quickly, etc, etc.
- You want to show people have trusted you with much and you’ve delivered, on-target, on-time.
All of this needs to be highlighted and detailed in various ways in the CV in order to get attention and to be taken seriously. If all you have is a list of “duties”, you could be in trouble.
(Recruitment people often have no idea of what a CV can be, they just use the same old approach, one that they’ve been using for the last 40 years.)
