CV Writing
CV writing is a headache! You’ve rewritten your resume. Six times! Tried templates. AI. You’re still going in circles. Your CV looks average. Like a million others. 😭😭
You’re good at what you do. But marketing yourself? Putting ‘you’ in words? Making it look good? Scannable? ATS aligned? Writing so that it sells you? That’s hard!
So you’re stuck. This is where you’ll get help.
What makes it so hard?? Well, you need a long list of skills to get it right.
- It’s writing, sales, copywriting, and keyword research
- Knowledge of applicant tracking systems, design, and recruiter psychology
- And there’s clarity – putting what you do in 1 sentence
- What about the putting 30 years’ experience into 2 pages?
- Finding creative ways to distinguish yourself
- Selling yourself while also not being ‘cringy’!
Putting all of this together can drive you crazy! 😤🤪 It’s not what you do.
So, you’ll get help here. Whether you’re doing it yourself (DIY). Or you need my personal hands-on help. You’ll get practical direction from someone who’s been writing CVs for 20 years.
Let’s get into it.
Here’s what’s below on this page:
- CV Writing in 2026 – What’s New?
- How is CV Writing Different for Senior Professionals?
- What a Professional CV Writer Does
- How to Write a CV – A Framework You Can Use
- CV Writing for Different Career Stages and Levels
- The Five CV Writing Mistakes Senior Professionals Make with Their CVs
- Test Your CV Here – Score it Out of 10
- What My CV Writing Clients Say
- About Me, CV Writer, Gerard le Roux
- CV Writing FAQs
- Free CV Writing Consulting Call
QUICK NOTE: I’m one call or Whatsapp away. I can help you with your CV hands on, one-to-one, or at least provide some guidance. Why not let’s get on a 10 minute call? I’ll look at your CV. I’ll provide some feedback and usable ideas. You can then implement yourself. Or you can get my help. I’m on email at gerard@wowcv.net, or on Whatsapp on +27 83 7445454.
CV Writing in 2026 – What’s New?
CV writing is the translating of a career into a document that gets you shortlisted. That’s the whole job. Not making it pretty. Translating.
Most people think a CV is a record of where they’ve worked. It isn’t. A CV is a sales document. In it you must make the case for hiring you. In under 3 seconds. If it reads like a job description, it fails. CV writing means answering the question: “Why hire me?”
The term itself has changed. “CV” and “resume” now mean the same thing in most markets. Recruiters and HR use them interchangeably. “Resume” is dominant in the USA.
What’s changed in the last few years:
- Applicant tracking systems (ATS). They screen most applications before a human sees them. Your CV has to pass software and impress a person. Two audiences, one document. Be warned though – if youre trying to impress the ‘bots’ you’re in the ‘mass market’. Everyone gets frustrated by being there. Most applications get ignored. There’s no one CV that’ll land you all the jobs!
- Recruiters scan in seconds, not minutes. The first pass is a scan for relevance. If the top third of your CV doesn’t make the case, you lose. It’s brutal! Again, recruiters mean you’re in the mass market. They will let you down. You will get terrible service. You will feel ignored.
- AI has flooded the market. Recruiters can spot a generic AI-written CV. You need to position yourself for humans and ‘the bots’. AI has been a gamechanger, for sure. But now everyone is using it! AI is your slave. You are not AIs slave. Use it to reserearch. Not to ‘be you’.
- Senior candidates face big problem. At 20+ years’ experience, the challenge isn’t fitting everything in. It’s deciding what to cut so the right things stand out. That’s a strategic problem, not a formatting one. Ageism is rife. Seniors need to acquire new skills. Stay up to date. And most importantly they have to present themselves as a solution. Short and sharp. No 5 page CV.
- Another emerging term is “positioning”. Your CV has to do more than say, for, e.g., “I’m an Accountant”. It has to be more about who you help. What specific problems you solve. And what definite benefits you provide. It has to position you like a dart on a dart board.
- People are still central to the process. Yes. You’ll see headlines that no human is involved in the recruiting process any longer. True in some cases. Not universally. Not for most companies. And anyway, your network of contacts remains your best source of jobs. That’s all about people.
Ignore any of these princples and you have a problem. Others overtake you in the job market.
How is CV Writing Different
for Senior Professionals?
Here’s the CV / resume writing advice you’ll read elsewhere. Use action verbs. Quantify your achievements. Keep it to two pages. Tailor it to the job.
All true and good advice. But all useless on its own.
The problem is that advice treats CV writing as a formatting exercise. It isn’t. It’s a positioning exercise. And positioning gets harder the more senior you are, not easier.
Think about it. At 25, your CV is a list of what you’ve done. At 45, your CV is a selection of what you’ve done. And the selection is the hard part. You’ve got 30 years of material. You can’t include it all. So what do you cut? What do you lead with? What story are you telling about who you are now and where you’re going?
That’s not a writing problem. It’s a strategic one. It’s why Dave with 30 year’s experience struggles. He can’t see the wood for the trees. Dave can write. But he’s too close to it all.
A professional CV writer does three things a DIY writer can’t do easily:
- Asks the questions you haven’t asked yourself. What problems have you actually solved? What results did you drive? What makes you different from the other ten candidates? How does your 30 year’s experience make you valuable. What’s your ‘secret sauce’??
- Cuts without sentiment. You’ve got a project from 2011 you’re proud of. It’s not relevant to the role you’re targeting. It goes. A writer can make that call. You probably can’t.
- Translates operational detail into strategic value. “Managed a team of 12” is operational. “Built and led a team that reduced processing time by 40%” is strategic. The translation is the work.
A big challenge to anyone over 50 is ageism. You have a mountain of experience. Somehow it counts against you! You’re “overqualified”. Ouch!
There are many obstacles. Age. Inexperience. Gender. Being out of the market for 2 years while you had kids. Whatever the case, you have to respond powerfully in our CV.
And we do that by asking these two questions:
- What’s my value proposition?
- How does my 30 years make me more valuable?
These are the core questions I help every client with. It’s how you get hired. Especially as an older person. Powerful statements of focus, intent, and proof of value! Know exactly where you fit in. Put it in strong, clear words. Be easy to understand. Memorable.
And if you’re targeting executive or board roles, this gets even more specialised. The audience is different. Your resume writing approach has to be tuned accordingly.
You’ll get more help in the following pages
[Read the full guide to executive CV writing here.]
[Read the full guide to board CV writing here.]
What a Professional CV Writer Does
A professional CV writer is not someone who types up your history in a nicer font. Many, if not most, CV writers are like this. They’re typists. The real work is different.
When I help my clients – whether a CEO or a recent graduate – here’s what I do:
- Discovery. A real CV writing process starts with questions, not templates. What are you targeting? What’s your track record? What results have you driven? What’s the story you want a recruiter to walk away with? What have you built? Fixed? Turned around? What evidence do we have? What do others say about you? Psychometric tests?
(I’ve had up to 100 pages of client additional info with some of my clients. One client had a CV that was 30 pages long for a start. Got to laser in on what’s most important.) - Positioning. Once all the info is on the table, the writer decides what to lead with. What’s the headline? What’s the through-line? What’s the special value a candidate offers. What sets them apart from the crowd? This is the strategic core of CV writing. It’s also the part most DIY writers skip.
- Research. A good writer researches the market you’re targeting. What do employers in your field actually look for? What keywords matter for ATS? What’s the language of your industry? This is where CV writing overlaps with SEO — the same principles apply.
- Writing. Now the words get written. Short sentences. Active voice. Inferred first person. Results over duties. A story of impact, not a list of responsibilities. Proof!
- Design. The document has to look like it belongs to the person it describes. Clean. Modern. Easy to scan. The design serves the content, not the other way around.
- Iteration. A first draft is a first draft. The best CV writing involves feedback, refinement, and a final pass for clarity.
Another thing I help my clients with: give them a fresh and confident look at themselves. Often they’ve begun to lose hope and self-belief. I help them get out of their own way.
That’s the basic process. It takes time. It takes thinking. It’s not something you can shortcut with a template and an AI prompt — although both have their place.
Something extra I do when writing a CV is this. I apply my D-I-S-R-UU-P-T framework. It’s a set principles which I use to ensure my client stands out. In a cluttered market, we have to ‘disrupt’! Shake things up. Make some waves. Push the envelope. Get noticed (for the right reasons!)
Obviously every client is different. Last week I wrote a CV for a CFO. We took a much more conservative approach. It’s about clear communication to a targetd audience. Not ‘bragging’.
If you want me to do this for you, the services page has the full breakdown of what I offer and what it costs. Or just email me: gerard@wowcv.net. If you want to write your own, keep reading.
How to Write a CV
– A Framework You Can Use
Of course, you can write your own CV.
Here’s the framework I’d use if I were starting from scratch.
Start with the target, not the history. Before you write a single word, answer one question: what role are you targeting? Not “a job” — a specific role, at a specific level, in a specific industry. Everything in the CV is filtered through that lens.
Lead with a positioning statement. Two or three lines at the top that say who you are, what you do, and what value you bring. Not “results-driven professional with a proven track record.” Something like: “Operations director, Telecoms, who turned around a loss-making division and grew margin by 18% in 2 years.”
Show outcomes, not duties. For each role, ask: what did I actually achieve? What changed because I was there? Lead with that. Duties are context, not content.
Cut ruthlessly. Every line has to earn its place. If it doesn’t serve the target role, it goes. A tight two pages beats a padded four every time.
Make it scannable. Clear headings. Consistent formatting. White space. A recruiter should be able to find your current role, your key results, and your education in five seconds.
Optimise for ATS. Use the keywords that appear in the job ads you’re targeting. Plain formatting. No tables, columns, or graphics that confuse the software.
That’s the framework. It works. But it’s also a lot of work — and the hardest part is the positioning, which is exactly where most people get stuck.
Read the full guide: How to Write a CV
CV Writing for Different Career
Stages and Levels
The principles of CV writing stay the same. The emphasis shifts by career stage. Here’s how.
Early career (0–5 years). You don’t have a long track record, so the CV has to prove potential. Education, projects, part-time work, volunteer experience, and skills all carry weight. Even home projects can help. If you painted the house, list it! If you baby-sit, list it! List anything that shows you can tackle a job and do it until its finished.
Mid-career (5–15 years). You’ve got results now. The CV has to show progression, impact, and the specific value you bring to a role. Don’t make this mistake though. Your CV lists what you’ve done but doesn’t make the case for what you’ll do next.
Senior and executive (15+ years). The challenge is selection and positioning. You’ve got more material than fits. The CV has to cut ruthlessly and position you for the level you’re targeting, not the level you’re leaving. [Read the full guide to executive CV writing here.]
Board and non-executive. A board CV is a different document again. The reader is different. Board members. They’re looking for governance, oversight, risk awareness. And your ability to act as a custodian of shareholder value. It’s shorter, sharper, and more strategic than an executive CV.
[Read the full guide to board CV writing here.]
Truth is: It’s chaos out there. But if you have the right connections, introductions and backing, anything is possible. And it’s powerful to have your CV/resume and LinkedIn presentations Positioned, sharp and up-to-date. People don’t introduce someone who doesn’t look like they’re ‘together’.
The Five CV Writing Mistakes Senior Professionals Make with Their CVs
1. Leading with duties instead of results. “Responsible for managing the supply chain” tells a recruiter nothing. “Reduced supply chain costs by R4m annually while improving delivery times by 22%” tells them you’re worth a conversation.
2. Trying to fit 30 years into two pages — and cutting the wrong things. The answer isn’t to compress everything. It’s to select. Cut the roles and achievements that don’t serve the target. Keep the ones that do. Depth beats breadth.
3. Using the same CV for every application. Different roles want different things. A CV for a COO role should not read the same as a CV for a board position. Tailor, or you’ll be generic.
4. Writing for a recruiter instead of a hiring manager. Recruiters screen. Hiring managers hire. Your CV has to pass the screen and make the case to the person who’ll actually make the decision. Different audiences, different content.
5. Not positioning for the role you’re targeting. Most CVs describe where you’ve been. The best ones make the case for where you’re going. That’s the shift from history to positioning.
If any of these sound familiar, you’re not alone. Most senior professionals make at least two of them.
These tests will help you identify mistakes you may be making:
Test Your CV Here
-Score it Out of 10
Before you rewrite, diagnose. These tools and assessments will show you exactly where the problems are — and what to fix first.
Or just send it to me. I’ll take a look and give you some feedback. I’m on gerard@wowcv.net
Or send it to me. I’m happy to provide a few pointers when I have a moment. gerard@wowcv.net
What My CV Writing Clients Say
These are real people. I’ve kept their words as they wrote them.
“Gerard… thank you for your creative genius in laying out my new CV. I was successful on the very first opportunity.” — NC
“A month ago you wrote my CV. Up to then I’d sent out more than 1,500 CVs and got 6 responses. I sent out my new CV 16 times, got 6 responses, and was offered a great Senior Management job which I’ve accepted.” — Mike V, Engineering PM
“Within a day of sending it out I was contacted for a higher position than what I was actually looking for.” — James, IT Engineer
“I have had the privilege of working with Gerard for many years. He is exceptional at what he does and quite simply just gets it every time.” — IV, former CMO, Absa Bank
“Gerard is a genuine genius. He managed to take my CV, which at the time emulated a mini dissertation, and turned it into a two-page document that had only essential information and is also easy on the eye.” — KL, Lead PRO: Africa, Qatar Airways
Just be aware: client testimonials don’t guarantee you’ll get the same results. Landing a job involves many factors outside your or a CV writer’s control.
“Gerard, your insights and ability to help people articulate their value is unique and so valuable to many people who often cannot because they have not created career intervals to reflect and record their achievements, contributions or planned transition to the next phase of their life / career — ‘designing your life vs reacting.’… I often reflect on the output of the CV you created for me. I recall how much self-belief and energy you gave me. I trust you continue to have a positive impact on every person you work with.”
“I just wanted to reach out and acknowledge the positive impact you have on people. As you did for me.” -AS, Global Client Partner, Australia
About Me, CV Writer, Gerard le Roux
I’ve been writing CVs since 2003. Before that, I was a corporate recruiter — so I’ve seen the hiring process from both sides of the desk. I know what happens to your CV after you hit send. I know what makes recruiters stop and read.
I’ve spent over 40,000 hours positioning clients and writing their career assets. My advice has been published in The Star, Financial Mail, and Business Day. I’ve spoken at UCT and CUT, and been on Radio 702 and Cape Talk.
I work alone. And I work from a converted horse-stable office in the Elgin Valley. It’s about 80km outside Cape Town. My clients are on every continent except Antarctica. Most come through referrals. I don’t take on every project. My capacity is limited by design — it means you get the best of me, not a junior writer.
Phone & WhatsApp: +27 83 744 5454 Email: gerard@wowcv.net
CV Writing FAQs
(Frequently Asked Questions)
Nothing meaningful. The terms are used interchangeably in most markets. I use both. If you’re looking for resume writing help, you’re in the right place.
Well, I want you to look great. But no. We have to find the right tone. It’s about the facts. And evidence. Also about mentioning the support of a great team. I want you looking like a team player. And approachable. Not like a loud mouth! It’s about clear communication. Companies want good people. It’s no use hiding yourself inside a poor CV. Or not mentioning your successes.
It depends on the service. My executive CV writing service starts at R6,500. The management CV service starts at R3,500. The technical CV service starts at R2,750. Specialty services like the board CV package are priced higher because the work is more specialised. Request my full set of service options and pricing by sending me an email: gerard@wowcv.net.
Usually around two weeks. Good CV writing takes time — discovery, positioning, writing, and revision. If you have a tight deadline, tell me upfront and we’ll be realistic about what’s possible. I won’t rush a project that needs care.
No. Nobody can. Landing a role depends on too many factors outside your or my control. What I guarantee is a CV that positions you clearly, strategically, and credibly. It’ll be unique. That’s the part I can control. Promising you’ll land a job immediately with any CV is a joke.
Yes. I work with clients worldwide. Everything is handled remotely — discovery calls, drafts, revisions, delivery. The only thing that changes is the currency on the invoice.
AI is a tool, not a reliable writer. I use it for research and admin, not for positioning. The strategic thinking — what to include, what to cut, how to frame your value — is done by me. That’s the part that matters. AI doesn’t have the nuance. Many use it. Not many know that they’re making themselves look generic, like everyone else. I cringe at some of the output AI gives for CVs.
Then let’s make yours better. I offer an Expert Eyes service — you write, I review and give you specific, actionable directions. It’s R2,250 and it’s designed for self-starters who want professional guidance without a full rewrite.
Book a free 15-minute exploratory call. Send me your current CV. I’ll look it over and give you three specific, actionable ideas to improve it. No sales pitch. You can run with them, or enlist my hands-on help. Either way, you walk away with fresh thinking.
Free CV Writing Consulting Call
You’ve read this far. You’re serious about fixing the CV, not just thinking about it.
Here’s what I’d suggest. If ou have over 15 years’ experience, send me your current CV. I’ll read it. I’ll give you 3 ideas to improve it. No charge for that. It’s a 15-minute call and a quick review. You’ll walk away with three specific points you can use whether we work together or not.
If you want me to take it further — to do the discovery, the positioning, the writing, the design — that’s what I do. It’s what I’ve done for 40,000+ hours. It’s what my clients pay me for.
Book a free exploratory call. WhatsApp: +27 83 744 5454 Email: gerard@wowcv.net
I’m one WhatsApp away.