Your CV & Resume Workbook - Career Plan Coaching

Copyright Notice 

© 2011 Copyright Cherry Douglas, Your Career Change Guide 

All Rights Reserved 

No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form 

whatsoever, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or 

by any informational storage or retrieval system without the express written, 

dated and signed permission from the author and copyright holder. 

Disclaimer 

This ebook and its contents are provided for informational purposes only and 

all information and ideas are provided in good faith by the author who 

believes such information to be true and honest to the best of the authors’ 

knowledge and belief. Any and all opinions expressed by the author 

represent the views and opinions of the author at the time of writing. The 

author reserves the right to vary or change any such opinions subsequently. It 

is impossible to provide comprehensive information and advice tailored to 

each individual situation within an ebook such as this and it should not to be 

regarded as any kind of substitute for appropriate and personalised 

professional advice. Nothing in this ebook can be considered to be any form 

of promise or guarantee. Adoption, implementation or trial of any of the 

information, ideas, methods or systems mention in this ebook and on the 

associated How To Change Careers website are entirely at the reader’s own 

risk. The reader is totally responsible for the choices and decisions they make, 

and for any and all consequences of those decisions. The author apologises 

for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies that may be found in this document.

Readers’ Reviews 

‘If you really want to 'Get That Job', you need to apply the professional 

secrets and techniques that Cherry Douglas reveals to you in "The CV & 

Resume Workbook". Your CV/Resume is Your Personal Sales Pitch...and 

Cherry shows you how to craft yours so that you should stand head and 

shoulders above other candidates. After all, why be 'one of the pack' when 

you could use Cherry's techniques to be first over the winning line? 

Well done, Cherry! The real value to the job-seeker of the secrets you share in 

your "CV & Resume Workbook" are astronomically more than its very modest 

price.’ 

John Williamson 

www.thewealthcoach.com 

www.retaildisplaysecrets.com 

‘After all my years spent in Executive Search I have never seen anything this 

good. Writing your own CV is tough. Sure we can all say which companies 

we have worked for but have you stopped to consider that your CV/Resume 

will portray many more things – sadly things you may with hindsight wish had 

remained hidden. 

If you take this workbook seriously you will not only get a potential employer 

to 'look twice' at you, there's a very good chance you will have realised just 

how much you have done and what extraordinary skills you have to offer. 

You will come away feeling more positive and confident that you can get the 

job you want. 

Cherry's workbook provides a through framework along with detailed 

mapping of the much shredded item the CV/Resume. Commit yourself to the 

process she offers with vigour, they don't come this good very often!’ 

Susie Lomax 

‘I was seriously impressed by this workbook! Right from the start I felt 

confident that I was being guided through a structured process by someone 

who really knows her stuff. I particularly love the way it combines expert 

advice with a strong coaching element through all 12 steps, so that you end 

up with a CV which is not only professional but also a unique reflection of who 

you are and what you have to offer.’ 

Karen Knott – Midlife Matters 

www.midlifematters.co.uk/

‘This workbook is exactly what I would expect from Cherry Douglas - clear, 

practical, insightful and inspiring. In times when getting that perfect job is 

hard, even for the most able candidates, Cherry has pulled together 

practical exercises into a comprehensive and straightforward guide covering 

every aspect of writing one's CV. In addition, one also has plenty of 

opportunity to consider one's options and target job hunting so that success is 

more likely. Written with the commitment to her readers that Cherry brings to 

all her clients, this is a valuable tool for anyone who wants to move on in their 

career. I am already recommending it to my clients.’ 

Deborah Henry-Pollard - Catching Fireworks 

www.catchingfireworks.co.uk 

‘This is an excellent book which covers every aspect on putting together your 

CV in detail. Clearly and logically laid out into 'easy to find' sections, it 

carefully goes through each area of the CV or resume, giving you blank 

sections to complete elements of your own as you work through it. 

The book delves deep into exactly what details should and should not be 

included. By breaking each area down into manageable chunks, it makes 

the whole process seem much less daunting and it will give you the 

confidence to go out and get the job you want.’ 

Caroline Aitken, Director, Acorn Communications 

www.acorncommunications.co.uk/ 

‘Many thanks for The CV and Resume Workbook. I have read it and used it as 

part of my teaching material for my classes and found it a very useful tool. It 

was very clear and gave good pointers for writing CVs and resumes for 

different situations which was an eye opener for me as in the past, I used the 

same CV for every job I went for.’ 

Julie Matthias – Just Soe 

www.justsoe.com

‘A really useful and practical guide to producing a relevant and winning CV 

for every job you apply for. Cherry guides you through a complete thought 

process and fact finding mission to make sure you present yourself in the best 

possible way to prospective employers. If you follow her guide you will also 

end up with a valuable pool of information for yourself that you will always be 

able to draw on. Highly recommended.’ 

Sonja Adams – Print Junction 

sonja@print-junction.co.uk 

‘A really useful and practical workbook. Packed with some amazing pointers 

to guide you through the whole minefield process of planning and reflection 

to help you achieve the perfect CV. Thank you so much.’ 

Christine O'Neill – Deja Vu 

http://www.dejavuseal.co.uk/

Index 

Copyright Notice......................................................................... 

2 

Disclaimer .................................................................................. 2 

Readers’ Reviews....................................................................... 

3 

Index........................................................................................... 

6 

Introduction.............................................................................. 

11 

What you get in this workbook................................................. 

11 

How to use this workbook......................................................... 

12 

…over to you............................................................................ 

13 

CV or Resume? ........................................................................ 14 

One CV at a time...................................................................... 

14 

CV & Resume Master File........................................................ 

15 

Ready to get started? ............................................................... 15 

How does your CV shape up? ................................................ 16 

The top 20 CV & resume mistakes........................................... 

16 

CVs and Resumes - Your 12 Step Action Guide.................... 

18 

Step 1 – What is the point? ...................................................... 20 

Know yourself........................................................................... 

22 

Know your market..................................................................... 

22 

Know what you want................................................................. 

22 

…over to you............................................................................ 

22 

Step 2 - Who are you writing for? ............................................ 24 

Time to research the job........................................................... 

25 

Job description...................................................................... 

25 

…over to you............................................................................ 

25 

Person specification.............................................................. 

26 

…over to you............................................................................ 

26 

Job advertisement................................................................. 

26 

…over to you............................................................................ 

27 

Broaden your research............................................................. 

27 

The company........................................................................ 

27 

…over to you............................................................................ 

28 

The industry sector............................................................... 

28 

…over to you............................................................................ 

29 

Step 3 - What are you selling? The facts. ............................... 30 

Collect the facts first................................................................. 

30 

Education, exams & qualifications........................................ 

31 

…over to you............................................................................ 

31 

Professional training............................................................. 

32 

…over to you............................................................................ 

32 

On-the-job training................................................................ 

32 

…over to you............................................................................ 

33

Your employment history...................................................... 

33 

…over to you............................................................................ 

35 

Voluntary work...................................................................... 

35 

…over to you............................................................................ 

35 

Interests................................................................................ 

36 

…over to you............................................................................ 

36 

Time out................................................................................ 

36 

…over to you............................................................................ 

37 

Step 4 - What are you selling? Your hidden assets. ............. 38 

Your key skills........................................................................... 

38 

Your work skills..................................................................... 

38 

…over to you............................................................................ 

39 

Skills outside work................................................................ 

40 

…over to you............................................................................ 

41 

Your strengths ......................................................................... 41 

…over to you............................................................................ 

42 

…and your weaknesses? ......................................................... 42 

…over to you............................................................................ 

43 

Your achievements................................................................... 

44 

…over to you............................................................................ 

45 

Your personal qualities............................................................. 

45 

…over to you............................................................................ 

46 

Where’s the evidence? ............................................................. 46 

What is your ‘brand’? ................................................................ 48 

How to define your brand...................................................... 

49 

…over to you............................................................................ 

50 

Step 5 – Where’s the match? .................................................. 51 

…over to you............................................................................ 

52 

Step 6 - Which style of CV? .................................................... 54 

Chronological resume or CV.................................................... 

54 

Will this style work for you? ................................................. 55 

…over to you............................................................................ 

55 

Skills based resume or CV....................................................... 

56 

Will this style work for you? .................................................. 56 

…over to you............................................................................ 

57 

Functional resume or CV.......................................................... 

57 

…over to you............................................................................ 

58 

Combination resume or CV...................................................... 

58 

Will this style work for you? .................................................. 58 

…over to you............................................................................ 

59 

How to choose? ........................................................................ 59 

Step 7 - CV & resume sections................................................ 

61 

Adapt, adapt….......................................................................... 

61 

So what is absolutely essential? .............................................. 62 

Personal details.................................................................... 

62

…over to you............................................................................ 

63 

Education.............................................................................. 

64 

…over to you............................................................................ 

65 

Work experience/employment history................................... 

65 

Key skills............................................................................... 

67 

References............................................................................ 

67 

Who is suitable to be a referee? ......................................... 68 

Who could you use? ........................................................... 68 

…over to you............................................................................ 

69 

Additional sections.................................................................... 

70 

Personal profile..................................................................... 

70 

Career objective.................................................................... 

70 

Skills summary / key skills.................................................... 

71 

Professional / Technical skills............................................... 

71 

Achievements....................................................................... 

72 

Additional training / Professional training............................. 

72 

Activities and interests.......................................................... 

73 

Voluntary work...................................................................... 

74 

Experience abroad................................................................ 

74 

Honours and awards............................................................. 

75 

Professional memberships................................................... 

75 

Publications........................................................................... 

75 

Any more? ............................................................................. 76 

…over to you............................................................................ 

76 

Step 8 – Pulling it all together.................................................. 

77 

General tips on writing style..................................................... 

78 

Using action words................................................................... 

80 

Getting going............................................................................ 

81 

Completing the sections you have chosen............................... 

81 

Writing about your education.................................................... 

82 

Writing about your employment................................................ 

83 

Writing about your skills and achievements............................. 

83 

Writing your personal profile and/or career objective............... 

84 

…over to you............................................................................ 

85 

Sequence of your chosen sections.......................................... 

86 

Proof read carefully.................................................................. 

86 

Step 9 – Making it look the part.............................................. 

88 

General look and feel............................................................... 

88 

The arm’s length test. ........................................................ 88 

…over to you............................................................................ 

89 

Promoting your brand. ........................................................ 89 

Font........................................................................................... 

90 

…over to you............................................................................ 

90 

Headings................................................................................... 

91 

…over to you............................................................................ 

91

Colour....................................................................................... 

92 

Paper........................................................................................ 

92 

Photos....................................................................................... 

93 

Length....................................................................................... 

93 

Bullet points.............................................................................. 

94 

Dates........................................................................................ 

94 

Keywords.................................................................................. 

95 

…over to you............................................................................ 

96 

The space in between.............................................................. 

96 

Consistency.............................................................................. 

96 

Presentation folders.................................................................. 

97 

Final adjustments..................................................................... 

97 

…over to you............................................................................ 

97 

Step 10 – Take a break............................................................ 

99 

Three reviews........................................................................... 

99 

Review one........................................................................... 

99 

Review two.......................................................................... 

100 

Review three....................................................................... 

100 

Step 11 – Get an independent view..................................... 

101 

From a friend.......................................................................... 

101 

From a professional................................................................ 

102 

…over to you.......................................................................... 

102 

Step 12 - Your CV and Resume checklist............................ 

104 

Before you started.................................................................. 

104 

Look and feel.......................................................................... 

104 

Personal details...................................................................... 

105 

Your profile............................................................................. 

106 

Education and training............................................................ 

106 

Work experience .................................................................... 106 

Skills, qualities, experience & achievements......................... 

107 

Interests.................................................................................. 

107 

References............................................................................. 

107 

Finally..................................................................................... 

108 

Congratulations - you’re done! ............................................... 108 

What to leave out of your Resume....................................... 

109 

Date of birth........................................................................ 

109 

Gender................................................................................ 

109 

Marital status and children.................................................. 

110 

Nationality........................................................................... 

110 

Health issues...................................................................... 

110 

Religious or political convictions......................................... 

110 

Why you are leaving your current job................................. 

111 

Current salary..................................................................... 

111 

Failures............................................................................... 

111 

Humour............................................................................... 

112

…over to you.......................................................................... 

112 

Additional tips........................................................................ 

113 

Don’t tell lies........................................................................... 

113 

Using CV / Resume templates............................................... 

114 

Your online identity................................................................. 

114 

Your own website................................................................... 

115 

Applying via the internet......................................................... 

116 

Keyword scanning............................................................... 

117 

Do you dare to be different? ................................................... 117 

When NOT to use a CV or resume........................................ 

118 

Need more help? ................................................................... 119 

CV & resume writing agencies............................................... 

119 

Career Plan Coaching............................................................ 

119 

Career MOT............................................................................ 

120 

Your CV & Resume Toolkit .................................................... 121 

Job Analysis Worksheet......................................................... 

122 

Skills Assessment................................................................... 

125 

Skills Prompt List...................................................................... 

127 

Evidence Record................................................................... 

130 

Referees Record..................................................................... 

131 

Action Words Prompt List....................................................... 

132 

Sample CVs and Resumes.................................................... 

134 

Recommended Resources.................................................. 

136 

Websites................................................................................. 

136 

Books...................................................................................... 

137 

Additional Notes.................................................................... 

138 


139 


140 

About the author, Cherry Douglas....................................... 

141 

Cherry Douglas....................................................................... 

141 

Feedback and comments....................................................... 

142

Visit the How To Change Careers website for the best advice on changing careers 

http://www.how-to-change-careers.com 

Introduction 

Welcome to The CV and Resume Workbook – Your 12 

Step Action Guide to Creating Winning Job 

Applications. 

You have just taken a great step forwards towards 

ensuring that you have a winning CV or resume that 

will present you positively, impress recruiters and help 

you get the outcome you want in your job search. 

As a career coach, I have worked for many years 

with clients, helping them to improve their 

applications and I have also sat on the recruiter’s side 

of the desk too, making short listing and selection 

decisions on the basis of CVs and resumes sent in by 

hopeful applicants. This means I am in very familiar 

territory here and I am delighted to share my 

knowledge and experience with you in this workbook. 

What you get in this workbook 

• A 12 Step Action Guide to help you to put your CV 

or resume together, taking you through all the 

essential preparation, guiding you as you assemble 

all the important and relevant information to 

support your case and finally helping you to make 

decisions about how to present your CV or resume 

for maximum impact 

• A Check List of Common CV & Resume Errors for 

you to avoid 

• Job Analysis Worksheet which helps you tease out 

the skills you have developed through your work 

and beyond 

• An Action Words Prompt List to help you ensure 

that the content of your CV presents you as 

positively as possible 

• A Skills Prompt List to refer to if you need some 

ideas when doing the skills exercise. 

11



• An Evidence Record so you can be sure that you 

can prove you have the skills and abilities you are 

claiming. 

• A Referees Record to help you keep track of the 

people who are willing to provide references for 

you. 

• A CV and Resume Checklist to use once you have 

drafted your resume to make sure you have got it 

right 

• A list of Recommended Resources so you can do 

further reading and research if you so wish 

• Additional Notes sheets so you can capture 

everything you identify about you that could 

contribute to the success of your job application 

• And many, many more tips and hints to help you 

get it right! 

How to use this workbook 

As the title suggests, this is designed as a practical 

workbook, something you engage with actively as 

you go through it. It is certainly not intended to be 

read through at one sitting. I recommend that you 

approach it as an active learning project. 

Take a quick look through the whole book, to see 

what I have included, but then work through the 12 

Steps slowly, one at a time. You will probably find it 

easier if you print out each step as you are ready to 

work on it and you may well want or need to spend a 

day or two on each one. Each step offers you 

exercises to do and suggests research for you to carry 

out. 

The more time and effort you put into these exercises, 

the more you will get from the whole workbook. If 

you were hoping for a quick fix here, think again. It 

takes time and effort to craft a winning CV, but that is 

time that will be well repaid in the results you get. 

12



As you read through the Workbook, you will find 

boxes like this… 

Take some time to think about …. 

…over to you 

These are invitations for you to do some thinking or 

research. In some cases I suggest that you fill in the 

empty boxes with your thoughts. In others, there is an 

exercise for you to complete and you may need to 

collect information separately. I’ll prompt you each 

time with questions or some instructions. 

• At the end of the workbook, you will find a CV & 

Resume Toolkit. This is a collection of additional 

materials you can use as you work through the 12 

Steps. I will refer you to items in the Toolkit from 

time to time or you can just dip in whenever you 

need to. 

If you find you need more space to record your 

thinking, don’t worry. I have intentionally left a 

number of Additional Notes pages at the end of the 

workbook, so you can let your thoughts ‘overflow’ 

into this extra space if necessary. 

As you go through the 12 Step Action Guide in this 

workbook, you will gradually be assembling all the 

information you need to create an impressive CV or 

resume. Once you have completed all 12 Steps, your 

work will be mostly done – all you need to do is to 

send it off. 

One way and another, you now have in your hands a 

pretty comprehensive package to ensure your future 

applications really hit the spot! 

13



CV or Resume? 

You will find that I have used the words CV and 

resume interchangeably in this workbook. This is 

intentional. 

The term CV is commonly used in the UK while resume 

is more typical in the USA. Some argue that there are 

significant differences between the two, but I am 

inclined to say that these differences are often 

exaggerated. The main difference is in length – a 

resume is usually a single side, while a CV is more 

often two pages, occasionally more. This naturally 

has implications for what information can be included 

in a shorter or longer format and for the style of its 

presentation. 

However, all the planning and preparation I discuss in 

this workbook is equally relevant to both, so please 

assume it applies to both CVs and resumes unless I 

specifically say otherwise. 

One CV at a time 

Although this workbook is full of tips and advice that 

apply to any and every CV, it is a good idea, when 

doing the exercises, to have a 

particular CV in mind. Think about a specific job 

opportunity you are planning to apply for or an event 

you will be attending where you may want to give 

out your CV. This will help focus your thinking. 

If you think you can get away with producing just one 

resume that will do for every purpose, think again! 

This is one of the commonest errors people make with 

job applications. Producing successful job 

applications is a case where one size most definitely 

does not fit all! 

14



CV & Resume Master File 

As you go through this workbook, you will be 

collecting a lot of information which will form the basis 

of your resume. I strongly recommend that you keep 

it all safely in a folder or in a CV & Resume Master File 

on your computer where you can retrieve it any time 

you need to make a job application or write or 

update your resume. You will be glad you made the 

initial effort needed to set it up as it will make life a lot 

easier in the future. 

You never send out the information in this CV & 

Resume Master File as it stands - it is simply a record of 

everything that you might need to include in a 

resume. You can then refer back to it again and 

again and it saves you scratching your head, 

wondering which year you actually got your 

professional qualification or when you started that 

voluntary work with the local football team. 

But remember to make sure that it is a dynamic file. 

The old days of a job for life are long gone. Add to 

your CV & Resume Master File every time you take a 

course, gain a new qualification or develop a new 

skill – and of course every time you change jobs. This 

means you will have an accurate and up-to-date 

record of what you have to offer whenever you might 

need it. It could be useful for appraisals as well as for 

job applications. We often undervalue the skills and 

experience we gather over the years, so you will also 

find it a great confidence booster to regularly review 

and update the record. 

Ready to get started? 

OK, that’s enough in the way of introductions and 

explanations. Time to turn the page and get started. 

But before we begin with your new CV, let’s just take 

a look at what you have done in the past. 

15



How does your CV shape up? 

Before you begin, why not take a look at your current 

CV or resume and see how it fares alongside my Top 

20 CV & Resume Mistakes below? 

I must have seen hundreds of CVs over the years, 

either as a recruiter, when I have been trying to 

shortlist promising candidates, or as a professional 

career coach, helping people improve the CVs they 

have created that are not performing as they had 

hoped. 

Unfortunately, this means I have seen the same 

mistakes over and over again. Certainly, when I have 

been short listing, I have often wished I could just 

have half an hour with some of the applicants. I 

know I could have transformed their resumes! 

I imagine you may have a CV or resume somewhere 

in a file or on your computer. So before we begin the 

12 Step Action Guide, let’s just take a look and see 

how it fares against some of the classic CV mistakes. 

Take a look at the list below and check off any of the 

traps your current CV or resume has fallen into. And in 

case you are wondering, yes, I have seen these all 

before! 

The top 20 CV & resume mistakes 

1. Just sending off photocopies of the same tired 

old resume every time 

2. Devoting too much space to irrelevant or very 

generalised content 

3. Trying to make your CV look pretty with 

excessive use of colours or fancy fonts 

4. Failing to use page one of the resume to 

capture the interest of the reader 

16



5. Failing to check for basic spelling and 

grammatical errors 

6. Using a CV when an application form has been 

requested 

7. Failing to focus on relevant skills, experience and 

achievements 

8. Not providing evidence for the skills listed 

9. It’s just boring – has nothing distinctive, has no 

impact 

10. Telling lies 

11. Overselling skills and/or experience 

12. Failing to show relevance to the person who will 

be reading it 

13. Using flowery or pretentious language 

14. Presenting a jumbled and incoherent picture of 

the applicant 

15. Using too many stock phrases eg ‘I am a strong 

team player’ 

16. Leaving unexplained gaps in your work history so 

the employer assumes the worst 

17. Including lots of very old information eg school 

qualifications from 25 years ago 

18. Cramming in too much content 

19. Using abbreviations or acronyms 

20. Omitting basic contact information 

How did you do? This is not a quiz where a high score 

is a good thing! Hopefully you will not have checked 

too many of the items on the list, but I imagine there 

will be at least a few! 

But don’t worry, this CV & Resume Workbook is 

designed specifically to help you avoid the classic CV 

clangers and to make sure that from now you, any 

CV you send out will do the job it is designed to do. 

17



================================== 

In the next section, I will introduce you to the 12 Step 

Action Guide I have designed to help you put 

together your own winning CV. 

18



CVs and Resumes - Your 12 Step Action Guide 

I can almost see you now. Fingers poised over the 

keyboard, fresh blank document on the screen, this 

ebook alongside, waiting to get started on your 

brilliant new resume. 

Now before you get carried away, I’d like you to 

close up the document, put away all your old versions 

of resumes, and even switch the computer off for the 

time being. 

Before you begin to write, just stop and think. This is 

probably the most important piece of advice in the 

whole work book! 

Most resumes fail in what the writer hopes they will 

achieve because they have been assembled in a 

hurry with no real care, attention and forethought. A 

good resume takes time and that is why I have 

created this 12 Step Action Guide to lead you through 

the process in small, achievable steps. 

Take your time over each one. Fill in the ‘…over to 

you’ boxes and do the exercises they suggest. 

Scribble notes in the margins and on the Additional 

Notes Sheets at the end. Refer to the worksheets in 

the CV & Resume Toolkit and use them as further 

prompts to your thinking. 

You will find that some steps will take longer than 

others – that’s OK. However, I do recommend that 

you do the steps in sequence as one builds on 

another, so don’t be tempted to just jump in 

anywhere. 

But remember that CV and resume writing is more of 

an art than a science. Following the 12 Steps I have 

laid out for you in this workbook will guide you safely 

along the right path, but at the end of the day, the 

19



CV has to be a unique reflection of who you are. The 

12 Step formula will help you assemble all the right 

bits, but you have to breathe life into the final 

product. 

So, on to Step 1… 

20



Step 1 – What is the point? 

Many a CV or resume goes wrong right from the 

outset because the writer does not stop to think 

about the object of the exercise. 

‘What do you mean?’ I hear you ask. 

OK, so what do you think a CV is for? I have asked 

this question of many clients and the answer is quite 

often something along these lines. 

‘Well, it’s to tell them all about me, isn’t it? Give them 

all the details of education, the work I have done, 

what I do in my spare time and so on, so they can 

decide if they like me’ 

Actually, no it isn’t. 

This is a common misconception with CVs. Many 

people take the term Curriculum Vitae too literally 

and turn the CV into a ‘story of their life’. Yes, it 

should contain information about you, but you need 

to think more about the needs and wants of both 

players in this game. You and the recruiter. What do 

you want to get out of your resume? 

‘Well, to get a job, of course!’ 

Hmmm, yes, eventually. But there are a number of 

steps and stages you need to get through in order to 

reach that point. 

Your focus should be primarily on getting to the next 

step, which is usually to have a face-to-face meeting 

with someone who may be able to offer you a job or 

help you along your way to a new career. 

21



The role of your CV or resume is to persuade a 

decision maker to take you on to the next stage, 

whatever it may be. To do this, it has to 

communicate effectively and represent you at your 

best in a way that demonstrates that you can meet 

their needs. 

In short, it is a sales pitch. You are the product and 

the recruiter is the buyer. 

Now you may not like this marketing idea, relegating 

yourself to the level of a commodity being traded, 

but this marketing analogy works very well and it will 

help you to approach writing a resume in the right 

frame of mind. 

Think about what marketing a product involves for a 

moment. 

First of all, you need to know your product in detail so 

you can promote it effectively. Secondly you need to 

understand the market you are pitching it at so that 

you use the right message that will appeal the 

potential buyer. Thirdly you need to know what you 

want your prospect to do (buy something, sign up for 

something, recommend you?). 

I hope you can already begin to see how this 

comparison works for CVs and resumes and that 

some careful research is going to be essential if your 

resume is to be successful. 

So there are three key areas for you to work on: 

1. Getting to know your product (ie you) 

2. Getting to know your market and your potential 

buyer (ie the recruiter) 

3. Getting clear about your own objective (what you 

want to have happen as a result of your CV being 

read) 

22



Know yourself 

This is covered in Steps 3 & 4. 

Know your market 

This is covered in detail in Step 2. 

Know what you want 

What do you want your CV or resume to achieve for 

you? This means knowing both the short and longer 

term outcomes that you are seeking. Let’s face it, if 

you are not clear where you are going with this 

resume then how can you expect anyone else to 

work it out? 

So here’s the crucial question – what are your short 

and long term objectives? What do you want your 

resume to do for you? 

Are you seeking a permanent job, a work experience 

placement, an informal interview with someone 

about a new career area, a temporary position while 

you rethink your career direction? Obviously your 

objectives will change over time and your CV will 

need to adapt accordingly. But what about right 

now? 


Take some time to think about your short and long term 

objectives at this point in your career and write them down 

below. 

23



=========================== 

So now you know what you are trying to achieve, it is 

time to consider what your recruiter wants. Find out 

more in Step 2. 

24



Step 2 - Who are you writing for? 

So now you are clear about what your own objective, 

you need to think about the person who is going to 

read your CV. 

As with any situation when you want to influence 

someone else, it is essential that you put yourself into 

their shoes. You need to be clear about what they 

want so that you can present yourself in a way that, 

as far as possible, matches their needs. 

So what is the objective of the recruiter? What are 

they trying to achieve? 

Think of it from their point of view. They have spent 

time and effort writing a job description and a person 

specification for a vacancy they have in their 

organisation. They want someone to fill a very 

specific gap, someone whose skills, knowledge and 

experience will dovetail well with the staff already in 

post. 

They are on a shopping trip and they know exactly 

what they are looking for, 

I am intentionally using sales and marketing language 

throughout this workbook, because it is important that 

you never forget that this is the essence of what your 

resume is all about. You are selling something – 

yourself, your skills, knowledge and experience. And 

the person you are sending your resume to is the 

buyer. 

And in the current economic climate, it is definitely a 

buyer’s market! 

25



Time to research the job 

If you are applying for a post that has been 

advertised, now is the time to get out all the blurb you 

have been sent and go through it with a fine toothed 

comb. 

Job description 

This usually describes the role in detail. It gives you an 

idea of the key tasks and responsibilities of the job 

and shows how you fit into the hierarchy – who you 

will report to and who you will manage. 

There may be a general introduction to the overall 

job purpose, an outline of the main responsibilities 

and then a more detailed description of specific 

functions and required outputs of the role. 

Read through this slowly and carefully and highlight 

the key aspects of the job. What is the essence of 

what they are looking for? Don’t worry at this stage 

about whether you can do it all – you are just trying to 

build up a clear picture of their needs, of their ‘ideal 

candidate’. 

Make an assessment of which parts of the role are 

central and which ones are more of a sideline. Look 

for the key words that capture what they need. Jot a 

summary down in the box below. 


What are the core elements of this role? What do they want 

you to do if appointed? 

26



Person specification 

This is where the recruiter outlines the kind of person 

they see as ideally suited to the role. There may be 

some overlap with the job description in that you 

could find headings such as Qualifications, 

Knowledge and Experience, Skills and Personal 

Qualities etc.. Sometimes you will be given additional 

information such as which aspects are deemed 

essential for the role and which ones just desirable. 

As a rule, the person specification is a more useful 

guide in helping you shape your resume and you will 

often find that the interviewer will follow up on key 

skills and knowledge identified here. 

As you did with the job description, read through the 

person specification slowly and carefully, noting what 

skills, qualities and experience are regarded as 

essential and which are desirable, as this will have a 

bearing on how well you match their requirements. 

Jot them down below. Highlight any keywords that 

succinctly capture what they want. 


What are the key skills, competencies and qualities required 

for this role? 

Job advertisement 

You may have spotted this vacancy online or in the 

vacancy section of a newspaper of professional 

journal. Although they are usually pretty short, job 

adverts can be a great guide for you as the recruiter 

has really had to boil down their needs to the 

absolute essentials. 

Go through the ad with your highlighter and pick out 

the keywords used. 

27




What are the key words used to describe the role and the 

person required? 

All done? 

You may think that this is all the research you need to 

do at this stage, but don’t just stop here. 

Broaden your research 

The company 

No job stands on its own. It will fit within the context of 

the company or organisation, and this in turn fits into 

the wider context of an occupational field and an 

industry sector. If you are to really demonstrate that 

you are a good fit, then you need to understand 

what is going on beyond the boundaries of the post 

itself. 

What can you find out about the company? You 

may have been sent some background information 

when you got the job application pack, but search 

more widely than this. 

At an absolute minimum, visit the company website. 

What sort of image are they presenting to the world? 

What can you glean about their values? How big are 

they (local, national, global?) and are they 

expanding or contracting? 

28



You will probably be able to download the company 

Annual Report from their website. This can be 

another source of useful information about the 

company’s performance and future plans. 

Do an internet search on the company name - you 

may find that news results crop up which will give you 

an idea of any good or bad press they have had 

recently. 

And it is always worth asking around for some 

informal, ‘insider’ information. You may find that one 

of your friends or colleagues know someone who 

works for this firm. If so, an informal chat over a 

coffee or a beer can provide some interesting 

insights. 


What have you been able to find out about the company? 

The industry sector 

Try the same kind of research on a wider basis, 

looking at the sector the company is in. Are they in 

finance, in engineering, in health or retail? Each 

sector will have its own demands and pressures and 

these will influence how the company is performing. 

Read the business pages of the newspapers and see 

what news stores are coming up for your job sector. 

Seek out the relevant professional journals that relate 

to this area of work – your local library should be able 

to help you track them down – and find out what the 

hot stories are. 

29




What is going on in the industry sector you are applying to? 

All of this background research might seem a bit 

heavy and you may be tempted to skim over it. But 

don’t forget the marketing game. The better you 

know your market, the easier it will be to present 

yourself as knowledgeable and credible and more 

importantly, you will be able you to show you match 

the recruiters needs – because you know exactly 

what those needs are! 

=================================== 

In Step 3 we will turn the spotlight onto the product – 

YOU! 

30



Step 3 - What are you selling? The facts. 

If you don’t know what you are selling, how on earth 

can you sell it? Your next bit of preparation is all 

about getting to know know yourself really well. 

As ever, keep the marketing analogy in mind. If 

thinking of yourself as a product feels uncomfortable 

to you, just swallow hard and carry on anyway. You 

know you are up against many other applicants in 

trying to get an interview and a job, and the only way 

to succeed is to do everything you can to ensure that 

you have the edge over your competitors. 

Your task is to promote yourself in your best light and 

that means being absolutely clear about everything 

you have to offer. If you don’t know, do you really 

think your ‘buyer’ is going to spend time trying to work 

it out? Why should they do the work? No, you do the 

work so that you make it easy for them to like you. 

So where to begin? 

I have split the ‘product awareness’ section of the 12 

Step Action Guide into two stages. The first is 

relatively straightforward. You just need to collect the 

facts. 

Collect the facts first 

What I mean here is all the concrete information 

about what you have done with the relevant dates 

other factual data. This kind of information is always 

needed on a CV or resume and it is really worthwhile 

spending some time now collecting everything 

together in one place, so that next time you need it, it 

is all to hand. 

Recruiters usually take a fairly close look at the dates 

on your resume and are quick to spot unexplained 

gaps. You need to be sure that you have an 

31



accurate record of the dates you were involved in 

various activities so that you can present a complete 

record and not leave a potential employer assuming 

the worst because there is an unexplained gap. 

When you are assembling all this factual information, 

don’t forget to ask friends and family to help jog your 

memory if you can’t quite remember what you did or 

the dates of various activities or events. They may 

even remind you of things you had completely 

forgotten that you did! 

And as you go along, assemble all this information in 

your CV & Resume Master File. 

Education, exams & qualifications 

Start with the part that may go back furthest in time – 

your education. 

If you have not already done so, now is the time to 

review what you gained from your formal education. 

Don’t be embarrassed if it wasn’t much. This is not to 

be shown to a recruiter as it stands, it is for your own 

personal files. 

Go through the questions below and make a record 

of the answers in your CV & Resume Master File. 


When were you at secondary school – start and end dates? 

What did you study at school? 

What exams did you take and when. 

What formal qualifications did you get? What grades? 

What about after school? What further study did you 

undertake? 

What were the dates of your further study? 

What qualifications did you aim for and what did you get? 

Have you returned to education to take further basic exams 

since your formal schooling finished? If so, when? 

What qualifications did you take then? 

32



You may not need a lot of this detail for your CV, but 

you never know when you might be asked to fill in a 

bit more background. 

Certainly if you are asked to complete an application 

form rather than submit a resume, you may be faced 

with a series of empty boxes 

asking you to detail your education and 

qualifications, so time spent on this exercise is not 

going to be wasted. 

Professional training 

Now this may overlap somewhat with the details you 

have collected under education, but in this case I 

mean training that formally qualified you for the 

profession or occupational area you are working in. 


What professional or trade exams have you passed? 

When and where did you study? 

What additional professional updating have you 

undertaken? When? 

What CPD (continuing professional development) have you 

done and when? 

On-the-job training 

Many of us are regularly going on short courses at 

work, lasting a day or two or maybe less. These don’t 

lead to any formal qualification and are not 

necessarily part of the professional updating we 

might do, but they are still worth recording. 

Go back over all the jobs you have done and think of 

the courses you went on – the ones you wanted to do 

as well as the ones you were just sent on! Look back 

through old work diaries or calendars and ask current 

and former colleagues. 

33



Here are a few prompts to get you thinking… 

IT courses on specific software, website creation, 

customer care, sales, management development, 

presentation skills, health and safety, data protection, 

equal opportunities, interviewing skills, assertiveness 

training, risk assessments etc.. 

As you can see there will probably be a lot more than 

you imagine at first glance. List everything you can 

remember – you never know when it might be 

relevant. 


What on-the-job training have you done over the years? 

Your employment history 

This is the other big one. Recruiters will want to know 

what you have been doing in the job market. While 

they will usually be most interested in what you have 

done recently, there may be occasions when a job 

you did quite a while back can be mined for useful or 

relevant experience. 

Break this exercise down into categories, starting with 

full–time jobs. You may find it simpler to start with your 

current job and work backwards. List them all with 

start and end dates, preferably month and year, not 

just year. You may need to dig out old contract 

letters or job applications to help remind you. 

Spreading the net a bit wider, what about part-time 

or temporary jobs you have had. Were there 

occasions when you were out of work and so just took 

a temporary role to fill in? Add them to your list. 

34



What about while you were a student? What casual 

jobs did you do in the evenings and during vacations 

to bring in a little cash? And what about workexperience 

you may have had as part of a 

programme of study. That may not have been paid, 

but it was still experience of work, so could be useful. 

Now you may be thinking things like ‘oh, that was just 

a bit of bar work. That doesn’t count’. Well, you just 

don’t know when it might be relevant. Think again. 

Bar work could be a good example of coping with 

pressure, dealing with the public, cash handling, 

working flexibly and so on, and so on. So don’t dismiss 

the ‘little’ jobs you have done. Clearly if you are in a 

fairly senior role now, their relevance may be pretty 

limited – but what if you want to change career? 

That can be when this older experience can still be 

useful. 

And of course include self-employment and 

freelance work in this section too. Have you run your 

own business? Have you done any 

consultancy work where you were paid directly, or 

have you worked on a freelance basis? 

And lastly, don’t forget periods of unemployment. 

Perhaps you would rather forget them, but if you omit 

them from your resume you run the risk of having 

unexplained gaps which leave the recruiter guessing. 

If you make a careful note of any periods when you 

were job seeking, you can then plan how they can 

be covered on your CV. 

So get your thinking cap on and start making your list. 

35




What employment have you had over the years? 

Full-time? 

Part-time? 

Voluntary work 

Short –term and temporary contracts? 

Casual work? 

Work experience? 

Self-employment and freelance work? 

Unemployment? 

I have listed voluntary work separately from the 

section above, because it can sometimes be seen 

more as a leisure interest than work. I am thinking 

here of things like you helping out at a local charity 

either on a regular basis or just from time to time. You 

may have gone into a school to help children with 

their reading. Perhaps you coach a kids’ football 

team? Maybe you are on a committee at your 

Church or community centre? You might be a trustee 

on the board of a charity. 

This kind of work can often be quite demanding and 

require a wide range of skills, or perhaps doing it has 

enabled you to develop skills you did not have 

before. 

Make a note of any voluntary work you have done, 

together with the dates. 


What work have you done on a voluntary basis? 

36



Interests 

Time out 

So what else do you do in your spare time? When 

you are not working or sleeping, how do you choose 

to fill your time? 

Many people have a passion for something outside 

work that they do purely for love. It could be 

gardening, restoring old cars, card crafting, creative 

cookery… the list is endless. Some of these may have 

involved an evening class – you might even have 

gained an extra qualification here. Have you studied 

a foreign language or learned how to manipulate 

and edit your photographs using Photoshop? 

Think back to different periods in your life. Are there 

interests that have fallen by the wayside that you 

would actually like to take up again? 

Make this a really comprehensive list – one that shows 

who you are from a different angle from the ‘work 

you’. 


What are your leisure interests? What do you choose to do in 

your spare time? 

For some people, there can still be gaps in their CV, 

even when they have thought about all the areas we 

have been through already. It is worth listing these as 

a reminder for yourself. Just as with periods of 

unemployment, you can then decide how best to 

account for this time on your CV, rather than just 

leaving gaps. 

37



So what kind of thing do I mean? It could be 

situations such as: 

• Time off for health reasons 

• Raising your family 

• Caring for sick relatives 

• Time out to travel 

• Taking a career break 

Make your own list, if any of these apply to you. 


Have you had ‘time out’ at any stage? What were the 

reasons? How can you present these positively? 

Now you’ve got the facts in detail, make sure they 

are all recorded carefully in your CV & Resume Master 

File. You don’t want to have to go back over this 

ground next time you are preparing a resume, so 

keep all this information safe. 

So you’ve got a picture of the basic facts of your life 

and career to date, but does this really represent 

you? What about your hidden assets, the less 

tangible stuff that makes you who you are? These are 

the real gems in your product offer and they lie at the 

heart of your marketing campaign. 

=========================== 

Your hidden assets are what we will look at in Step 4. 

38



Step 4 - What are you selling? Your hidden assets. 

Just as we collected the hard facts about your offer in 

Step 3, now you need to focus in on your ‘soft skills’, 

on all the intangible things that make you the kind of 

person you are. They can sometimes be a bit difficult 

to pin down, but in many cases, it is these more 

hidden assets that will make or break the success of 

your application. 

As in Step 3, we are aiming here to collect as much 

information as possible. You may not need to use 

everything that you unpack here in your CV, but it will 

help you have a much stronger sense of who you are 

and what you can offer, so you can approach any 

stage of the job application process with more 

confidence. 

What is important here is that you focus on the 

specifics of what you can do now. Employers are not 

so interested in your potential or your willingness to 

develop. They want to know that if they recruit you, 

you can do what is required without them having to 

spend lots of time and money on training and 

developing you. 

The key areas you need to explore are your skills, your 

strengths, your achievements and your personal 

qualities. 

Your key skills 

Your skill set forms the core of your sales package. 

Most recruiters are concerned first of all with what you 

can do. After all, they will employ you to do things for 

them, so they want to know if you are up to the job. 

Your work skills 

Start by reviewing your experience of work. Analyse 

all your jobs, full time, part time, temporary roles and 

voluntary work. Take time to really think through what 

39



you did, what your contribution was, what particular 

projects you got involved with, what your key 

successes were, what you learned, what you were 

appreciated for. 

To help you to do this, I have created a Job Analysis 

Worksheet which you will find in the Toolkit at the end 

of this workbook. I suggest you photocopy this and 

use it for each job you have had – or at very least for 

the most recent and relevant ones. 

Once you have looked at each job overall, the next 

step is to drill down to the skills you have by 

unpacking all the different tasks your job has involved. 

Your role may have included things such as 

researching and writing reports, negotiating with 

customers, compiling data, managing staff, using 

specialist equipment and so on. What skills did each 

of those activities require? The Skills Assessment in 

the Job Analysis Worksheet gives you the space to 

record these details. And if you are finding it difficult 

to identify skills, use the Skills Prompt List (also in the 

Toolkit) to help you. 

When you are doing this exercise, don’t disregard 

jobs you think are unimportant. You might think ‘oh, I 

was only a waiter’ but in fact you learn a lot in a job 

like that which you can transfer to other kinds of 

employment (such as coping with pressure, dealing 

with the public, juggling tasks, memorising 

information, working at speed, handling cash etc.). 

Once you have reviewed all your jobs in this way, 

make a note of the key skills you have to offer in the 

box below. 


What are the key skills you have developed through your 

work? 

40



Skills outside work 

Don’t just review your work. Skills are developed in all 

kinds of situations, so take a look at what you do 

outside of work too. 

You may be involved in a local community group, 

you could be a volunteer coach at your child’s sports 

club, or perhaps you are just known amongst your 

friends for organising great parties! All of these 

involve skills, so unpack these other areas of your life 

too so that you can be really sure you have built up a 

complete picture of all your skills. 

The skills gained outside work can be particularly 

helpful if you are considering a career change and 

want to show that you have a different skill set from 

the one implied by your work history. 

Use the Skills Assessment in the Toolkit to break down 

activities and skills for this part of your life too and list 

them in the box below. They may overlap with work 

or may possibly show up some interesting differences. 

And don’t forget the skills you have gained from your 

time in education! These are often overlooked as we 

focus on the actual qualifications we were studying 

for. But on the way to collecting those qualifications, 

you will have had to develop transferrable skills such 

as time management, team work, research skills, 

written and verbal communication and much more. 

Often this was the first time you had to develop skills 

independently without parents or teachers guiding 

you, so do not underrate them. 


What are the key skills you have developed outside of work? 

41



Your strengths 

What is the difference between skills and strengths? 

The boundaries are easily blurred, but basically skills 

are things you can do that you have learned, while 

strengths reflect your underlying, inborn talents. If you 

have a particular strength, you will find it easy to 

develop related skills. If you do not have a particular 

strength, you will still be able to develop a certain 

degree of related skill, but it will not come so naturally 

to you. If you work to your strengths, you will be able 

to perform consistently at a high level and will find 

that work satisfying and rewarding – so it makes sense 

to be clear what your strengths are! 

There are two ways I recommend you try to assess 

your underlying strengths. 

The first is Tom Rath’s book Strengths Finder 2.0 and 

the associated online assessment at 

http://www.strengthsfinder.com. When you buy the 

book, you get a unique code which gives you access 

to the online assessment. 

This book and assessment offers you the most up to 

date version of the Gallup designed strengths 

assessment. It helps you identify your top 5 strengths 

from a list of 34 which include themes such as 

Activator, Connectedness, Developer, Strategic and 

Learner. It also gives you examples of how these play 

out in real people and gives you advice on how to 

apply your strengths. 

The second recommendation is the VIA Survey of 

Character Strengths which you can access from the 

Authentic Happiness pages of Dr Martin Seligman at 

the University of Pennsylvania. 

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/defa 

ult.aspx 

You need to register with the site to take the survey 

which reveals your top 5 strengths from a list of 24 

42



including themes such as Curiosity & interest in the 

world, Social intelligence, Judgement, critical thinking 

and open-mindedness and Leadership. Seligman's 

book Authentic Happiness explains more about what 

he calls your ‘signature strengths’. He explains what 

they are and recommends how you incorporate 

them into all aspects of your work and life. 

Take a look at one or both of these and make a note 

of your key strengths in the box below. 


What are the top strengths you have identified? 

…and your weaknesses? 

We all worry about weaknesses and feel we should 

spend time working on them and developing them so 

that they can be eliminated. This is usually an 

impossible task. I don’t mean that to sound negative 

– it is more about acknowledging that no one is 

perfect. We all have areas of strength where we flow 

naturally and other areas where we will always 

struggle. It is generally more productive to work with 

your strengths than to spend a lot of time and effort 

trying to improve on your weaknesses. 

With any job application, your task is to focus on the 

positive things you have to offer. There is no place for 

your weaknesses on a CV or resume. 

Having said that, it is still useful to quietly 

acknowledge them to yourself, just so that you can 

keep them in mind when assessing how appropriate a 

job might be for you. 

43



For example, you may hate figure work and feel that 

maths is a real weakness for you. Now many jobs 

may involve a little bit of figure work – pulling together 

the sales statistics at the end of the month, for 

example. You are probably quite capable of 

developing the basic level of skill that will enable you 

to do this task each month. But you know that you 

would never want to do a job that requires regular or 

detailed numerical analysis. 

Make a note below of any weaknesses which you do 

not want to find as major elements in any job you 

apply for. 


What are the weaknesses you want to avoid having to use in 

a job? 

Your achievements 

Achievements can be a great selling point on a 

resume. All employers want staff who can deliver 

positive outcomes. Focus on specifics here. 

Where have you succeeded in reducing or 

eliminating problems, improving systems, saving 

money or time? And wherever possible, quantify 

what you have achieved. ‘Increased sales by 25%’ 

has more impact than ‘sales improved’. 

What are the achievements that you are proud of? 

Start with work. If you have used the Job Analysis 

Worksheet you will already have noted some work 

based achievements. But be sure to spread your 

thinking more widely to all of your life. As with skills, 

things you have achieved in your own time can still 

be very relevant and they can say a lot about the 

44



kind of person you are. Once you have identified 

some important moments that you look back on with 

pride, ask yourself the following questions: 

• When and where did this achievement 

happen? What were the circumstances? 

• What did I do to make it happen? 

• What specific strengths and skills do I have 

that made it possible? 

• What does it say about the kind of person I 

am? 

We all tend to be a bit bashful about listing 

achievements, so a good tip to help you push past 

the pain barrier here is to generate a list of at least 30 

different ideas. It might seem impossible at first, but it 

is a great way of really tapping in to all the things you 

may have disregarded as unimportant. 

And if you find it difficult to identify achievements on 

your own, ask a few trusted friends or colleagues 

what they think your achievements are. It can be 

very revealing to see what other people admire in 

you. There may be things that you have done that 

you take for granted while others are impressed with 

your abilities. Maybe you need to give yourself more 

credit? 

Make a note of what you come up with in the box 

below. 


What achievements can you identify at home and at work? 

45



Your personal qualities 

What kind of person are you? What is your general 

attitude to life? These are important factors to be 

aware of because they play a key part in your 

impact on those around you. You may want to 

mention a few of these in your resume or CV though 

you are unlikely to create a specific section for them. 

The list below gives you a few ideas to get you 

started. Take a look and check any that seem true 

for you. 

Adaptable 

Analytical 

Articulate 

Compassionate 

Confident 

Courageous 

Dynamic 

Enthusiastic 

Forthright 

Friendly 

Generous 

Grateful 

Honest 

Humorous 

Kind 

Level-headed 

Loyal 

Modest 

Optimistic 

Patient 

Perceptive 

Persistent 

Reliable 

Resilient 

Resourceful 

Self disciplined 

Sensible 

Thorough 

Tolerant 

Trustworthy 

There are many more – what else can you think of? 

As before, why not ask a few friends what they would 

say are the top personal qualities you display. Write 

down your conclusions in the box below. 

46



What are your personal qualities? 


If you are interested in your personality and would like 

to explore this further, I recommend the Myers Briggs 

Type Indicator (MBTI) as one of the best personality 

assessment tools around. 

If you’d like to get a flavour of it, take a look at the 

short personality quiz on my website which gives you 

an idea of how it works. If you’d like to know more, 

you might like to take a look at my ebook, Know Your 

Personality, Know Your Career, or you can contact 

me to take a full MBTI Personality Assessment. 

Where’s the evidence? 

The exercises above will have given you the chance 

to assess in some detail what you have to offer in 

terms of the intangible ‘soft skills’ and this is all very 

marketable material. However, there is one further 

addition, relevant to all the sections above, which 

can make all the difference between the success 

and failure of your CV. 

What is the evidence? Let’s face it, anyone can write 

a list of skills, strengths, achievements and qualities, 

but a recruiter’s reaction to a bare list is likely to be - 

‘So what? Prove it!’ 

Evidence is crucial if you are going to be credible, so 

once you have identified the skills etc which you want 

to highlight on your resume, make sure you that for 

each, you come up with an example, a situation, 

47



where you can show that you have put this skill or 

quality into 

practice and achieved a positive outcome. The 

same applies with achievements in that you need to 

be specific about the circumstances of the 

achievement. You will have done this already if you 

answered the questions suggested under the 

Achievements section above. 

You will find an Evidence Summary in the Toolkit 

which you can use to record the evidence you can 

use for each skill, strength etc. Fill this in as you go 

along and refer back to it as you assemble your 

resume. 

You may find it helpful to plan how you present your 

evidence by using the START acronym. It goes like 

this: 

S – set the scene – what were the circumstances 

T – describe the task – what specifically were you 

asked to deliver 

A - what action did you take and what 

skills/strengths/qualities were you using? You could 

mention challenges or difficulties overcome too. 

R – what was the result of your efforts? Be specific 

here – increased sales by x%, reduced costs or 

complaints, amount of money raised, projects 

completed within budgets and time limits. 

T – what did your experience in this situation or project 

teach you? What might you do differently next time? 

Make sure when you plan what evidence you will use 

that you focus on what you did, rather than what the 

whole team you were working with delivered. 

48



What is your ‘brand’? 

It is worth mentioning the concept of ‘personal 

branding’ here. This is more difficult to pin down than 

skills, strengths and achievements, but it can still play 

an important part in how you present yourself and 

how you are perceived by others. At some level, it is 

part of what you are selling when you apply for jobs. 

We are all familiar with the concept of branding for 

products such as Coca Cola, Nike or BMW. It applies 

to people too – think of the brand that is Madonna or 

David Beckham. But it is relevant to ordinary people 

like you and me too. 

So what do we mean by this idea of a personal 

brand? 

It is something about the essence of you that stays in 

other people’s minds. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon 

described it as ‘what people say about you when 

you are not in the room’. It is made up of how you 

look, what you do, what you have a reputation for. 

As it grows, your brand begins to set expectations of 

you before people even meet you. 

Your brand doesn’t appear overnight – it is something 

you will work on over months and years both 

consciously and unconsciously. Some of it will evolve 

naturally, some of it you can intentionally develop. 

However, for a brand to be really powerful, it needs 

to be authentic. In other words, you can’t make 

yourself into something you are not. 

How to define your brand 

Here’s one way of approaching it. Try asking yourself 

the following questions: 

• What words describe you best and sum up 

who you are? 

• What would your strap line be? 

• What do you want to be known for? 

49



• What do you want people to say about you 

and your work when you are not in the 

room? 

You might find it helps to start by writing down as 

many words as you can that feel like you. Then you 

can sift through and refine them down to the three 

that are the closest representation. 

Here are a few to get you thinking… 

Solid, creative, reliable, sociable, challenging, 

dependable results-orientated, fun, focused, quick 

witted, driven, imaginative, people person, quirky, 

dynamic, good with detail, supportive… 

You choose. Which words capture what you 

represent? 

Then think about the job, the occupation, the sector 

you are applying for with the CV or resume you are 

now writing. How does this brand fit with your 

potential employer? Is there a good match? 

Obviously you want there to be a comfortable fit 

between your brand and the company. It doesn’t 

make sense to try and be something you 

are not, so don’t try and shoe-horn yourself into a job 

which you know will be a bad fit. If you feel your 

brand is ‘imaginative, creative and fun’ you might not 

fit in too well with a firm of corporate lawyers! 

Brands are not set in tablets of stone – they can and 

should evolve organically over time. You would be 

unlikely to represent yourself at 50 in the same way as 

you presented yourself at 25! 

50



Sum up your brand here… 


Once you have been through all the sections in Step 

4, add everything you have identified about your 

hidden assets to your CV & Resume Master File on 

your computer. It is a good idea to keep copies of 

your various worksheets too. Your Job Analysis 

Worksheets and your Evidence Summaries in 

particular are always useful to refer back to. 

Together with the factual information you have 

collected in Step 3, you now have a pretty 

comprehensive picture of who you are and what you 

have to offer, ready for you to refer back to every 

time you want to put a CV together. 

=========================== 

You should now have a 360 o view of what both sides 

want in this job application process – both you and 

the employer. In Step 5, we look for the match 

between the two. 

51



Step 5 – Where’s the match? 

You are making great progress! 

You should now have a clear picture of what the 

recruiter is looking for and also of what you have to 

offer – both concrete qualifications and experience 

and your less tangible but critically important assets 

like skills and personal qualities. With this careful 

research under your belt, you are now in a much 

better position to turn your resume into a targeted 

sales pitch. 

Always remember that writing a successful CV or 

resume is a marketing exercise. So your task now is to 

identify the overlap between what you have and 

what they want. 

Overleaf you will find a chart for you to summarise 

what you have learned so far. Review your research 

and list the key points in the two columns below. At 

the same time, go over any job analysis sheets and 

task / skills reviews you have completed as an 

additional reminder of what you can offer. 

As you are writing, look out for the match between 

your skills and experience and the needs of the 

employer. Once you have completed both columns, 

you should be able to see where the overlaps lie. 

Highlight the key points on their ‘wish list’ and identify 

the parts of your offer that show you meet them. 

You may match their needs in many ways, in which 

case you will need to decide what areas you will 

promote most strongly, which ones will be most 

relevant and will make you stand out from the 

competition. 

You may be tempted to focus on the areas you feel 

are your greatest strengths, but always stop and ask 

yourself ‘is this relevant to this employer and for this 

52



job? Will mentioning this add weight to my pitch?’ If 

the answer is no, then omit it and focus on other more 

relevant aspects of your offer. 

In most cases, recruiters will be looking for as good a 

match as possible to their needs. Ideally, they do not 

want to have to spend time and money training you, 

so the more closely you meet their needs the better. 

Short listing is often done with a simple checklist or 

grid which is 

used to mark off whether you meet each of their 

desired criteria. Make sure you do everything you 

can to draw their attention to how you meet their 

needs. Make it easy for them to see the match. 

And don’t forget that you will need evidence of the 

skills, knowledge and experience you are claiming, so 

when choosing what to include, consider how you will 

prove to the reader that you have put this skill/quality 

to good use in the past. 

Generally speaking, aim for at least a 70% match 

between what they want and what you can offer. If 

the match is lower, but the areas where you have less 

to offer are listed as ‘desirable’ rather than ‘essential’ 

by the recruiter, then it is still worth a try. If you are 

missing a number of the key, essential requirements, 

think hard about whether you want to apply on this 

occasion. 


What do they want? What can you offer? 

53



If you need more space to summarise their needs and 

your offer, just copy this grid or use the Additional 

Notes sheets at the end of this workbook. 

=========================== 

Now you are clear about whether there is a good 

enough match between you and the job and you 

know exactly how you meet the needs of the 

recruiter, you can start thinking about how you will 

present this information to best effect. Step 6 starts by 

considering the different styles of CV you can choose 

between. 

54



Step 6 - Which style of CV? 

You will find that quite a number of CV or resume 

styles are recommended in different books and by 

different people and this can all get very confusing. 

In fact, when you look more closely, they really all boil 

down to just 2 types: 

1. Chronological 

2. Skills based 

There are of course a number of variations on these 

two basics, which I will mention, but let’s start by 

looking at these two main styles in a little more detail 

and highlighting the key features of each. 

Chronological resume or CV 

This is what most people think of first when they start 

to assemble a CV. They just present the facts in date 

order, tell the story of their life/career, and leave the 

reader to work out what is relevant. At its simplest, this 

is what a chronological resume is. But as you will 

already have gathered, a CV should be something 

rather more than a simple ‘story of your life’. 

Nevertheless, there is still a place for the 

chronological CV. As the title suggests, this style of 

CV presents your education and employment 

experience in date order so that your reader can 

follow how your career has unfolded. 

However, to make a chronological CV work 

effectively for you, the first adjustment you should 

make is to reverse the chronology, beginning with 

your most recent experience first and tracking 

backwards. This is because your most recent 

experience is usually at a higher level and in many 

cases is likely to be more relevant to where you want 

to go next. 

55



This style of CV works well if your career has followed 

a steady path and your next career move fits in with 

this. 

In most cases, it will make sense to put your work 

experience first and your education second. Only if 

you have very recently finished studying or if the job 

you are applying for places great emphasis on 

relevant academic qualifications would you put 

education first. 

What else do you add to a chronological resume? 

After you have included the chronology of your work 

and education, the rest is up to you. You select what 

will help you make a strong case for yourself. Take a 

look at Step 7 for the range of possible section 

headings you could add to make up your CV. 

Will this style work for you? 

Look at the list below and check whether any of the 

points apply to you. If yes, then a chronological 

resume could be the one to choose. 

• Is your most recent job an important part of your 

‘sales pitch’ that gives you a high level of 

credibility? 

• Does your employment history show a natural and 

sustained growth and development in the area 

you are now aiming for? 

• Does the path your career has taken clearly 

indicate the development of a particular skill set? 

• Are your previous jobs and the job you are now 

seeking in traditional fields (eg accountancy, law, 

education)? 

• Is your educational background non-traditional 

but your employment has followed a clear 

pattern? 

• Is your educational record a significant part of your 

‘match’ for the job? 

56




How well does the chronological style fit the bill for you? 

Skills based resume or CV 

As the name suggests, the skills based CV style 

focuses on the key skills you have to offer. In this 

case, the emphasis is on what you can do rather than 

simply listing the jobs you have done and leaving the 

recruiter to draw conclusions from that. 

The first page of the CV focuses on a particular list of 

skills, linked to the skills the recruiter is looking for and 

offering evidence to demonstrate when these skills 

have been used effectively. 

This style of resume usually makes it much easier for 

you to quickly prove to the employer that you have 

just what they are looking for. It can be a great way 

of really capturing their attention in the first 15 

seconds – always a good thing to achieve if you can. 

Having emphasised your skills at the outset, the space 

devoted to listing your employment history and 

education can be trimmed down. 

And other headings? As with the chronological CV, 

that is up to you to choose headings that will add to 

your ‘sales pitch’. Take a look at Step 7 for the range 

of possible headings you could add to make up your 

CV. 

57





points apply to you. If yes, then a skills based resume 

could be the one to choose. 

• Do you particularly want to emphasise skills and 

experience which may not show strongly in your 

recent jobs? 

• Do you want to return to a skill set you used in an 

earlier role (ie your career feels like it has gone off 

track)? 

• Are you aiming to change career or industry 

sector? 

• Is your work experience a bit of a mixed picture? 

• Do you appear to have worked in a fairly narrow 

range of functions in the jobs you have done? 

• Do you want to break away from an occupational 

‘label’ that you have got stuck with? 


How well does the skills based style fit the bill for you? 

So the Chronological CV and the Skills based CV are 

the two main styles for you to consider, but as I said, 

there are a number of variations on these themes. 

Functional resume or CV 

This kind of resume has much in common with a skills 

based model, but in this case, rather than skills, you 

highlight the professional functions that you have 

experience of. This could include broad functions 

such as: 

project management sales 

budget control staff training 

58



marketing research and 

development 

recruitment customer 

services 

business development quality control 

strategic planning contract 

management 

If you are looking to move up within your current field 

of work or move sideways to a different organisation 

but want to continue to use the functional expertise 

you have developed, this style of resume will help to 

showcase the abilities that you can apply in any job. 


Which professional functions do you want to highlight? 

Combination resume or CV 

You won’t be surprised to hear that a combination 

resume pulls together aspects of the previous styles. 

You can use this style to highlight relevant skills and 

experience, but at the same time, a reverse listing of 

your employment history shows your consistent 

record. This kind of combination can establish you as 

an expert in your field both from the relevance of 

your employment history and from the particular skill 

set you are offering. 

It can also work if you have a mixed employment 

history as it allows you to highlight relevant skills and 

experience and at the same time, play down the 

twists and turns your career may have taken. You 

can adjust the chronology of your employment 

history, for example by presenting ‘Related 

59



Experience’ and then ‘Other Experience’ to pull the 

most important parts of your employment history to 

the top. 



points apply to you. If yes, then a combination 

resume could be the one to choose. 

• Are your skills and achievements the key ‘selling 

points’ in your application? 

• Are you making a sideways step that may be a 

little unexpected but where your skills are still very 

relevant? 

• Does your employment history show a fairly logical 

progression but with a few ‘blips’? 

• Do you have a wide range of relevant skills and 

experience that you want to highlight up front on 

your CV? 

• Do you want to play down the differences 

between the sector or company you are leaving 

and the one you are now hoping to join? 

• Does your career history and skill set not really fit 

any set pattern? 


How well does the combination style fit the bill for you? 

How to choose? 

How to you decide which one to use? Well hopefully 

the checklists with each style will have given you an 

idea of which one will best fit your circumstances. If 

you are very unsure, why not draft out a version in 

each style and then ask yourself which one will be 

more convincing to the reader. 

60



Bottom line? Use the one that works best for you 

each time you produce a CV. This means you should 

not be wedded to one style - you might use different 

formats for different posts. For example, there may 

be occasions when you are applying for a job that 

connects closely with your work history and on other 

occasions, you may be making a significant shift in 

direction. It may be appropriate to change the style 

of your CV for each. 

What matters most is that you use a style that allows 

you to get your crucial ‘sales pitch’ onto the first page 

of your resume. Busy recruiters typically spend as little 

as 30 seconds or so on a CV so you have very limited 

time to make an impression. 

The impact your CV has will also depend on the 

additional sections you include, so before you finally 

decide, take a look at Step 7, which covers the 

different sections you can add to a resume. 

Many resumes are likely to end up as combinations. It 

is essential that you do not use standard CV formats 

rigidly. They are there to give you a framework, but 

the final decider is whether it helps you present 

yourself positively. If one model doesn’t work, then 

feel free to tweak it. 

=========================== 

Not ready to decide which style of CV is right for you? 

That’s fine. Let’s move on to Step 7 and look at the 

different sections you can add to your CV. This will 

help you decide which general style will work best for 

you. 

61



Step 7 - CV & resume sections 

I am often asked what information must be included 

in a CV or resume. This might seem like a simple 

question, but as ever, there is more to it than meets 

the eye. 

There are a few sections that are pretty well essential 

as they cover core information that every potential 

employer will need to see. But beyond that, you can 

allow yourself quite a lot of flexibility. The whole issue 

of sections and headings is more open to 

interpretation than you might think. 

Adapt, adapt… 

Remember that your resume is a marketing tool, so 

your job is to adjust and adapt it so that it presents 

you in the best possible light. If that means adding, 

omitting or changing section headings, then go 

ahead and do it! Don’t let your assumptions about 

what a resume ‘should’ contain restrict you and 

inhibit your from making it promote you in the best 

way possible. 

For example, you will certainly want to include details 

of the various jobs you have done, but you can label 

that section in a number of ways. Instead of Work 

Experience, you could use Employment, Professional 

Experience or Career History. You can probably think 

of other terms that might be more appropriate for 

your own situation. If so, go ahead and use them – 

provided they help make the content of your resume 

clearer to the reader and don’t just look pretentious 

(So don’t use something like Professional Pathway if 

you have just had a random selection of jobs in bars 

and restaurants!) 

Beyond the obvious essentials, there are also a 

number of additional sections you might like to 

include to complete your CV. These are all optional, 

though you will of course need to use some of them. 

Select the ones that allow you to introduce some 

62



valuable extra information to your resume that will 

add to your case. If a heading doesn’t seem to work 

for you, you don’t have to use it. Try something else. 

So what is absolutely essential? 

Personal details 

Your name. Make this the heading of your resume. 

This document is all about you, so it is entirely 

appropriate that your name features in large letters at 

the top of page one. Don’t be bashful. Use the 

name you are normally called, eg if your name is 

Margaret Josephine Keeler, but everyone calls you 

Jo, put Jo Keeler at the top of your CV, not your full 

name. 

How to make contact. If the reader of your resume 

likes the look of you, you want to make it as easy as 

possible for them to get in touch with you. So help 

them by giving them as many options as possible. 

Your address should be complete including any 

postal code. You don’t want the letter inviting you for 

interview to go astray, do you? If you know you will 

be away for several weeks at a time when you might 

be getting a response, then you can either add a 

second address or alternatively, get a trusted friend 

to check your mail regularly for you. 

Phone number. Include a landline and mobile or cell 

phone number. Remember that your mobile is now a 

business phone and so make sure that you answer 

any calls from unknown numbers in a professional 

manner – first impressions count! And don’t forget to 

check your voicemail regularly. 

Email address is essential these days. Check and 

double check that you have not made any typos 

that would leave messages lost in cyberspace. And 

think about the email address you are planning to 

use. koolkitten@hotmail.com may not project quite 

the image you are hoping. Ask yourself, does it fit in 

with my brand? If not, create a new and more 

63



appropriate email address for your job search – and 

remember to check it regularly! 

A website address could be a useful addition to this 

section. It is by no means compulsory, but if you are 

applying for a job where web skills are important, it 

could be a good showcase for your talents. Also if 

you have a lot of interesting experience or a portfolio 

of work you would like the recruiter to see, it can be a 

good way of presenting them with more than would 

ever fit into a standard CV or resume format. 

If you are not a web designer, you could ask a techy 

friend to put up a simple site for you that will become 

o kind of online CV. But do keep 

your brand in mind. Websites project strong 

messages about the people behind them. How do 

you want to come across? Serious and business like? 

Fun and funky? Slick and professional? Creative and 

original? Will this be a good fit for the reader of your 

CV? You will find more about websites on page 98. 

Other personal information? Date of birth? 

Nationality? National Insurance number? Don’t 

bother. None of these are likely to be mission critical 

in demonstrating your ability to do the job – see page 

92 on what to leave out of your CV. 


Use this space to summarise the personal information you will 

put on your resume. 

Do all your personal details have to be at the top of 

your CV? Generally speaking, this is the best place 

for them to be. It is where recruiters will look first. 

However, if you are very pushed for space – say you 

64



Education 

are trying to create a single page resume – then you 

could consider putting your contact details in a 

header or footer. But do not reduce the font size – 

make sure they are still easy to read. 

Every resume should have some reference to your 

educational history, but generally speaking, the 

longer ago it was, the less space you need to devote 

to it. If you are a recent graduate, then what you 

have studied at College or University and how your 

schooling led up to this is still relevant. If you were last 

in full–time education 25 years ago, then you can 

probably relegate most of it to a few lines and 

probably omit pre University education completely. 

On the other hand, if you have studied a degree, 

such as Law or Engineering, which formed part of a 

professional training which you are still pursuing, then 

do mention it, even if it was a long time ago. 

If you have taken rather general sounding courses at 

College or University eg business studies or humanities 

and your education is still 

quite a recent event, then it can add value if you 

unpack some of the content of your course to show 

that there is some relevance to the job you are now 

aiming for. You may also like to draw attention to the 

broad based skills you have acquired as a result of 

being a student, eg time management, working 

collaboratively and juggling conflicting demands. 

It is usually a good idea to present your education in 

reverse order as it is likely to be the most recent study 

that is both relevant and at the highest level. As you 

go back in time, provide less detail and certainly do 

not go as far back as primary education! 

You do not usually need to give school names, 

though your College or University name should be 

added. Long lists of examinations passed with grades 

65



are also not usually necessary. If your grades were 

not brilliant, then just leave them out altogether - 

don’t invite your reader to draw any negative 

conclusions about you! 

Dates are usually included, but are not always 

essential if your education plays a small role in the 

‘pitch’ you are assembling. 


Make a note of your most important educational 

attainments that you definitely want to include in this CV. 

Make sure they are relevant to the job you are now applying 

for. 

Work experience/employment history 

Your work experience is usually at the centre of the 

pitch you are assembling for your reader so think long 

and hard about how you will present it to the best 

effect. 

If your work has followed a predictable pattern and 

you are now aiming at the next step up, then list your 

career path in reverse order to 

highlight that progression. Give the name of the 

company or organisation and your job title. You do 

not usually need to give the address or location unless 

you want to show familiarity with a particular part of 

the country or emphasise international experience. 

How far back do you go? Ideally you should show a 

complete work history, but that will depend on how 

66



long and varied it is! If you have had many different 

jobs over the last 15-20 years, then a complete listing 

is probably not the best approach. The last 5 years or 

so are generally the most important. If your work 

history goes back a long way, then group older jobs 

under a general heading eg retail experience or 

office and admin roles. 

If there has been a significant shift of direction at 

some point in your career, you may like to list your 

work experience under two headings – ‘related 

experience’ and ‘other experience’, obviously paying 

more attention to the related roles. 

If your work history is very jumbled, with a wide 

variety of different roles over time, then group the 

jobs you have done to make as coherent a picture as 

you can – abandon chronology if need be. You 

should also put your efforts into a ‘Key Skills’ section so 

you can really emphasise the relevant skills that have 

come from such varied experience. 

Do include dates in this section. This enables a 

seriously interested reader to review how your career 

has developed and see how much time you have 

spent in different roles. Don’t worry about exact start 

and end dates, just put the year. 

Dealing with gaps. Gaps should best be avoided on 

a resume and if you have short gaps of a month or so 

here and there, then just dating your employment by 

year will help disguise them. If you have had longer 

periods of ‘time out’, it is better to be up front about 

them rather than just leaving an unexplained hole in 

the sequence of your employment, otherwise a 

reader is left to assume the worst! 

Look back at Step 3 where you listed the periods of 

‘time out’ you have had. Unemployment is a 

relatively common occurrence these days, so do not 

feel you have to hide it. What matters more is that 

you present 

67



Key skills 

References 

it as a time when you kept positive and were either 

actively seeking work or doing other things such as 

further study. Show that you filled your time 

productively. 

If you had time off due to ill-health, make it clear that 

you have fully recovered, but don’t go into a lengthy 

medical history. 

Time out for family commitments is also perfectly 

acceptable and you can list it with no more detail 

than that. The interview is the time when this may be 

explored further, but always keep the recruiter’s 

attention focused on issues that are relevant to your 

ability to do the job and do not get sidetracked. 

Clearly if you have chosen to write a skills based CV, 

then the Key Skills section is essential. However, as it is 

not always used in chronological CVs, I have 

included it under Additional Headings below as an 

optional section. 

Should you include the details of referees on your 

CV? I think the answer depends on how you are 

planning to use your CV. 

If you are sending your CV out on a speculative basis, 

hoping that you might get invited for an informal 

chat, then it is probably best to exclude the 

references section from your CV altogether. You 

never quite know where this kind of CV will end up – it 

could be passed to different departments in a 

company, for example. This makes it difficult for you 

to provide the name of a referee who you know will 

be relevant and who you have briefed appropriately 

in advance about the kind of reference you need. 

On the other hand, if you are applying for a specific, 

advertised post, then I am inclined to say that you 

should include details of your referees, provided there 

68



is space to accommodate them. If space is limited, 

the common alternative is to simply state that 

‘References are available on request.’ 

My argument for including them if you can falls in with 

the general policy of doing everything possible to 

encourage the recruiter to like you and that means 

making at easy as possible to process your 

application quickly and easily. It may be that they 

would like to check out your references early on in 

the application process and if they have to get back 

in touch with you to find out who your referees are, it 

just adds extra time when they may be in a hurry. 

Who is suitable to be a referee? 

Ideally, you should use people who know you in a 

work capacity and who will be seen to offer an 

objective opinion of you as a person and as an 

employee. You can use people from previous jobs as 

well as your current one (and bear in mind that you 

can ask that current employers are not approached 

until after interview). You can also use people who 

know you well outside work, such as members of 

social or community organisations you are involved in, 

but avoid using friends and relations. 

The majority of recruiters will follow up references 

before they finally confirm your job offer, so it is worth 

selecting referees who will provide the right finishing 

touch to your self marketing efforts. 

Who could you use? 

Write down the names of as many different people as 

you can think of who might be useful as referees. 

Think about the how you are promoting yourself in the 

resume you are working on right now. Who could 

give positive feedback on your abilities in a way that 

would highlight your suitability for this role? 

Start by just brainstorming as many people as you can 

and list their names below. 

69




Jot down as many people as you can think of who could act 

as a referee for you. 

Once you have generated lots of names, use the 

Referees Details Summary in the Toolkit to collect all 

their contact details so you have them ready to 

hand. Make notes about how they might be able to 

help, how they know you, what kind of roles they 

would be able to recommend you for. 

Then you must make contact with them and ask their 

permission to use them as a referee. This is more than 

just a courtesy – it is your opportunity to prime them 

about the role you are applying for and about the 

sort of skills and experience sought for the role. The 

extent to which you direct them will depend on how 

well you know them, but there is nothing wrong with 

pointing out to them what the key skills are that this 

new employer is seeking and asking that they 

mention these in particular in the reference they 

write. It might be helpful to send them a copy of your 

resume too, so they can refresh their memory of you. 

So these are the sections I would suggest should 

always be in a CV or resume, but there are many 

more you could include. 

Now take a look through the list below, and consider 

which additional sections will help you make a strong 

case for yourself. Read the description and think 

about how you might use these sections. If you think 

they would add to your case, make a note of them in 

70



the …over to you box on page 63 at the end of this 

Step. 

Additional sections 

You may consider that some of the sections which I 

have chosen to call 'optional' are actually essential 

elements in your own CV. That is entirely as it should 

be. My objective is to provide you with the guidelines 

and tools for you to use at your own discretion to 

create your own personalised sales document - your 

own CV. 

I have intentionally made the ‘required’ list above 

quite short, because I want to encourage you to think 

flexibly about how you put your CV together. You 

should always be asking yourself ‘does this section 

allow me to include some interesting and positive 

information about myself that could influence a 

recruiter in my favour?’ If the answer is no, if you are 

struggling to think of any content for that section, 

then just leave it out. 

Personal profile 

A well written profile can give your resume great 

impact from the word go. But profile writing is not 

easy and a badly written one may leave the recruiter 

groaning at the platitudes you have trotted out to the 

extent that they may not bother to read any further. 

A profile is rather like a written version of the elevator 

speech. It needs to be brief, focused and have an 

instant positive impact. Probably three to five 

sentences and about five lines of text is ample. If you 

write more you are getting too long winded. 

You will find more about writing your profile in Step 8. 

Career objective 

The same caveats apply to career objective as to 

personal profiles. As already mentioned, think 

carefully before using this section. You run the risk of 

71



narrowing down your options too far if you are over 

specific about your career objective. On the other 

hand, if you are very focused on your next step, you 

may choose to make that stand out in the way you 

present yourself. 

Skills summary / key skills 

This can be an absolutely central section in your CV, 

especially if you have a mixed work history and/or 

you are changing your career direction. This can be 

a great opportunity for you to show the reader of your 

resume that you meet their needs. This is where all the 

work you have done in Step 2 and Step 4 comes 

together. 

You need to decide which top four or five skills you 

will highlight. Make sure they are ones which the 

reader will immediately identify as essential 

requirements from their perspective. 

Once you have done that, start by listing them on 

your resume. You might chose things like team work, 

project management, financial accounting, 

customer service and so on. Then follow the skill you 

have mentioned with a brief example of a situation 

where you have put that skill into practice 

successfully. It is this evidence that is the essential 

element of a Key Skills section. Let’s face it, anyone 

can write a list of skills and claim that they are good 

at them, but it is the examples you give (which they 

may discuss further with you at interview – so don’t 

just make them up!) that make your claims for these 

skills seem credible. 

Do your best to draw examples from a range of 

different situations or employments. It helps show that 

your skill set has been developing over a period of 

time. 

Professional / Technical skills 

This additional skills heading allows you to emphasise 

particular professional or technical skills separately 

from more generic transferable skills like team work or 

time management. This can be important for 

72



specialist roles where your technical expertise is 

central to your ability to do the job. 

You could choose to list particular specialist software 

you have used, programming languages you can 

use, laboratory equipment and processes you are 

familiar with and so on. The person specification will 

give you an indication of which specialist skills are 

worthwhile highlighting here. 

Achievements 

This can be a great way of adding some real impact 

to your resume. An achievements section gives you 

the opportunity to direct the reader very specifically 

towards some of the highlights that showcase 

relevant skills, knowledge and experience. But for this 

section to work well, you need to be specific about 

what you have achieved. As I mentioned in Step 4, 

make sure you state clear outcomes and quantify 

them wherever possible eg increased sales by 12%, 

raised £30,000 in project funding. Refer back to the 

Evidence Summary you filled in at Step 4. 

Remember the START acronym I introduced you to in 

Step 4? Go back to it now on page 39 and review 

how you can use it to build the Achievements section 

of your resume. 

This acronym is a great tool when preparing interview 

answers, but it can help focus your thinking when 

planning your resume too. 

Additional training / Professional training 

Rather than listing all your training and education 

together, it can sometimes be a useful strategy to list 

additional or professional training separately on your 

CV. This applies especially if you have undertaken 

further professional development to keep up to date 

or taken courses in your own time in order to redirect 

your career. Any training can be a good way of 

showing that you have a positive attitude to your own 

development 

73



But don’t feel you have to list everything. As ever, 

stop and consider whether the training is relevant. 

Will it impress the reader and add value to your pitch? 

If it is purely non-vocational then you may decide to 

perhaps list it under interests instead or omit it 

altogether? 

Activities and interests 

This section is more likely to be used by those of you 

who are relatively early in your career. If you have 

limited work experience, an outline of what you do 

outside of work allows you to show something of 

yourself from a different angle. But make sure you 

make this section work hard for you. A simple list of 

‘reading, cinema and travel’ really adds nothing of 

any value to your CV. Most people enjoy these 

things, so this does not help to differentiate you or 

show what is unique about you. 

Always think about how you can use your interests to 

add something new to the story you are telling. It is 

important to go beyond a simple list. Explain why you 

are involved in this activity and what you get out of it. 

Make sure that you tease out any relevant skills you 

are gaining from your involvement. 

Think carefully about the ‘message’ your interests 

send. Are they presenting the right kind of image? 

Consider the different impact of, say, having an 

interest in playing competitive team sports vs playing 

computer games. Be cautious too, if you think your 

interests may be in conflict with the values of the 

organisation you are applying for. Active political 

interests, for example, could work in your favour or 

against you depending on the organisation you are 

applying to. 

If you are changing careers, this section can play an 

important role in showing how you have gained new 

and relevant experience outside work. In this case, 

you might expand the interests section to help 

strengthen your case for entry into a new field of 

work. 

74



And if you don’t think you have any interests worth 

listing, omit this section - but also think about what you 

could start getting involved in that would allow you to 

present yourself in a positive light and develop 

additional skills! 

This section is not always mission critical, so if you find 

yourself short of space on your resume, omitting this 

section can give you more room to focus on more 

significant parts of your experience. 

Voluntary work 

There are a number of situations where this section 

can be particularly useful. 

If you are trying to get into social work or the not-forprofit 

sector, areas where you need to demonstrate a 

real commitment to the work before you will be 

considered, you will certainly need to do some 

voluntary work to just build up a portfolio of relevant 

experience. Listing this in a separate section from 

your work experience draws attention to it and helps 

highlight your dedication. 

If you are working on a career change, you may 

have done some voluntary work in the new sector 

you are trying to enter as part of your research. Even 

if this was only a matter of days here and there, it is 

still worth listing. As mentioned above, it will go a long 

way in demonstrating how serious you are about this 

new career area. 

If you have had a period of unemployment, it is 

important to show that you have used that time 

productively and that you have gone out of your way 

to keep up to date or to extend your skills. Doing 

voluntary work is one of the options that many people 

turn to when unemployed, and you can use it to your 

advantage on your resume. 

75



Experience abroad 

It may not always be necessary to highlight work that 

you have done in other countries. In some cases, you 

would just list it in the work experience section along 

with the other jobs you have done in your career. 

But in some cases, the fact that you have worked in 

another country could be a crucial factor that might 

tip things in your favour. Say you spent a year after 

graduating in Japan and you now want to work in 

the Japan Cultural Centre in your own country. In this 

case, your time abroad would be a valuable asset to 

promote and worth listing under a separate heading. 

Honours and awards 

Use this section if you have a number of items worth 

listing separately. This may include scholarships you 

have been awarded, prizes or commendations you 

have received or important offices or 

responsibilities you have held. But if the list is short, or 

has only one entry, don’t draw attention to it in a 

separate section! 

Professional memberships 

Publications 

This section allows you to indicate any professional 

memberships or affiliations. In some cases, it is 

essential to be a member of a relevant professional 

body and in these cases you may want to indicate 

your level of membership. 

You may also be helpful to mention your involvement 

with the professional body if you have been an active 

member and served on any committees or attended 

or presented at annual conferences. 

This is most likely to be relevant in an academic CV or 

resume. In the case of academic roles, then your 

publications will be important in demonstrating that 

76



Any more? 

you have been active in your field and that your 

research has appeared in peer reviewed journals. 

If you have just had a couple of articles printed in an 

in-house company magazine, that is probably not 

worth mentioning – unless you are making a career 

change to journalism, in which case you should have 

as much as possible in this list. 

Are there any other headings you could include? 

Well, I have covered the main ones in this section, but 

as you know, I am a great believer in customising a 

CV so that it works for you, rather than you trying to 

shoe horn yourself into a standard format. So if there 

are any other aspects of your work, study or other life 

experience that you feel will help you stand out from 

the crowd, then consider creating a special heading 

that will focus attention on your particular offering. 

Now you have been through all the options and 

possibly considered some additional ones of your 

own, make a note of the headings you have decided 

will work best for you for this particular CV that you 

are working on. 


List the headings you are planning to use. (Don’t worry too 

much about sequence just yet). 

77



================================= 

Now you have chosen the most useful section 

headings for your situation, you may want to refer 

back to Step 6 to make a final decision about the 

format you’re your CV or resume. You are also ready 

to start filling in the detail in the sections you have 

chosen. It’s time to move on to Step 8 to find out 

more. 

78



Step 8 – Pulling it all together 

Now it is time to assemble the information you have 

gathered from Steps 2 – 7 

By now you should know: 

What the employer wants 

(Step 2) 

The facts about what you can offer 

(Step 3) 

The hidden assets you are selling 

(Step 4) 

How their needs and your offer overlap 

(Step 5) 

Which CV or resume style you think will be right for 

you (Step 6) 

Which section headings you will use 

(Step 7) 

You have already done the necessary research and 

reflection in preparation for writing your CV, you know 

what you are selling and what your buyer is looking 

for, so with this in mind, you are ready to start 

completing the various sections you are planning to 

use. 

Let me remind you again that this is a marketing 

exercise. You are the one trying to persuade the 

buyer/recruiter to interview you, so the responsibility 

lies with you to make it easy for them to understand 

what you are selling. Your job is to put the relevant 

information clearly under their noses so they can’t fail 

to see how you meet their needs. 

You should have a good idea by now of what you 

want to highlight and what will make the reader of 

your resume sit up and take notice, so now you need 

to focus on making it eye-catching and accessible to 

the reader. 

79



Let’s begin with some tips on the style of writing that is 

the most effective in a resume or CV. 

General tips on writing style 

Remember that your CV is a prime piece of evidence 

for the quality of your written communication skills, so 

think long and hard about how you are using your 

resume to communicate! 

• Adopt a simple, but not simplistic style. Aim 

to be succinct and to the point. Most two 

page CVs contain about 850 words. You 

need to make sure they all count. 

• Your language and writing style should be 

appropriate for the role you are aiming for – 

a senior research scientist will, of course, 

present herself somewhat differently from a 

waitress. 

• Use active language that puts you at the 

centre. The CV is about what you can do, 

so write things like ‘I proposed a 

restructuring…’ rather than ‘It was proposed 

that we should restructure.’ 

• Don’t begin all your claims with ‘I am…’ or ‘I 

have…’. Use a telegram style eg ‘Managed 

team of 12 staff’, ‘Responsible for a budget 

of £XXK’. 

• Use short and punchy bullet points when 

listing skills and achievements so that your 

key selling points are easily accessible to the 

reader. A CV is not the place to subtly imply 

that you have particular skills or experience. 

If you’ve got it, say so. 

• Quantify outcomes wherever you can. Eg 

‘increased sales by 18%’ or ‘reduced 

complaints from 10 a week to 2.’ 

• Be consistent in your use of tenses as far as 

possible. Your current job may be described 

in the present tense, but everything else 

should be past tense. 

• Avoid using jargon, technical language and 

acronyms. 

80



• Use strong action words that give a positive 

impression. Read more about this important 

point in the section below on Using action 

words. 

• Watch out for unnecessary repetition, 

especially when describing similar roles. 

• Don’t make vague, generalised statements 

such as ‘I have wide ranging experience’ or 

‘I am an excellent communicator/team 

player’. These are likely to be claimed by 

most applicants. Be specific and focus on 

actual outcomes. 

• If you know you tend to write long, 

convoluted sentences, revise and edit, 

breaking them up into shorter ones. 

• Avoid fancy words that make you sound like 

you have swallowed a dictionary 

(augmented, instigated, utilised…). They will 

make you sound pretentious and probably 

put the reader off rather than impress. 

Remember the Plain English Campaign? 

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk. Take a look 

round their website if you think your writing 

style tends to be a bit flowery. Here is a 

lovely example from them which shows how 

overblown English can be simplified: 

‘High-quality learning environments are a necessary 

precondition for the facilitation and enhancement of 

the ongoing learning process’. 

And then the simplified version… 

‘Children need good schools if they are to learn 

properly’. 

Using action words 

It is amazing how much you can influence the impact 

of your resume by simply choosing your words 

carefully. Language is an incredibly powerful tool 

and if you don’t concentrate on getting it to work for 

you, you will probably find it is working against you. 

81



Remember what I have said before about the tired 

recruiter wading through dozens if not hundreds of 

resumes? You need to make sure yours really 

catches their eye, even if it is the 73rd one they have 

looked at today! 

By using a telegram style and bullet points, you can 

ensure that each sentence begins with an active 

verb. Starting with a verb gives it much greater 

impact, so make sure you choose words which will 

create the impression you want. 

Take a look at this description: 

‘I was given the task of re-organising the process for 

publicising and distributing our monthly newsletter to 

clients. So I reviewed current practice, asked our 

clients what they wanted and drew up a revised 

plan. This was accepted by my manager and is now 

in use.’ 

Now look at this one: 

‘Planned and completed a thorough review of 

publicity and distribution processes for our client 

newsletter, including a survey of users, and as a result, 

achieved a 38% increase in circulation.’ 

The second one is much snappier with the writer 

taking ownership of the task. The ‘telegram style’ of 

writing, avoiding excessive use of ‘I’, and using strong, 

active verbs give the shorter statement much more 

impact. And the writer manages to get in a key piece 

of evidence – a 38% increase in circulation. 

You will find an Action Words Prompt List in the CV & 

Resume Toolkit at the end of this workbook. Refer to it 

for ideas as you are drafting your CV. 

82



Getting going 

It is generally a good idea to start by writing freely, 

getting much more down than you will need. It is 

always easier to edit down later than vice versa, so 

don’t be inhibited at this stage by worries about how 

long your resume should be. Just get your ideas 

down on paper or on to your computer. Be 

experimental. Try expressing things in different ways 

and see what works. 

If you find it awkward writing about yourself, think of 

someone you know who seems to present themselves 

confidently. How would they present themselves on 

paper? Or imagine you were helping someone else 

to write their CV. How would you encourage them to 

promote themselves more positively? 

Completing the sections you have chosen 

Start with the more straightforward sections, which just 

require factual information, such as Personal Details, 

Education / Qualifications and Referees. You can also 

fill in the basic dates and names of your various 

periods of employment. If you get going with these 

easier sections, you will find you have done a big 

chunk of the task and completing the rest of your 

resume will feel less daunting. 

Once you have got the factual content out of the 

way, you can focus on the really important sections 

of your CV. These are the detail of your Employment 

History, your Key Skills and Achievements, and your 

Personal Profile / Career Objective. Your Education 

can also be 

important, but this depends on the stage of your 

career and the significance of academic 

achievement in your chosen line of work. These are 

the areas you need to spend most time on, crafting 

them carefully so that they present you in the best 

possible light. 

83



As you focus on each one in turn, go back over the 

writing tips above, sift through the Action Words 

Prompt List for inspiration and always keep your mind 

firmly on what you now know the recruiter wants to 

read. 

This is also a good point to go back to your CV & 

Resume Master File on your computer. The 

advantage of creating this as a computer file is that it 

allows you to cut and paste when you are assembling 

your CV. This may seem like a great time saving 

device, but beware! Make sure that you read 

through your resume very carefully as it is easy to cut 

and paste chunks from your CV & Resume Master File 

that don’t make sense. 

Finally, don’t forget to give evidence! Refer back to 

your Evidence Summary and to the advice on 

evidence in Step 4 on page 38. It is very easy to slip 

into writing lists of what you can offer. That’s great as 

far as it goes, but saying that you are ‘an effective 

negotiator’ will only work if you add something about 

the situations where your negotiation skills have led to 

positive results. 

Writing about your education 

If you are well established in your career, you 

probably do not need to give much space to your 

education other than mentioning key relevant 

qualifications. Keep it short and succinct. 

However, if your work experience is still fairly limited, it 

is a good idea to use your educational experience as 

another source of skills. Mention of what you have 

gained from the experience of Higher Education 

rather than just listing modules or courses taken. You 

may wish to mention any specific research projects or 

dissertations you have written, provided they are 

relevant to the job you are now applying for. 

84



Writing about your employment 

The way you complete this section will depend on the 

style of CV you have chosen. If you are using a 

chronological format, then key information about 

each job is included as you go along. If you have 

chosen a skills-based format, then the key elements of 

your work experience will be highlighted separately 

and you can devote less space to describing your 

roles individually. 

If you are writing about each job in turn, beware of 

falling into the trap of writing out a job description for 

each role. Focus instead on a few key responsibilities 

and then highlight relevant skills and achievements in 

each role. 

It is a good idea to plan the employment section as a 

whole so that you do not repeat yourself in each role. 

If you aim to highlight skills A, B and C you may like to 

focus on how you used skills A & B in your current role 

and C in a previous role. 

Devote more space and effort to your more recent 

work experience if it links well with what you are 

applying for. As you go back in time, you can give 

less detail. 

Writing about your skills and achievements 

When you completed Step 5, you should have 

identified clearly which skills and achievements will 

impress this particular recruiter for this job. Make sure 

you keep this in mind now as you write. 

A good way of drawing the reader’s eye to the key 

words in your skills list is to bold them up as 

subheadings: 

‘Staff management. Managed a team of 12 

specialist staff; delivered ongoing training and 

85



support leading to a 10% improvement in team 

output.’ 

Wherever possible, use figures to quantify 

achievements. This adds authority and impact to 

your claims. 

Writing your personal profile and/or career objective 

It is a good idea to leave writing your profile to the 

end. You can then review what information you have 

included in your resume as a whole and can pull out 

the key elements you want to highlight for extra 

impact. 

So what should you include? Focus on what you 

have to offer that they also need. Highlight 

achievements and recent relevant successes, rather 

than what you want to do or your potential to 

perform in a particular role. Avoid generalities. 

Introduce yourself via any relevant employment 

background and you could mention your level or 

seniority, length of experience, your previous role and 

sector. However, if you are a career changer you 

may not want to be specific about your past role 

here, so you would focus attention on your skills and 

achievements. 

Many personal profiles indicate what job or area of 

responsibility you are aiming for. Take care when 

including this kind of information as in most cases you 

may well want to keep your options open. If you are 

too specific about the role you are looking for then 

you may exclude yourself unwittingly from other 

related opportunities. If this resume is being sent on a 

speculative basis, and particularly if you are a career 

changer, then avoid being too prescriptive here. 

Bottom line – the profile should demonstrate a strong 

link to the job/area you are applying for to help the 

reader immediately see that you are worth 

interviewing. 

86



Career coach John Lees has suggested a useful 

model to help you structure a personal profile. It 

simply recommends that you use the formula ‘you – 

what – next’. 

You = introduce yourself via the roles you have had – 

provided they are relevant. 

What = highlight what skills and experience you can 

offer that makes you a good candidate for this post 

and key results you have achieved. 

Next = Indicate where you see your career going 

next, as long as you have a specific objective in mind 

that relates closely to this application. 

Profiles are normally written in the third person – for 

example ‘Qualified HR professional with 6 years 

experience, specialising in training and 

development.’ 

As I have already indicated, avoid tired and 

hackneyed phrases and clichés such as self starter, 

highly motivated, loyal, hardworking, committed, 

team player, great communicator, team player as 

they fail to differentiate you sufficiently. If you find you 

are being vague and woolly, focus in more closely on 

specifics and give concrete evidence in support. 

Keep the tone positive with a focus on achievements. 

And at every stage, keep on asking yourself ‘does this 

add something positive to my pitch’? 


Take your time to draft out the key sections of your CV. Write 

and rewrite until you are happy that you have created a 

picture that presents you positively and ‘ticks the boxes’ for 

the recruiter. 

87



Sequence of your chosen sections 

Now you have fleshed out the sections you are 

planning to use on your CV or resume, you can make 

final decisions about the order you will place them in. 

In most cases, it will look like this. Your Personal Details 

and Profile / Career Objective clearly need to come 

first. If you are using a skills based format, then your 

Skills and Achievements are likely to be the next 

section. If you have a reasonable amount of relevant 

work experience, that will be your next priority, with 

education after that. Finally, interests and referees. 

If you are using a chronological format (which may or 

may not include a Profile) start with employment if 

you have already established yourself in the world of 

work. If you are a recent graduate, or have 

recently retrained, then you may wish to put 

Education & Qualifications first. 

But the final deciding factor in the sequencing of your 

resume, is to ensure that the most relevant and 

compelling information appears on page one. A CV 

is not the place to be bashful. Always front load your 

key selling points, so that you achieve the maximum 

impact as soon as the recruiter starts reading. Only if 

you hook their attention early will they bother to turn 

over to page two. 

Proof read carefully 

When you have finished writing, go back over what 

you have written with a fine toothed comb, looking 

out for any spelling or grammatical errors. Do not just 

rely on the spelling and grammar checker on your 

computer. Typos like ‘manger’ instead of ‘manager’, 

‘form’ instead of ‘from’ or ‘collage’ instead of 

‘college’ are very easily overlooked if you just skim 

read and your spell checker will miss them too. 

88



Remember that it is quite possible for a recruiter to 

have to read through well over 100 resumes to select 

a shortlist of 8-10 people. In this kind of situation, small 

factors like spelling mistakes can be all it takes to get 

your CV placed on the reject pile. 

This may seem unfair, and it does of course mean that 

sometimes, good candidates are passed over 

because they have failed to pay attention to the 

details at this stage of the application process. All 

you can do is to make absolutely sure that you are 

not one of those who will fail because of a minor 

error. 

Last, but not least, try reading your CV out loud. It will 

give you a good idea if it sounds convincing or trite. 

================================= 

Now you have got the content of your CV just right, 

you are ready to move on to Step 9 - making it really 

look the part too. 

89



Step 9 – Making it look the part 

General look and feel 

It is very easy to get totally focused on getting the 

content of your resume right and then ending up 

neglecting how it looks. 

Now you might feel that looks are all a bit superficial 

and surely the content is what matters, but you are 

operating in a fast paced decision making situation 

here, so initial impact is vital. 

The minute your resume reaches the top of the pile, it 

is beginning to gain or lose points in the mind of the 

recruiter - and this is before they even start to read. 

Just as you unconsciously form an impression of a 

person as soon as they walk through the door from 

the clothes they wear, and from the way they walk 

and talk, the same kind of thing happens with a 

resume. 

Employers expect much higher standard of 

presentation these days now that the majority of us 

have access to PCs. Ideally we should be able to 

demonstrate our IT skills with a well turned out resume. 

The arm’s length test. 

So you need to be sure that your resume has an 

immediate visual impact. A good way of assessing 

this is the arm’s length test. How does it look when 

you hold it at a distance where you possibly can’t 

read more than the headings, but you can – and will 

– form a general impression? 

Is it neat and tidy? Do all the columns and margins 

line up? Are fonts used consistently throughout? Do 

the headings stand out clearly? Does it look like a 

professional document? 

90



Why not try this right now with an old resume that you 

have used in the past? 


Try the arm’s length test with an old CV. What message 

does it give just from the way it looks? 

Promoting your brand. 

Remember we talked about your ‘brand’ back in 

Step 4, the underlying message about who you are 

and what you represent? Well, the look and feel of 

your CV will play a big part in communicating that 

message. Make sure it adds to the image you are 

trying to create rather than contradicting or 

detracting from it. 

Back to the marketing analogy – you want the reader 

to ‘buy’ your product. You have already done a lot 

of work on analysing what you have to offer; now you 

have to think about how you present it. A great 

product in a boring or inappropriate box will probably 

not sell. (Well, it might if it had a sufficiently good 

reputation, but that is another part of the process of 

building your brand!) 

Make life as easy as you can for the recruiter. Make 

your CV easy to scan quickly and to read closely. 

Make all the key information as accessible as 

possible. Make sure your key selling points jump out. 

Help them to like you and want to know you better. 

So which aspects of layout do you need to consider? 

91



Font 

Choose your font carefully. The key issue that should 

influence your choice is ease of reading. You want 

the recruiter to be able to read your resume quickly 

and easily, don’t you? 

Generally speaking, sans serif fonts like Arial, Verdana 

and this one, Century Gothic, are easier on the eye. 

Bear in mind that a 12pt font size will appear 

differently according to the typeface you have 

chosen. 

This is Verdana 12pt 

This is Arial 12pt 

This is Times New Roman 12pt 

This is Kartika 12pt 

Generally speaking, don’t go below 10pt as it begins 

to get too small to read comfortably. 

Think about whether a modern or more traditional 

typeface will fit in the ‘brand’ you are promoting. 

Experiment with different fonts and try the arm’s 

length test (p80) again. 


Experiment by applying a few different fonts to your draft 

resume. How do they look? Which one works best for you? 

92



Headings 

You have already chosen which headings you will use 

in your CV in Step 7. 

Headings play a critical role in helping your reader 

navigate quickly and easily around your CV. Make 

sure that they can be clearly distinguished from the 

basic content so a reader can scan directly to the 

information they want to read. Making them slightly 

larger and bolded is usually enough. 

However, don’t make them so big that they 

jump off the page and it is best to avoid 

underlining or BLOCK CAPITALS and 

certainly AVOID USING BOTH TOGETHER! As with 

emails, the latter tends to look like you are shouting. 

Headings are an opportunity to use a different font 

and possibly even colour to help them stand out, but 

choose your alternative font with care. Think about 

how well it fits with the basic font you have chosen. I 

have selected AMERICANA BT for the headings in 

this ebook, which contrasts but does not clash with 

Century Gothic. Lucida Handwriting, on the other hand 

would look out of place as a header font. 

You might like to take a look at a few professionally 

designed books and company reports to see how 

different fonts, sizes and colours can be used 

effectively. 


What works well in professionally produced documents? 

Which font style, size and colour will you use for you 

headings? 

93



Colour 

Paper 

In this case, I mean the colour of the text and 

headings in your resume. As a general rule, be 

cautious. If you are not a trained graphic designer, it 

is easy to get carried away with the use of colour, 

thinking it will all add impact. 

It will. But often it will be the wrong kind of impact. 

If you want to use colour, only introduce one other 

colour and keep the base font in black. As I have 

already suggested, you might like to use a different 

colour for the section headings of your CV, but if you 

do, then err on the side of caution. Pick a 

conservative option like dark blue or dark green. 

And it is essential that you try photocopying your CV 

in black and white before you make a final decision. 

It is quite possible that your CV will 

be copied to all members of a selection panel, so you 

need to be aware of what kind of document they will 

be receiving. Colours may appear very differently in 

a black and white copy and you could find that the 

appearance of your CV is surprisingly different. 

If in doubt, stick with black text throughout and let 

your choice of header font and size do the work for 

you. 

It is generally safest to stick with white (the comments 

about photocopying I mentioned above apply here 

too). Try to use a reasonable quality of paper, but 

don’t feel you have to spend money on something 

fancy. 

If you really want to use a coloured paper, choose 

very pale grey, blue or beige, but make sure that the 

94



Photos 

Length 

colour fits in with the overall ‘feel’ you are trying to 

create. 

You might think that a photograph would help a 

potential employer get a better sense of who you 

are, but you don’t really have any control over how 

they will respond to your picture. 

In some cases, a photo could present a problem if a 

recruiter is taking care to minimise possible gender, 

race or age bias from the selection process, either 

because of specific legislation or simply as a matter of 

good practice. Photographs also photocopy badly 

and an acceptable original may present a less 

favourable impression once it has been copied. 

If you are applying for a post in another country, do 

check whether a photograph is expected, but as a 

general rule, I would not include a photograph. 

If you do decide to include one, build it into the 

layout of your CV. Arrange the personal information 

at the top allowing space for the photograph, don’t 

just staple at to the corner. Scan it in and insert it into 

the space. And make sure it is a good quality photo 

that fits with the image and brand you are projecting. 

In the USA, a resume is typically a single side. In the 

UK, a CV is usually 2 sides, occasionally longer. 

Remember that a CV or resume is about getting your 

point across clearly and succinctly, so if you find your 

CV is spreading onto 3 or more pages, you are 

probably being too long winded. If it is too long it 

can suggest a lack of focus on you part and may 

indicate poor written communication skills. Bottom 

line – anything past 2 pages probably won’t be read. 

95



Exceptions to the two page guideline might be if you 

are very senior and have a lot of very relevant 

experience to present. Also, academic CVs tend to 

be longer because of the requirement to present 

information about research and publications. 

Be aware of what is typical in the sector you are 

applying to and adjust your CV accordingly. 

If you have limited work experience and find you run 

out of content at 1½ pages, then either expand it to 

two pages (adjust the layout, space out the sections, 

change the font size) or reduce it to a single side. I 

generally recommend the first approach as reducing 

it often leads to a cramped end product with critical 

‘selling points’ missing. 

As always, think about it from the point of view of a 

busy recruiter. Keep your CV or resume focused and 

to the point and, whatever the length, make sure 

page one has the necessary impact to hook them in. 

Bullet points 

Dates 

I have mentioned bullet points already when 

discussing how to write your content. 

Do use them. They make the text of your CV a lot 

easier to scan read quickly. A dense paragraph of 

text is extremely uninviting to a reader, while a series 

of short bullet points invite them in and allow you to 

draw attention to your key selling points. 

However, they are not appropriate for every section 

of your resume. Keep them for the core content eg 

skills and achievements that naturally breaks into this 

format. Your personal contact information, your 

profile and referees are better off as plain text. 

We have discussed dates under education and 

employment in Step 7 above. Most recruiters will 

96



Keywords 

want to build up a picture of how your career has 

unfolded over time and will be looking for any 

unexplained gaps. 

But that said, dates are simply factual background 

data, they are unlikely to be critical in swaying a 

decision to interview you one way or another. 

Many resumes list dates down the left hand side of 

the page in a blank column. However, because 

English is read from left to right, that space on the left 

is prime selling space. You don’t want to waste that 

on a largely empty column with nothing more than 

dates in it. It makes more sense to place dates on the 

right hand side of your resume. 

You have already taken a close look at the Job 

Description and Person Specification in Step 2, so you 

know exactly what the company is looking for. 

In keeping with the idea that your task is to 

demonstrate that you match their needs, make the 

effort to use and highlight particular keywords from 

the specification for the role. If they say they want 

team work, then use that phrase rather than saying 

you are good at motivating others. Give them what 

they ask for! 

You could use the keywords as sub-headings in a 

section on Key Skills or could just bold them up in the 

main text of your resume. And in line with what I have 

mentioned above about English being read from left 

to right, try place keywords towards the left hand side 

of the page. 

This tactic of using and bolding specific keywords can 

be really important if CV is being submitted 

electronically to an agency. Their 

97



first sift through applications could be done using 

specialist software to pick out the keywords the 

recruiter is looking for. So your choice of words could 

be critical in getting you to the next stage of the 

selection process. 


Go back to Step 2 and remind yourself what they key 

requirements are for this particular job. Which keywords do 

you need to make sure appear in your CV? 

The space in between 

This may seem odd, but the blank space in between 

all your carefully crafted text is important too. To 

create a strong visual impact, make sure that you 

don’t overload the page with reams of dense text. 

Keep the margins a reasonable size. Allow a couple 

of blank lines between sections. Indent your bullet 

points so there is more white space alongside them. 

These tips will help your CV have an open, 

uncluttered feel. And above all, it will make it easier 

to read – which is exactly what you are aiming for. 

Consistency 

You would be amazed how many CVs I have seen 

where the formatting and font style and size all 

change from section to section. This is such a give 

away of a CV that has been assembled in pieces, 

probably drawn from previous versions and just 

pasted together without any attempt to review it for 

overall coherence and consistency. But to a 

recruiter, anything less than a completely consistent 

style throughout speaks of a slip-shod, couldn’t be 

bothered attitude. 

98



So check and double check that all your headings 

are of the same style throughout, that you have used 

the same base font and that your bullet points match 

and are equally indented. 

Do learn to set and use tabs – it makes it a lot easier 

to keep your blocks of text neatly aligned! Or if you 

are an advanced Word user, define styles for different 

levels of heading and body text throughout. 

Presentation folders 

Don’t bother. If you are applying for a lot of jobs, the 

cost of fancy folders could add up quite quickly. 

More importantly, for most recruiters who are wading 

through dozens of resumes, any kind of folder, 

however smart, will be an irritation that will detract 

from the positive impact you are trying to create. 

Final adjustments 

The above are the main elements that will affect the 

general look and feel of your resume. Above all, it 

should look neat and professional and should 

demonstrate that you have devoted care and 

attention to presentation as well as to content. 

You can make small adjustments here and there if 

you find your CV goes just over the length you have 

chosen or if sections split over two pages. A tiny 

reduction on the margins or in font size, for example, 

may be all it needs to get it all to fit nicely. 

Always finish with the arm’s length test (see page 74) 

again to check the overall impact of any changes 

you have made. 

99




Go back over your draft CV and work on the layout, using 

the tips and decisions from this section so you really develop 

the visual impact of your CV. 

Finish with the ‘arm’s length’ test. How does it look? 

=========================== 

Moving on to Step 10, you will be pleased to hear that 

it is time to take a break! 

100



Step 10 – Take a break 

Phew! That’s most of the hard work over. By now you 

should have assembled a CV or resume that… 

• Is closely targeted to match the needs of 

the recruiter 

• Promotes your skills and experience in the 

best possible light 

• Looks polished and professional 

After all that work, you deserve a well earned rest – 

and in fact, taking a break from your CV is exactly 

what you should be doing at this point. You have 

probably been toiling over it for some time and 

without a doubt, it can get to the point where you 

can’t really look at your own work objectively any 

longer. You need to put a bit of breathing space 

between you and your product! 

So print out a copy of your resume, but then put it 

aside and don’t look at it for a few days. 

Three reviews 

Review one 

When you are ready to revisit it, try these three 

approaches reviewing your CV. 

Start with a green highlighter pen and go through the 

whole resume, marking in green everything that adds 

something positive to your pitch. Then mark in yellow 

everything that is neutral, and finally mark with red 

anything that could be misinterpreted or seen in a 

negative light. 

How are the colours distributed? Page one should be 

primarily green. Your personal details may be yellow, 

but the rest of the content should all be making a 

positive contribution. There should be no red. If there 

101



Review two 

Review three 

is, work out ways of either omitting it or presenting it in 

a different light. At very least, it should be relegated 

to page two. Page two may have more yellow 

amongst the green and if there are any unavoidable 

‘red sections’ in your career history on this page, they 

should be reduced as far as possible so that they do 

not distract attention away from. 

Put yourself into the shoes of a recruiter, imagine you 

don’t know this person and read your resume through 

with a fresh pair of eyes. What do you think of it when 

seen from this perspective? How would you judge this 

person if you had never met them? Would you 

consider inviting them for interview? 

Read it out loud, slowly, as if you were reading it to 

the recruiter. This is a great way of making you slow 

down and focus on every word. You may well spot 

typos and grammatical errors as you do this. It will 

also help you see where you have used incoherent or 

pretentious language. 

Go back to the classic mistakes listed on pages 13-14. 

Have you fallen into any of the traps? 

=========================== 

Now that you have undertaken your own review of 

your CV, it is time to get an independent and outside 

view. This is what Step 11 is all about. 

102



Step 11 – Get an independent view 

You may feel nervous about asking someone else to 

comment on your resume, but it is a really valuable 

way of getting feedback and you will find that others 

will spot things in your CV that you had not noticed, in 

spite of all the care and attention you have devoted 

to putting it together. 

From a friend 

Choose a friend who you trust to be supportive and 

constructive in their comments. Perhaps the safest 

way to do this is to agree to comment on each 

others’ resumes and to give each other both positive 

feedback as well as constructive criticism. 

Key points to cover… 

• What do you like about the CV and what 

works well? 

• Are there any spelling mistakes, typos or 

grammatical errors? 

• What is the general impact of the CV? 

• Does it represent you accurately and 

positively? 

• What does it say about your ‘brand’? 

• Is the writing style clear and appropriate to 

the job/occupational area? 

• Is there any irrelevant material or 

unnecessary repetition? 

• Does it pass the ‘arm’s length test’? 

• What suggestions do they have for changes 

and improvements – and why do they think 

they will help? 

• Would you interview me on the basis of this 

CV? 

Remember, however, that this is a friend, not an HR 

professional or a recruiter. By all means listen carefully 

103



to their feedback, but don’t feel you have to take 

every word of it on board. At the same time, if they 

have used some good ideas in their CV that you had 

not thought of, don’t hesitate to use them. Have a 

discussion with them about what will work and what 

won’t for this particular CV. 

From a professional 

Once you have asked a friend, you may want to get 

some professional advice too. This could still be 

informal – you may know someone who works in HR or 

in a recruitment agency, or perhaps you have a 

former colleague who was involved in recruitment. 

Feedback from someone who has been on the 

receiving end of CVs and resumes will give you a 

different take and could well save you from sending 

out something that would fail at the first hurdle. 

If you want more in depth feedback from a 

professional, you can pay for CV services. You will 

find more about this in the Need more help? section 

on page 100 below. 


Make a note of the comments and suggestions you have 

received. Which ones will you implement now? Which ones 

will you retain as good ideas for possible future use? 

============================= 

This brings us to the final CV & Resume Checklist 

which you will find in Step 12. 

104



Step 12 - Your CV and Resume checklist 

Once you have completed your CV and got 

feedback form others, use this checklist as a final 

review of what you have done. Does your resume 

pass the test? 

There are two key questions to ask yourself: 

a) ‘So what?’ Look at every bit of information you 

have included and see if it passes the ‘so what’ test. 

Does it really add something useful to the case you 

are making for yourself for this particular job or 

opportunity? 

b) Would I offer this person an interview if this is what 

they sent me? If the answer is, ‘hmmm, not sure’, then 

go back and revise it a bit more 

Before you started 

• Did you thoroughly research the company, the 

occupational area and the specific job you are 

applying for? 

• Did you review all your own experience and 

identify the key skills, qualities and experience that 

you have to offer? 

• Are you clear which of these are relevant to the 

job or opportunity you are applying for? 

• Did you conclude that you have got a lot to offer 

that overlaps with their needs and that you really 

want this job? 

• Did you consider the different styles of CV or 

resume and work out which one would serve you 

best this time? 

• Did you review the headings you would use, 

omitting the ones that were not relevant and 

adding new ones if they seemed appropriate? 

105



Look and feel 

• Does it pass the ‘arm’s length test?’ 

• Is your name clearly stated at the top of your CV in 

a large font? 

• Does the CV look professional and business-like? 

• Does it reflect your ‘brand’? 

• Have you thoroughly checked it for spelling, 

grammar and correct use of language? 

• Have you double-checked all the dates for 

accuracy? 

• Does it follow a consistent layout? Do the dates 

follow in the same order for both your education 

and employment sections? 

• Is the most relevant information given higher 

priority and more space? 

• Is the most important information on page one? 

• Have you used relevant keywords, generally on 

the left of the page and bolded where 

appropriate? 

• Do your section headings stand out clearly? 

• Do the headings accurately reflect what the 

sections contain? 

• Is it easy to read and are fonts consistent 

throughout? 

• Does it fit on to your chosen one or two pages 

without looking crowded? 

• Have you checked that you have not split a 

section over two pages? 

• Have you used positive action words? 

• Is your CV a good demonstration of your written 

communication skills? 

• Is it jargon free? 

• Does it have a positive, upbeat tone? 

Personal details 

• Is your personal information accurate and up-to 

date? 

• Will the employer be able to contact you easily at 

the address given? 

• Have you included landline, mobile and email 

address? 

• Is your email address appropriate for business use? 

• Have you left out unnecessary details such as 

marital status, number of children and driving 

licence? 

106



• Have you included a suitable website you can 

direct recruiters to? If not, could you create one? 

• Have you checked and double checked all the 

dates for absolute accuracy? 

Your profile 

• Does your profile present you in a positive light? 

• Does it focus on what you can offer? 

• Does it make a strong link to the post you are now 

applying for? 

Education and training 

• Does this section include more than a mere listing 

of places of study and qualifications? 

• Have you considered whether it is in your interest 

to include or exclude exam grades? 

• Have you listed your most recent or important 

qualifications first? 

• Are the dates clear – but just listed as years, not 

months? 

• Have you mentioned your dissertation – if it is 

relevant to the job? 

• Have you mentioned any scholarships or awards 

that would show relevant skills? 

• Have you included additional professional training 

since you left full time education? 

• Have you included any additional short courses 

you have attended? Are they relevant? 

Work experience 

• Have you included all your experience of work – 

full-time, part-time and voluntary? 

• If not, have you left out anything that could have 

worked in your favour by demonstrating useful 

transferable skills? 

• Is it listed in reverse chronological order to match 

your education? 

• Does it work better for you to split your work 

experience into ‘relevant’ and ‘other’ to allow you 

to highlight the most important experiences first? 

• Have you provided greater detail on more 

relevant experience? 

107



• Have you highlighted the skills you have 

developed rather than just listing duties? 

• Have you mentioned any key successes or 

achievements at work? 

• Have you grouped similar jobs together if you are 

short of space or have an extensive work history? 

Skills, qualities, experience & achievements 

Interests 

• Have you clearly demonstrated evidence of the 

skills outlined in the advert, job specification or 

employer's promotional material? 

• Have you used examples to demonstrate these 

skills, quantifying outcomes where possible? 

• Have you drawn evidence from all areas of your 

life including home, academic, work, hobbies & 

interests etc.? 

• Have you highlighted relevant achievements? 

• Have you used this section to demonstrate more of 

the skills and competencies the employer is looking 

for? 

• Do you say what you have gained or learned from 

your various interests? 

• Have you concentrated on a few key interests with 

some explanation rather than giving a long list? 

• Does this section add something positive to your 

resume about the kind of person you are? 

References 

• If you are including addresses of referees, have 

you asked their permission and explained what sort 

of opportunities you are applying for? 

• Are you confident they will write a good reference 

for you? 

• Have you included their name, position, address, 

phone number and email address? 

• Can they be contacted easily? 

• If you have run out of space have you added the 

line: 'Names and addresses of referees can be 

supplied on request'. 

108



Finally 

• Have you had your CV reviewed by someone else 

to make sure it is error free and reads well? 

• Have you got the correct details of the person you 

are sending it to? 

Congratulations - you’re done! 

If you have carefully worked through the 12 Steps in 

this Action Guide, you should now have a well 

researched, carefully targeted resume which you can 

be confident will have a positive impact on the 

recruiter you have designed it for. You will also have 

created a CV & Resume Master File which will ensure 

that you have all the relevant information at your 

fingertips and will enable you to put your next CV 

together with much less effort. 

For a few final tips on getting your CV right, just read 

through the remaining sections of this workbook. 

109



What to leave out of your Resume 

Date of birth 

Gender 

We have talked a lot about what to put in to your CV. 

Is there anything that you should definitely leave out? 

Well, predictably, I have to say anything which does 

not add something positive to your marketing 

campaign. As we have said before, your CV is not 

just a ‘braindump’ of everything you can think of 

about your employment and education. It is a very 

carefully honed marketing campaign, targeted 

closely at a particular job and/or employer. 

So question everything that you are considering 

including and always ask if it adds to the case you 

are making. 

Here are a few hints as to what you should NOT 

normally include: 

Many countries now have legislation against 

discrimination on the grounds of age. Your age really 

should not be a factor in any recruitment decision so 

it is not really relevant to your case. The recruiter will 

of course be able to make a rough guess from the 

dates of your education and the extent of your 

employment history, but you don’t need to highlight it 

– especially if you still feel concerned that old 

fashioned age prejudices may influence decisions 

made. 

The same applies as above. Your name will of course 

indicate your gender in most cases, but if you have a 

unisex name like Chris or Sandeep, don’t feel obliged 

to add Mr or Ms to your name or to specify your 

gender. The recruiter should be making their 

selection decisions based on your skills and 

experience, so keep them focused on that. If your 

gender is unclear from your name, you may get 

letters addressed to Mr when you are a Ms – but does 

that really bother you? 

110



Marital status and children 

Nationality 

Health issues 

Recruiters really do not need to know whether you 

are married or not or whether you have children. 

When you are applying for a job, keep then focused 

on what you can do, on how you can meet their 

needs and do the job to a high standard. Discussions 

of how your home life 

might impact on your work and about whether you 

have or are planning a family are inappropriate. 

Don’t invite them by mentioning these issues. 

Generally speaking, this is another issue you do not 

need to raise on a CV or resume. The exception 

might be where there could be concerns about your 

right to work in the country. If you think this could be 

a concern, you may wish to reassure them that you 

have a work permit. 

You do not need to disclose any health issues, 

temporary or permanent, at this stage. Equal 

opportunities legislation will usually mean that a future 

employer should take action to enable you to work 

and provide additional support to make this possible. 

However, these are issues for you to raise at interview 

– preferably at the end once you are confident that 

you have made a strong case for yourself and 

demonstrated you are a good fit for the job. 

Religious or political convictions 

These are best left off a CV. Exceptions are of course 

where they are central to the role eg church based 

work or political positions. 

Why you are leaving your current job 

There is no need to go into your reasons for leaving 

your current job, especially if there are some 

negatives in your motivation. You could be fed up 

111



Current salary 

Failures 

with the company politics and in-fighting, maybe you 

don’t get on with your current boss, or perhaps you 

are just bored with an undemanding role. Leave any 

discussion of your motivation to the interview stage, 

where you can present the issues in a positive light. 

An exception might be if you have been made 

redundant. This does not hold the stigma it may have 

done in the past and often simply arises as a result of 

company restructuring. For many people, once they 

have got over the initial shock, redundancy can be a 

great opportunity. Make sure you indicate that you 

see it that way to any future employers. 

The best place to discuss salary is at the end of an 

interview when you have got a better idea of how 

strongly you have been able to make a case for 

yourself. 

If you put your current salary – or the salary you are 

aspiring to – you may put a recruiter off before you 

have started. Pitch it too low and they think you are 

lacking experience or confidence in your abilities. 

Pitch it too high and you are out of the frame before 

you have begun. 

Your resume is a place to celebrate the best of you, 

to show yourself off in a positive light and impress a 

recruiter. It is likely that we all have failures or have 

made mistakes at some point in our working lives, but 

there is no need to draw attention to them. Weak 

exam grades or failures are a good example. Just 

omit the grades if you think they will harm your case. 

If your ‘failures’ are difficult to hide eg your business 

went bust or you were sacked, simply mention the 

briefest of facts in your resume and draw attention to 

what you learned from the experience. 

112



Humour 

Last but not least, don’t crack jokes. They rarely work 

on paper and are likely to irritate the reader rather 

than entertain. You want them to see that you are 

taking this job application process seriously. If you are 

a natural joker, save if for after you have got the job! 


Make a note here of anything you need to be sure that you 

omit from your CV. Are there any weak spots or failures that 

could work against you? 

113



Additional tips 

Don’t tell lies 

There can be a great temptation when preparing a 

resume for a job you really, really want, to start 

stretching the truth a little - and it is more common 

that you might think for applicants to put out and out 

lies on their CV. What is the harm, you might say, in 

just exaggerating a little bit? I have one answer to 

that question… 

Don’t do it – it is just not worth the risk. 

If you lie about qualifications, what happens when 

they ask to see the certificates or say they will follow 

up with your school or college? If you claim to have 

skills you haven’t got, what happens when on day 

one of your new job they expect you to tackle 

something you can’t do? What happens when the 

interviewer starts probing you for more detail about a 

project you say you led and your story begins to look 

a bit thin? You want to be able to put on a polished 

and confident performance at interview, and if you 

are wrong-footed by an interviewer asking you about 

a ‘creative’ aspect of your CV, you could easily blow 

the whole thing. 

All of the above scenarios will expose you as 

someone who cannot be trusted. If you are found 

out at interview, this will mean that everything else 

you claim will be doubted and you will certainly not 

be offered the job. If you are found out after you 

have been appointed, the recruiter has good reason 

to fire you immediately and they probably will. 

The flip side of this coin, however, is that you are not 

obliged to reveal weaknesses that may detract from 

your application. Your resume should not be a ‘warts 

and all’ version of your career history. Your aim is to 

present a positive message, and that definitely does 

not include drawing attention to any weaknesses you 

may have. 

114



Using CV / Resume templates 

You will find a host of templates available on the 

internet and Word offers a selection too. My 

suggestion would be to take a look at them for ideas, 

but to avoid using them directly. 

If you have come this far with this workbook, you will 

know by now that your CV should be individual and 

unique to you and to the particular role you are 

applying for. If you try and shoehorn yourself into a 

standard template, you will immediately lose the 

flexibility of presenting yourself in a unique way to 

closely match the needs of a recruiter. 

So my view on templates is to use them for ideas, but 

not to imagine that they will offer an easy way out of 

producing you own unique sales proposition. 

Your online identity 

Remember we talked about the resume being part of 

your overall brand? It is important to realise that your 

brand is made up of much more than what you 

present in the two pages of your CV. 

Have you thought about what is already out there in 

cyberspace about you? It is important to bear in 

mind that future employers may just type your name 

into Google and see what comes up. 

Have you tried that yet? You might be interested to 

see what shows up. Take some time to review your 

presence on the internet, especially on social 

networking sites. Does it present the image of you 

that you would want a future employer to see? 

If the impression is not quite what you want a future 

employer to see, don’t panic, this is an area where 

you can actively manage the impression you make. 

Review how you use sites such as Facebook or 

MySpace, and adjust the security settings to limit 

115



access if necessary. You might want to cull some of 

the pictures you may have posted. 

You should also consider creating a business profile 

on sites such as LinkedIn and Ecademy. 

Your own website 

And if you want to be more proactive in creating your 

online identity, what about creating your own website 

or blog? 

A simple website can be used as a kind of extended 

resume, which allows you to offer much more 

information than you would be able to fit on to a CV. 

Make sure it is appropriate to your occupation and 

level and that you are happy for a recruiter to see it. 

Ask yourself if it presents your ‘brand’ effectively. 

And a website offers you a great opportunity to post 

a short video too. They say a picture is worth a 

thousand words so a well made video must be worth 

even more than that. It allows you to showcase 

something of who you are and can also 

communicate energy, drive and professionalism. 

Videos can be made quickly and easily these days, 

but as before, take your time to ensure that it presents 

you in the best possible light. 

You really can get the internet to work for you these 

days if you use it intelligently. If you haven’t got the 

technical skills, then consider asking a friend to help or 

you may even decide it is worth paying someone to 

help you to develop your online identity. 

Applying via the internet 

You may well find you are asked to apply online or 

submit your CV or resume electronically. So what do 

you need to watch out for here? 

116



There is something so very instant about online 

applications that it is very easy to just fire something 

off in a hurry without really thinking it through. Maybe 

you have only just seen the vacancy and the 

deadline is coming up, so you are rushing to put an 

application together. Before you click send, always 

stop and ask yourself, ‘do I really want this job? (and if 

you say yes, I want any job, that is not the right 

answer!) 

Recruiters will spot hurried and ill considered 

applications a mile off and they will be rejected out 

of hand in favour of any candidate who has shown 

that they have made some effort to present 

themselves appropriately. So knee-jerk applications 

will be a waste of your time and the recruiters’. 

If you do decide to apply, you will be tempted to do 

a cut and paste job from an old CV or an application 

form you have kept from a 

previous job or to lift sections from your CV & Resume 

Master File. By all means use the benefits that 

technology offers to save time, but always go through 

the careful matching process outlined in this 

workbook to be sure that you are meeting the 

employer’s needs. 

And on a practical note, if you are cutting and 

pasting into a web based form, it is usually a good 

idea to drop your copy into a plain text file like 

Notepad first so that you don’t get weird formatting 

appearing in the online version. 

On the issue of formatting going wrong, if you have 

spent a lot of time making your CV look really 

professional, matching headings, aligning columns 

and so on, you might prefer to convert it to a pdf 

before you send it as an email attachment. This way 

you can be sure that all your hard work is preserved 

when it is opened at the other end. 

117



Keyword scanning 

If you are applying through a recruitment agency or 

to a large company, the first stage of selection may 

be done electronically. This means your resume will 

be scanned for certain keywords and the computer 

will need to pick up a suitable ‘match’ before passing 

your application on to the next round. 

Clearly the trick here is to do your best to second 

guess the keywords a company will be looking for. In 

the case of hard technical skills, this is relatively 

straightforward – specific software or hardware skills 

may be needed, for example. In the case of softer 

skills, your best bet is to read the job advert, the Job 

Description and Person Specification carefully and 

identify the ‘essentials’ the recruiter is seeking. 

Make sure you use the same words on your CV, not 

synonyms. And watch out for typos – if you are 

claiming familiarity with Excel, but have typed it Exel, 

the computer keyword checker will pass you by. 

Do you dare to be different? 

Most people suggest that you should err on the side 

of caution with CVs and resumes, keeping them 

simple and conservative in style. Generally speaking, 

I would agree with this. The world of recruitment 

tends to favour a more conservative approach 

But you might be wondering whether it would be 

worth being a bit quirky or unusual, because this will 

catch the reader’s eye. After all you want your 

resume to jump out of the pile of 100 the recruiter has 

to wade through, don’t you? 

Well, perhaps… 

There is a place for being different with your resume, 

but it will not always have the effect you want. Think 

very carefully about whether it will work for or against 

you. If in doubt, play safe. 

118



The key question is ‘what kind of company or 

organisation are you applying to?’ Exceptions to the 

above ‘play safe’ rule might be if you are aiming for a 

highly creative role, say in a design company or an 

advertising agency. In cases where the key quality 

the employer is looking for is the ability to come up 

with new and inventive ideas, then at very least, the 

layout of your CV should be a demonstration of your 

design approach. You may want to go a step further 

and come up with a really creative version, your CV 

could be a place to demonstrate this (I have seen 3D 

CVs, ones laid out like a page from a magazine and 

one like a calendar with content on each ‘month’). 

On the other hand, a portfolio of your work could do 

the same, leaving your resume does the plain talking 

for you. 

When NOT to use a CV or resume 

Don’t send a CV or resume to apply for a job if you 

have been asked to submit an application form! 

You would think this is pretty obvious, but it happens 

surprisingly often. Recruiters use application forms for 

a reason. They want to collect specific information 

from you framed in a set of standard questions so that 

it is easier to compare applicants. 

An application form that is only partly filled in and just 

says ‘see attached resume’ implies that you are a) 

unable to follow instructions and b) not willing to put 

yourself out in any way to meet the recruiter’s needs. 

If you give out the underlying message that you can’t 

be bothered, then the recruiter is very likely not to be 

bothered with you either! 

119



Need more help? 

CV & resume writing agencies 

You may be thinking that all this sounds like hard work 

and be feeling tempted to just turn to a CV or resume 

writing agency. 

Think carefully. The quality of CV produced by such 

agencies varies enormously and the price is not 

always the best indicator of quality though a good 

result will certainly cost you. 

But the quality is heavily dependent on the amount of 

time the resume writer spends with you, finding out 

about who you are, what you are ‘selling’ and who 

you are pitching to. Essentially they need to interview 

you in detail to find out all the information you will 

identify for yourself with this workbook. If you have 

not already done the thinking for yourself, it will be 

hard for them to tease that information out of you in a 

half hour phone call or meeting. 

At the end of the day, it is only too easy for a 

professionally written CV to come across as a bit 

sterile and formulaic and this is the last impression you 

want to give, whatever job you are applying for. 

As we have said before, your CV is part of your overall 

brand and to my mind, this means it has to be your 

own work as only you know yourself inside out. 

Career Plan Coaching 

As you may know from my websites How To Change 

Careers and Career Plan Coaching, I have worked as 

a careers professional for nearly 25 years now, so if 

you are still struggling with your CV or resume or 

would like to have an objective perspective on your 

efforts, I would be happy to help. 

120



I offer a comprehensive Job Search Programme 

which includes support with general job search 

strategies, CV & Resume help and assistance with 

interview technique, including mock interviews. 

Please note that I do not offer a CV / resume writing 

service as I strongly believe that with the right support, 

it is best for you to produce your own CV. 

Career MOT 

If you need wider ranging help with your career and 

are considering a complete career change but don’t 

know where to begin, then why not take a look at my 

complimentary Career MOT. I offer a limited number 

of these sessions each month, so if you are interested, 

sign up on my site and you will then receive a 

questionnaire which will help me assess your suitability. 

Follow this Career MOT link to find out more. 

121



Your CV & Resume Toolkit 

• Job Analysis Worksheet 

• Skills Prompt List 

• Evidence Record 

• Referees Record 

• Action Words Prompt List 

• CV & Resume Checklist 

• Sample CVs & Resumes 

• Recommended Resources 

• Additional Notes Sheets 

122



Job Analysis Worksheet 

When you are reviewing what you have to offer as part of 

your preparation for putting your CV together, it is time well 

spent if you analyse all the jobs you have done to see what 

they reveal about the experience, knowledge, skills, 

achievements you have. 

Use a copy of this worksheet for each job you have done as 

a prompt to your thinking. Include voluntary and part-time 

roles as you are learning and gaining experience from every 

experience of work you have had. 

Job 

Title…………………………………………………………………… 

Start and end dates………………………………………………. 

What did your Job Description require you to do? 

What did you do over and above the requirements of your 

job? 

123 

Continued over…



What new things did you take on that you had not done 

before? 

What additional training (formal or informal) did you 

receive? 

What achievements (projects, initiatives, new ideas 

implemented etc) were you particularly proud of? 

What examples of positive feedback did you get from your 

manager, your colleagues and/or your clients? 

124 

Continued over…



Skills Assessment 

Now list in detail the tasks your job involved and then review 

what skills you were using to carry out each task. If you find 

it difficult to identify skills, take a look at the Skills Prompt List 

also in this Toolkit. Another good idea is to do this exercise 

with a friend or colleague, who can help you to pin down 

the skills you have developed through your work. 

Task Skills used 

This list will become a useful source of evidence for the skills 

you are claiming you have, so refer back to it as you 

assemble your resume. 

This is a useful exercise for non-work activities too. Review 

what you do outside of work, such as clubs, committees, 

volunteering etc - you are developing and using skills there 

too. 

125



Skills Prompt List 

Feeling stuck when trying to identify your skills? It is always a 

good idea to start with the job and the tasks you have 

done, but if you find your mind going blank when you try to 

analyse what skills you have used, just turn to this list as a 

prompt. 

Accounting 

Accuracy 

Adaptability 

Administration 

Advising 

Ambition 

Analysing 

Anticipating 

Appreciating others 

Arbitration 

Assembling 

Assertiveness 

Attention to detail 

Auditing 

Being methodical 

Business awareness 

Budgeting 

Calculating 

Caring 

Change management 

Committee work 

Common sense 

Communicating 

Completing tasks 

Computing 

Confidence 

Consulting 

Controlling 

Co-operating 

Co-ordinating 

Coping with pressure 

Counselling 

Creativity 

Customer care 

Debating 

Decisiveness 

Delegating 

Designing 

126 

Developing 

Devising 

Diplomacy 

Discovering 

Displaying 

Drawing 

Drive 

Dynamism 

Editing 

Emotional intelligence 

Empathy 

Energy 

Enforcing 

Entertaining 

Enthusiasm 

Evaluating 

Examining 

Experimenting 

Explaining 

Facilitating 

Filing 

Financial management 

Finishing 

Fixing 

Flexibility 

Forecasting 

Fund raising 

Generating ideas 

Good humour 

Guiding 

Hypothesising 

Imagination 

Impartiality 

Implementing 

Improving 

Improvising 

Independence 

Influencing



Initiating 

Initiative 

Innovating 

Insight 

Inspiring others 

Instructing 

Intelligence 

Interpreting – languages 

Interpreting - information 

Interviewing 

Intuition 

Investigating 

Inventiveness 

Investing 

Judgement 

Kindness 

Knowledge sharing 

Languages 

Lateral thinking 

Leadership 

Learning 

Lecturing 

Listening 

Logical thinking 

Managing information 

Manual dexterity 

Marketing 

Mediating 

Meeting deadlines 

Memorising 

Motivating – self 

Motivating – others 

Multi-tasking 

Musical performance 

Negotiating 

Networking 

Numeracy 

Observing 

Open-mindedness 

Oral communication 

Organising 

Perceiving 

Performing 

Persistence 

Persuading 

127 

Photography 

Physical fitness 

Planning 

Positive attitude 

Precision 

Preparing 

Presenting 

Prioritising 

Pro-activity 

Problem solving 

Programming 

Proof reading 

Publicising 

Questioning 

Rapport building 

Reading 

Reasoning 

Recruiting 

Referring 

Reliability 

Reporting 

Representing 

Researching 

Resilience 

Responsibility 

Reviewing 

Searching 

Self awareness 

Self starter 

Selling 

Social skills 

Solution-focus 

Strategic perspective 

Summarising 

Supervising 

Teaching 

Team work 

Time management 

Training 

Translating 

Understanding – 

data/things 

Understanding – people 

Vision 

Visualising 

Writing



Evidence Record 

Skill, strength, achievement or 

quality 

128 

Evidence demonstrating when you 

have used this effectively



Name 

Position 

Address 

Referees Record 

Use this grid to keep a record of people who could act as 

referees for you. 

Email 

Phone number 

Comments 

Contacted…………………………… 

Agreed………………………….Y / N 

Name 

Position 

Address 

Email 

Phone number 

Comments 


Agreed………………………….Y / N 

Name 

Position 

Address 

Email 

Phone number 

Comments 


Agreed………………………….Y / N 

129 

Name 

Position 

Address 

Email 

Phone number 

Comments 


Agreed………………………….Y / N 

Name 

Position 

Address 

Email 

Phone number 

Comments 


Agreed………………………….Y / N 

Name 

Position 

Address 

Email 

Phone number 

Comments 


Agreed………………………….Y / N



Action Words Prompt List 

A 

Accomplished 

Achieved 

Acquainted 

Acquired 

Activated 

Adapted 

Addressed 

Accelerated 

Administered 

Advised 

Amended 

Amplified 

Analysed 

Anticipated 

Applied 

Appraised 

Approved 

Arbitrated 

Arranged 

Assembled 

Assessed 

Assimilated 

Assisted 

Attained 

Audited 

Authorised 

Averted 

B 

Balanced 

Bought 

Budgeted 

Built 

C 

Calculated 

Captured 

Cared for 

Categorised 

Centralised 

Charted 

Checked 

Coached 

Collaborated 

Collated 

Collected 

Combined 

Commanded 

Compiled 

Completed 

Composed 

Compounded 

Computed 

Conceived 

Concluded 

Condensed 

Conducted 

Confirmed 

Consolidated 

Constructed 

Consulted 

Contracted 

Contributed 

130 

Controlled 

Converted 

Conveyed 

Convinced 

Co-opted 

Co-ordinated 

Corrected 

Corresponded 

Counselled 

Created 

Criticised 

Customised 

Cut 

D 

Decentralised 

Decided 

Decreased 

Defined 

Delegated 

Delivered 

Demonstrated 

Designed 

Detected 

Determined 

Developed 

Devised 

Diagnosed 

Directed 

Discharged 

Discovered 

Dispensed



G 

Invented 

Disposed 

Disproved 

Distributed 

Diversified 

Documented 

Doubled 

Drove 

E 

Earned 

Edited 

Effected 

Eliminated 

Enabled 

Enacted 

Encouraged 

Enforced 

Engaged 

Engineered 

Enlarged 

Ensured 

Established 

Estimated 

Evaluated 

Expanded 

F 

Facilitated 

Familiarised 

Forecast 

Formed 

Formulated 

Founded 

Gained 

Generated 

Guided 

H 

Handled 

Helped 

I 

Identified 

Imparted 

Implemented 

Improved 

Improvised 

Inaugurated 

Incorporated 

Increased 

Indicated 

Influenced 

Initiated 

Inspected 

Inspired 

Installed 

Instigated 

Instituted 

Instructed 

Insured 

Integrated 

Interacted 

Interpreted 

Intervened 

Interviewed 

Introduced 

131 

Invested 

Investigated 

Involved 

J 

Judged 

L 

Launched 

Led 

Learned 

Lectured 

Liaised 

M 

Maintained 

Maintained 

Managed 

Marketed 

Measured 

Mediated 

Merged 

Minimised 

Modernised 

Modified 

Monitored 

Motivated 

N 

Negotiated 

Networked 

O 

Observed 

Obtained 

Operated



Organised 

Purchased 

Scheduled 

Originated 

Oversaw 

P 

Participated 

Performed 

Persevered 

Persuaded 

Pioneered 

Planned 

Positioned 

Predicted 

Prepared 

Presented 

Prevented 

Prioritised 

Procured 

Produced 

Programmed 

Progressed 

Promoted 

Prompted 

Proposed 

Protected 

Proved 

Published 

Q 

Qualified 

Quantified 

Questioned 

R 

Ran (e.g. an 

event) 

Realised 

Recommended 

Recorded 

Recruited 

Redesigned 

Reduced 

Regulated 

Reorganised 

Represented 

Researched 

Resolved 

Resourced 

Responsible for 

Reviewed 

Revised 

Revitalised 

Revived 

S 

Saved 

132 

Selected 

Served 

Set up 

Shaped 

Simplified 

Solved 

Specified 

Staffed 

Standardised 

Stimulated 

Streamlined 

Strengthened 

Structured 

Succeeded 

Supervised 

Supported 

T 

Tested 

Trained 

Translated 

V 

Verified 

W 

Won 

..and there are 

many more



Sample CVs and Resumes 

Sorry to disappoint you here, but I do not want to 

distract you by giving you examples. 

Why is that? 

From my experience, there is an enormous risk that 

you will just take a quick look, decided you like one or 

the other of them and then copy it slavishly. 

I want you to think carefully about what will make 

your resume really work for you, on each particular 

occasion you prepare it. 

I want you to create a look and feel that reflects the 

brand you are projecting. 

And I also want you to stay flexible, so that if a 

particular situation arises, you may decide to change 

the way your resume looks as well as the story it tells. 

If you are really desperate for examples, just type ‘cv 

examples’ or ‘resume samples’ into Google, or take a 

look at some of the Microsoft templates. But then use 

what you have learned from going through this 

workbook to adapt and adjust them to meet you 

particular needs. 

133



Recommended Resources 

Websites 

How To Change Careers 

www.how-to-change-careers.com 

A comprehensive guide to making a successful career 

change. 


www.career-plan-coaching.com 

A guide to career coaching services available from Cherry 

Douglas. 

VIA Survey of Character Strengths 

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/default.asp 

x 

Professional Resumes 

http://www.professional-resume-example.com/ 

One of the most comprehensive resume sites I have found 

with lots of great advice. 

Recruiters’ Pet Peeves 

http://content.monster.co.uk/9334_en-GB_p1.asp 

Plain English Campaign 

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk 

Advice on writing clear English 

http://www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/ 

General tips on writing 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/writing/ 

134



Books 

CV Messages To Win Jobs 

John Lees 

High Impact CVs 

John Middleton 

Strengthsfinder 2.0 

Tom Rath 

Brand You 

John Purkiss & David Royston-Lee 

Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success 

Dan Schawbel 

Other ebooks by Cherry Douglas 

(available from the How To Change Careers website) 

Know Your Personality, Know Your Career 

Want to know more about your personality and how it can 

guide you in making the right career choice? 

11¾ Ways To Kick Start Your Career Change 

If your commitment to career change is flagging, just dip in 

here for ideas to get the show back on the road again. 

135



Additional Notes 

136




137




138



About the author, Cherry Douglas 

Cherry Douglas 

Cherry Douglas is Your 

Career Change Guide. 

I am a UK based professional 

career coach and career 

change consultant. 

I have been supporting 

people like you, with career 

choice, career change and 

job search issues for over 20 

years. 

I started my working life in retail management and quickly realised 

that the ‘helping people’ dimension of the job was of more interest 

and gave me more satisfaction than the commercial aspects. 

So I consulted a professional career coach for advice about my 

own career - and realised that the career coach’s job was just the 

kind of thing I was looking for myself. This convinced me to give up 

my job in retail management and return to college to study a 

postgraduate diploma in Careers Guidance. 

Since that day, I have never looked back, never regretted that 

move. 

My qualifications in psychology, coaching and careers guidance, 

as well as my extensive experience mean that I am very familiar 

with the steps and stages my clients need to go through to make a 

successful job application or career change. 

And having made career changes myself, I also understand the 

challenges and difficulties that you may be facing in dealing with 

your own career issues – and can probably help you too, to 

overcome your own problems and obstacles. 

Over the years, I have been privileged to work with hundreds of 

clients, helping them to find their way forward with their careers, 

supporting them with anything from a quick CV review to a 

complete career change. 

In addition I have on many occasions been on the other side of the 

desk in the recruitment process, so I understand exactly what it is 

139



like to sift through CVs and resumes, selecting candidates for short 

listing and to then continue with the interview and final selection 

process. 

This means that you can use the ideas in this Workbook with 

confidence, knowing that they are based on extensive knowledge 

and experience. 

I hope you find this workbook useful and that it helps you transform 

your CV or resume and get the job or career you are looking for. 

Feedback and comments 

I would love to hear your comments about this workbook. If you 

have found it helpful or have any suggestions for improvements, 

please get in touch with me via either of my websites. 


How To Change Careers 

I look forward to hearing from you! 

Cherry Douglas 

140



© Cherry Douglas, Your Career Change Guide 

2011 

141

Your CV & Resume Workbook - Career Plan Coaching

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?