Your CV & Resume Workbook - Career Plan Coaching
Your CV & Resume Workbook - Career Plan Coaching
Your CV & Resume Workbook - Career Plan Coaching
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Copyright Notice<br />
© 2011 Copyright Cherry Douglas, <strong>Your</strong> <strong>Career</strong> Change Guide<br />
All Rights Reserved<br />
No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form<br />
whatsoever, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or<br />
by any informational storage or retrieval system without the express written,<br />
dated and signed permission from the author and copyright holder.<br />
Disclaimer<br />
This ebook and its contents are provided for informational purposes only and<br />
all information and ideas are provided in good faith by the author who<br />
believes such information to be true and honest to the best of the authors’<br />
knowledge and belief. Any and all opinions expressed by the author<br />
represent the views and opinions of the author at the time of writing. The<br />
author reserves the right to vary or change any such opinions subsequently. It<br />
is impossible to provide comprehensive information and advice tailored to<br />
each individual situation within an ebook such as this and it should not to be<br />
regarded as any kind of substitute for appropriate and personalised<br />
professional advice. Nothing in this ebook can be considered to be any form<br />
of promise or guarantee. Adoption, implementation or trial of any of the<br />
information, ideas, methods or systems mention in this ebook and on the<br />
associated How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website are entirely at the reader’s own<br />
risk. The reader is totally responsible for the choices and decisions they make,<br />
and for any and all consequences of those decisions. The author apologises<br />
for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies that may be found in this document.
Readers’ Reviews<br />
‘If you really want to 'Get That Job', you need to apply the professional<br />
secrets and techniques that Cherry Douglas reveals to you in "The <strong>CV</strong> &<br />
<strong>Resume</strong> <strong>Workbook</strong>". <strong>Your</strong> <strong>CV</strong>/<strong>Resume</strong> is <strong>Your</strong> Personal Sales Pitch...and<br />
Cherry shows you how to craft yours so that you should stand head and<br />
shoulders above other candidates. After all, why be 'one of the pack' when<br />
you could use Cherry's techniques to be first over the winning line?<br />
Well done, Cherry! The real value to the job-seeker of the secrets you share in<br />
your "<strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> <strong>Workbook</strong>" are astronomically more than its very modest<br />
price.’<br />
John Williamson<br />
www.thewealthcoach.com<br />
www.retaildisplaysecrets.com<br />
‘After all my years spent in Executive Search I have never seen anything this<br />
good. Writing your own <strong>CV</strong> is tough. Sure we can all say which companies<br />
we have worked for but have you stopped to consider that your <strong>CV</strong>/<strong>Resume</strong><br />
will portray many more things – sadly things you may with hindsight wish had<br />
remained hidden.<br />
If you take this workbook seriously you will not only get a potential employer<br />
to 'look twice' at you, there's a very good chance you will have realised just<br />
how much you have done and what extraordinary skills you have to offer.<br />
You will come away feeling more positive and confident that you can get the<br />
job you want.<br />
Cherry's workbook provides a through framework along with detailed<br />
mapping of the much shredded item the <strong>CV</strong>/<strong>Resume</strong>. Commit yourself to the<br />
process she offers with vigour, they don't come this good very often!’<br />
Susie Lomax<br />
‘I was seriously impressed by this workbook! Right from the start I felt<br />
confident that I was being guided through a structured process by someone<br />
who really knows her stuff. I particularly love the way it combines expert<br />
advice with a strong coaching element through all 12 steps, so that you end<br />
up with a <strong>CV</strong> which is not only professional but also a unique reflection of who<br />
you are and what you have to offer.’<br />
Karen Knott – Midlife Matters<br />
www.midlifematters.co.uk/
‘This workbook is exactly what I would expect from Cherry Douglas - clear,<br />
practical, insightful and inspiring. In times when getting that perfect job is<br />
hard, even for the most able candidates, Cherry has pulled together<br />
practical exercises into a comprehensive and straightforward guide covering<br />
every aspect of writing one's <strong>CV</strong>. In addition, one also has plenty of<br />
opportunity to consider one's options and target job hunting so that success is<br />
more likely. Written with the commitment to her readers that Cherry brings to<br />
all her clients, this is a valuable tool for anyone who wants to move on in their<br />
career. I am already recommending it to my clients.’<br />
Deborah Henry-Pollard - Catching Fireworks<br />
www.catchingfireworks.co.uk<br />
‘This is an excellent book which covers every aspect on putting together your<br />
<strong>CV</strong> in detail. Clearly and logically laid out into 'easy to find' sections, it<br />
carefully goes through each area of the <strong>CV</strong> or resume, giving you blank<br />
sections to complete elements of your own as you work through it.<br />
The book delves deep into exactly what details should and should not be<br />
included. By breaking each area down into manageable chunks, it makes<br />
the whole process seem much less daunting and it will give you the<br />
confidence to go out and get the job you want.’<br />
Caroline Aitken, Director, Acorn Communications<br />
www.acorncommunications.co.uk/<br />
‘Many thanks for The <strong>CV</strong> and <strong>Resume</strong> <strong>Workbook</strong>. I have read it and used it as<br />
part of my teaching material for my classes and found it a very useful tool. It<br />
was very clear and gave good pointers for writing <strong>CV</strong>s and resumes for<br />
different situations which was an eye opener for me as in the past, I used the<br />
same <strong>CV</strong> for every job I went for.’<br />
Julie Matthias – Just Soe<br />
www.justsoe.com
‘A really useful and practical guide to producing a relevant and winning <strong>CV</strong><br />
for every job you apply for. Cherry guides you through a complete thought<br />
process and fact finding mission to make sure you present yourself in the best<br />
possible way to prospective employers. If you follow her guide you will also<br />
end up with a valuable pool of information for yourself that you will always be<br />
able to draw on. Highly recommended.’<br />
Sonja Adams – Print Junction<br />
sonja@print-junction.co.uk<br />
‘A really useful and practical workbook. Packed with some amazing pointers<br />
to guide you through the whole minefield process of planning and reflection<br />
to help you achieve the perfect <strong>CV</strong>. Thank you so much.’<br />
Christine O'Neill – Deja Vu<br />
http://www.dejavuseal.co.uk/
Index<br />
Copyright Notice.........................................................................<br />
2<br />
Disclaimer .................................................................................. 2<br />
Readers’ Reviews.......................................................................<br />
3<br />
Index...........................................................................................<br />
6<br />
Introduction..............................................................................<br />
11<br />
What you get in this workbook.................................................<br />
11<br />
How to use this workbook.........................................................<br />
12<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
13<br />
<strong>CV</strong> or <strong>Resume</strong>? ........................................................................ 14<br />
One <strong>CV</strong> at a time......................................................................<br />
14<br />
<strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Master File........................................................<br />
15<br />
Ready to get started? ............................................................... 15<br />
How does your <strong>CV</strong> shape up? ................................................ 16<br />
The top 20 <strong>CV</strong> & resume mistakes...........................................<br />
16<br />
<strong>CV</strong>s and <strong>Resume</strong>s - <strong>Your</strong> 12 Step Action Guide....................<br />
18<br />
Step 1 – What is the point? ...................................................... 20<br />
Know yourself...........................................................................<br />
22<br />
Know your market.....................................................................<br />
22<br />
Know what you want.................................................................<br />
22<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
22<br />
Step 2 - Who are you writing for? ............................................ 24<br />
Time to research the job...........................................................<br />
25<br />
Job description......................................................................<br />
25<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
25<br />
Person specification..............................................................<br />
26<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
26<br />
Job advertisement.................................................................<br />
26<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
27<br />
Broaden your research.............................................................<br />
27<br />
The company........................................................................<br />
27<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
28<br />
The industry sector...............................................................<br />
28<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
29<br />
Step 3 - What are you selling? The facts. ............................... 30<br />
Collect the facts first.................................................................<br />
30<br />
Education, exams & qualifications........................................<br />
31<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
31<br />
Professional training.............................................................<br />
32<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
32<br />
On-the-job training................................................................<br />
32<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
33
<strong>Your</strong> employment history......................................................<br />
33<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
35<br />
Voluntary work......................................................................<br />
35<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
35<br />
Interests................................................................................<br />
36<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
36<br />
Time out................................................................................<br />
36<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
37<br />
Step 4 - What are you selling? <strong>Your</strong> hidden assets. ............. 38<br />
<strong>Your</strong> key skills...........................................................................<br />
38<br />
<strong>Your</strong> work skills.....................................................................<br />
38<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
39<br />
Skills outside work................................................................<br />
40<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
41<br />
<strong>Your</strong> strengths ......................................................................... 41<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
42<br />
…and your weaknesses? ......................................................... 42<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
43<br />
<strong>Your</strong> achievements...................................................................<br />
44<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
45<br />
<strong>Your</strong> personal qualities.............................................................<br />
45<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
46<br />
Where’s the evidence? ............................................................. 46<br />
What is your ‘brand’? ................................................................ 48<br />
How to define your brand......................................................<br />
49<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
50<br />
Step 5 – Where’s the match? .................................................. 51<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
52<br />
Step 6 - Which style of <strong>CV</strong>? .................................................... 54<br />
Chronological resume or <strong>CV</strong>....................................................<br />
54<br />
Will this style work for you? ................................................. 55<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
55<br />
Skills based resume or <strong>CV</strong>.......................................................<br />
56<br />
Will this style work for you? .................................................. 56<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
57<br />
Functional resume or <strong>CV</strong>..........................................................<br />
57<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
58<br />
Combination resume or <strong>CV</strong>......................................................<br />
58<br />
Will this style work for you? .................................................. 58<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
59<br />
How to choose? ........................................................................ 59<br />
Step 7 - <strong>CV</strong> & resume sections................................................<br />
61<br />
Adapt, adapt…..........................................................................<br />
61<br />
So what is absolutely essential? .............................................. 62<br />
Personal details....................................................................<br />
62
…over to you............................................................................<br />
63<br />
Education..............................................................................<br />
64<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
65<br />
Work experience/employment history...................................<br />
65<br />
Key skills...............................................................................<br />
67<br />
References............................................................................<br />
67<br />
Who is suitable to be a referee? ......................................... 68<br />
Who could you use? ........................................................... 68<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
69<br />
Additional sections....................................................................<br />
70<br />
Personal profile.....................................................................<br />
70<br />
<strong>Career</strong> objective....................................................................<br />
70<br />
Skills summary / key skills....................................................<br />
71<br />
Professional / Technical skills...............................................<br />
71<br />
Achievements.......................................................................<br />
72<br />
Additional training / Professional training.............................<br />
72<br />
Activities and interests..........................................................<br />
73<br />
Voluntary work......................................................................<br />
74<br />
Experience abroad................................................................<br />
74<br />
Honours and awards.............................................................<br />
75<br />
Professional memberships...................................................<br />
75<br />
Publications...........................................................................<br />
75<br />
Any more? ............................................................................. 76<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
76<br />
Step 8 – Pulling it all together..................................................<br />
77<br />
General tips on writing style.....................................................<br />
78<br />
Using action words...................................................................<br />
80<br />
Getting going............................................................................<br />
81<br />
Completing the sections you have chosen...............................<br />
81<br />
Writing about your education....................................................<br />
82<br />
Writing about your employment................................................<br />
83<br />
Writing about your skills and achievements.............................<br />
83<br />
Writing your personal profile and/or career objective...............<br />
84<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
85<br />
Sequence of your chosen sections..........................................<br />
86<br />
Proof read carefully..................................................................<br />
86<br />
Step 9 – Making it look the part..............................................<br />
88<br />
General look and feel...............................................................<br />
88<br />
The arm’s length test. ........................................................ 88<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
89<br />
Promoting your brand. ........................................................ 89<br />
Font...........................................................................................<br />
90<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
90<br />
Headings...................................................................................<br />
91<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
91
Colour.......................................................................................<br />
92<br />
Paper........................................................................................<br />
92<br />
Photos.......................................................................................<br />
93<br />
Length.......................................................................................<br />
93<br />
Bullet points..............................................................................<br />
94<br />
Dates........................................................................................<br />
94<br />
Keywords..................................................................................<br />
95<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
96<br />
The space in between..............................................................<br />
96<br />
Consistency..............................................................................<br />
96<br />
Presentation folders..................................................................<br />
97<br />
Final adjustments.....................................................................<br />
97<br />
…over to you............................................................................<br />
97<br />
Step 10 – Take a break............................................................<br />
99<br />
Three reviews...........................................................................<br />
99<br />
Review one...........................................................................<br />
99<br />
Review two..........................................................................<br />
100<br />
Review three.......................................................................<br />
100<br />
Step 11 – Get an independent view.....................................<br />
101<br />
From a friend..........................................................................<br />
101<br />
From a professional................................................................<br />
102<br />
…over to you..........................................................................<br />
102<br />
Step 12 - <strong>Your</strong> <strong>CV</strong> and <strong>Resume</strong> checklist............................<br />
104<br />
Before you started..................................................................<br />
104<br />
Look and feel..........................................................................<br />
104<br />
Personal details......................................................................<br />
105<br />
<strong>Your</strong> profile.............................................................................<br />
106<br />
Education and training............................................................<br />
106<br />
Work experience .................................................................... 106<br />
Skills, qualities, experience & achievements.........................<br />
107<br />
Interests..................................................................................<br />
107<br />
References.............................................................................<br />
107<br />
Finally.....................................................................................<br />
108<br />
Congratulations - you’re done! ............................................... 108<br />
What to leave out of your <strong>Resume</strong>.......................................<br />
109<br />
Date of birth........................................................................<br />
109<br />
Gender................................................................................<br />
109<br />
Marital status and children..................................................<br />
110<br />
Nationality...........................................................................<br />
110<br />
Health issues......................................................................<br />
110<br />
Religious or political convictions.........................................<br />
110<br />
Why you are leaving your current job.................................<br />
111<br />
Current salary.....................................................................<br />
111<br />
Failures...............................................................................<br />
111<br />
Humour...............................................................................<br />
112
…over to you..........................................................................<br />
112<br />
Additional tips........................................................................<br />
113<br />
Don’t tell lies...........................................................................<br />
113<br />
Using <strong>CV</strong> / <strong>Resume</strong> templates...............................................<br />
114<br />
<strong>Your</strong> online identity.................................................................<br />
114<br />
<strong>Your</strong> own website...................................................................<br />
115<br />
Applying via the internet.........................................................<br />
116<br />
Keyword scanning...............................................................<br />
117<br />
Do you dare to be different? ................................................... 117<br />
When NOT to use a <strong>CV</strong> or resume........................................<br />
118<br />
Need more help? ................................................................... 119<br />
<strong>CV</strong> & resume writing agencies...............................................<br />
119<br />
<strong>Career</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> <strong>Coaching</strong>............................................................<br />
119<br />
<strong>Career</strong> MOT............................................................................<br />
120<br />
<strong>Your</strong> <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Toolkit .................................................... 121<br />
Job Analysis Worksheet.........................................................<br />
122<br />
Skills Assessment...................................................................<br />
125<br />
Skills Prompt List......................................................................<br />
127<br />
Evidence Record...................................................................<br />
130<br />
Referees Record.....................................................................<br />
131<br />
Action Words Prompt List.......................................................<br />
132<br />
Sample <strong>CV</strong>s and <strong>Resume</strong>s....................................................<br />
134<br />
Recommended Resources..................................................<br />
136<br />
Websites.................................................................................<br />
136<br />
Books......................................................................................<br />
137<br />
Additional Notes....................................................................<br />
138<br />
Additional Notes....................................................................<br />
139<br />
Additional Notes....................................................................<br />
140<br />
About the author, Cherry Douglas.......................................<br />
141<br />
Cherry Douglas.......................................................................<br />
141<br />
Feedback and comments.......................................................<br />
142
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
Introduction<br />
Welcome to The <strong>CV</strong> and <strong>Resume</strong> <strong>Workbook</strong> – <strong>Your</strong> 12<br />
Step Action Guide to Creating Winning Job<br />
Applications.<br />
You have just taken a great step forwards towards<br />
ensuring that you have a winning <strong>CV</strong> or resume that<br />
will present you positively, impress recruiters and help<br />
you get the outcome you want in your job search.<br />
As a career coach, I have worked for many years<br />
with clients, helping them to improve their<br />
applications and I have also sat on the recruiter’s side<br />
of the desk too, making short listing and selection<br />
decisions on the basis of <strong>CV</strong>s and resumes sent in by<br />
hopeful applicants. This means I am in very familiar<br />
territory here and I am delighted to share my<br />
knowledge and experience with you in this workbook.<br />
What you get in this workbook<br />
• A 12 Step Action Guide to help you to put your <strong>CV</strong><br />
or resume together, taking you through all the<br />
essential preparation, guiding you as you assemble<br />
all the important and relevant information to<br />
support your case and finally helping you to make<br />
decisions about how to present your <strong>CV</strong> or resume<br />
for maximum impact<br />
• A Check List of Common <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Errors for<br />
you to avoid<br />
• Job Analysis Worksheet which helps you tease out<br />
the skills you have developed through your work<br />
and beyond<br />
• An Action Words Prompt List to help you ensure<br />
that the content of your <strong>CV</strong> presents you as<br />
positively as possible<br />
• A Skills Prompt List to refer to if you need some<br />
ideas when doing the skills exercise.<br />
11
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
• An Evidence Record so you can be sure that you<br />
can prove you have the skills and abilities you are<br />
claiming.<br />
• A Referees Record to help you keep track of the<br />
people who are willing to provide references for<br />
you.<br />
• A <strong>CV</strong> and <strong>Resume</strong> Checklist to use once you have<br />
drafted your resume to make sure you have got it<br />
right<br />
• A list of Recommended Resources so you can do<br />
further reading and research if you so wish<br />
• Additional Notes sheets so you can capture<br />
everything you identify about you that could<br />
contribute to the success of your job application<br />
• And many, many more tips and hints to help you<br />
get it right!<br />
How to use this workbook<br />
As the title suggests, this is designed as a practical<br />
workbook, something you engage with actively as<br />
you go through it. It is certainly not intended to be<br />
read through at one sitting. I recommend that you<br />
approach it as an active learning project.<br />
Take a quick look through the whole book, to see<br />
what I have included, but then work through the 12<br />
Steps slowly, one at a time. You will probably find it<br />
easier if you print out each step as you are ready to<br />
work on it and you may well want or need to spend a<br />
day or two on each one. Each step offers you<br />
exercises to do and suggests research for you to carry<br />
out.<br />
The more time and effort you put into these exercises,<br />
the more you will get from the whole workbook. If<br />
you were hoping for a quick fix here, think again. It<br />
takes time and effort to craft a winning <strong>CV</strong>, but that is<br />
time that will be well repaid in the results you get.<br />
12
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
As you read through the <strong>Workbook</strong>, you will find<br />
boxes like this…<br />
Take some time to think about ….<br />
…over to you<br />
These are invitations for you to do some thinking or<br />
research. In some cases I suggest that you fill in the<br />
empty boxes with your thoughts. In others, there is an<br />
exercise for you to complete and you may need to<br />
collect information separately. I’ll prompt you each<br />
time with questions or some instructions.<br />
• At the end of the workbook, you will find a <strong>CV</strong> &<br />
<strong>Resume</strong> Toolkit. This is a collection of additional<br />
materials you can use as you work through the 12<br />
Steps. I will refer you to items in the Toolkit from<br />
time to time or you can just dip in whenever you<br />
need to.<br />
If you find you need more space to record your<br />
thinking, don’t worry. I have intentionally left a<br />
number of Additional Notes pages at the end of the<br />
workbook, so you can let your thoughts ‘overflow’<br />
into this extra space if necessary.<br />
As you go through the 12 Step Action Guide in this<br />
workbook, you will gradually be assembling all the<br />
information you need to create an impressive <strong>CV</strong> or<br />
resume. Once you have completed all 12 Steps, your<br />
work will be mostly done – all you need to do is to<br />
send it off.<br />
One way and another, you now have in your hands a<br />
pretty comprehensive package to ensure your future<br />
applications really hit the spot!<br />
13
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
<strong>CV</strong> or <strong>Resume</strong>?<br />
You will find that I have used the words <strong>CV</strong> and<br />
resume interchangeably in this workbook. This is<br />
intentional.<br />
The term <strong>CV</strong> is commonly used in the UK while resume<br />
is more typical in the USA. Some argue that there are<br />
significant differences between the two, but I am<br />
inclined to say that these differences are often<br />
exaggerated. The main difference is in length – a<br />
resume is usually a single side, while a <strong>CV</strong> is more<br />
often two pages, occasionally more. This naturally<br />
has implications for what information can be included<br />
in a shorter or longer format and for the style of its<br />
presentation.<br />
However, all the planning and preparation I discuss in<br />
this workbook is equally relevant to both, so please<br />
assume it applies to both <strong>CV</strong>s and resumes unless I<br />
specifically say otherwise.<br />
One <strong>CV</strong> at a time<br />
Although this workbook is full of tips and advice that<br />
apply to any and every <strong>CV</strong>, it is a good idea, when<br />
doing the exercises, to have a<br />
particular <strong>CV</strong> in mind. Think about a specific job<br />
opportunity you are planning to apply for or an event<br />
you will be attending where you may want to give<br />
out your <strong>CV</strong>. This will help focus your thinking.<br />
If you think you can get away with producing just one<br />
resume that will do for every purpose, think again!<br />
This is one of the commonest errors people make with<br />
job applications. Producing successful job<br />
applications is a case where one size most definitely<br />
does not fit all!<br />
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<strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Master File<br />
As you go through this workbook, you will be<br />
collecting a lot of information which will form the basis<br />
of your resume. I strongly recommend that you keep<br />
it all safely in a folder or in a <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Master File<br />
on your computer where you can retrieve it any time<br />
you need to make a job application or write or<br />
update your resume. You will be glad you made the<br />
initial effort needed to set it up as it will make life a lot<br />
easier in the future.<br />
You never send out the information in this <strong>CV</strong> &<br />
<strong>Resume</strong> Master File as it stands - it is simply a record of<br />
everything that you might need to include in a<br />
resume. You can then refer back to it again and<br />
again and it saves you scratching your head,<br />
wondering which year you actually got your<br />
professional qualification or when you started that<br />
voluntary work with the local football team.<br />
But remember to make sure that it is a dynamic file.<br />
The old days of a job for life are long gone. Add to<br />
your <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Master File every time you take a<br />
course, gain a new qualification or develop a new<br />
skill – and of course every time you change jobs. This<br />
means you will have an accurate and up-to-date<br />
record of what you have to offer whenever you might<br />
need it. It could be useful for appraisals as well as for<br />
job applications. We often undervalue the skills and<br />
experience we gather over the years, so you will also<br />
find it a great confidence booster to regularly review<br />
and update the record.<br />
Ready to get started?<br />
OK, that’s enough in the way of introductions and<br />
explanations. Time to turn the page and get started.<br />
But before we begin with your new <strong>CV</strong>, let’s just take<br />
a look at what you have done in the past.<br />
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How does your <strong>CV</strong> shape up?<br />
Before you begin, why not take a look at your current<br />
<strong>CV</strong> or resume and see how it fares alongside my Top<br />
20 <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Mistakes below?<br />
I must have seen hundreds of <strong>CV</strong>s over the years,<br />
either as a recruiter, when I have been trying to<br />
shortlist promising candidates, or as a professional<br />
career coach, helping people improve the <strong>CV</strong>s they<br />
have created that are not performing as they had<br />
hoped.<br />
Unfortunately, this means I have seen the same<br />
mistakes over and over again. Certainly, when I have<br />
been short listing, I have often wished I could just<br />
have half an hour with some of the applicants. I<br />
know I could have transformed their resumes!<br />
I imagine you may have a <strong>CV</strong> or resume somewhere<br />
in a file or on your computer. So before we begin the<br />
12 Step Action Guide, let’s just take a look and see<br />
how it fares against some of the classic <strong>CV</strong> mistakes.<br />
Take a look at the list below and check off any of the<br />
traps your current <strong>CV</strong> or resume has fallen into. And in<br />
case you are wondering, yes, I have seen these all<br />
before!<br />
The top 20 <strong>CV</strong> & resume mistakes<br />
1. Just sending off photocopies of the same tired<br />
old resume every time<br />
2. Devoting too much space to irrelevant or very<br />
generalised content<br />
3. Trying to make your <strong>CV</strong> look pretty with<br />
excessive use of colours or fancy fonts<br />
4. Failing to use page one of the resume to<br />
capture the interest of the reader<br />
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5. Failing to check for basic spelling and<br />
grammatical errors<br />
6. Using a <strong>CV</strong> when an application form has been<br />
requested<br />
7. Failing to focus on relevant skills, experience and<br />
achievements<br />
8. Not providing evidence for the skills listed<br />
9. It’s just boring – has nothing distinctive, has no<br />
impact<br />
10. Telling lies<br />
11. Overselling skills and/or experience<br />
12. Failing to show relevance to the person who will<br />
be reading it<br />
13. Using flowery or pretentious language<br />
14. Presenting a jumbled and incoherent picture of<br />
the applicant<br />
15. Using too many stock phrases eg ‘I am a strong<br />
team player’<br />
16. Leaving unexplained gaps in your work history so<br />
the employer assumes the worst<br />
17. Including lots of very old information eg school<br />
qualifications from 25 years ago<br />
18. Cramming in too much content<br />
19. Using abbreviations or acronyms<br />
20. Omitting basic contact information<br />
How did you do? This is not a quiz where a high score<br />
is a good thing! Hopefully you will not have checked<br />
too many of the items on the list, but I imagine there<br />
will be at least a few!<br />
But don’t worry, this <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> <strong>Workbook</strong> is<br />
designed specifically to help you avoid the classic <strong>CV</strong><br />
clangers and to make sure that from now you, any<br />
<strong>CV</strong> you send out will do the job it is designed to do.<br />
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==================================<br />
In the next section, I will introduce you to the 12 Step<br />
Action Guide I have designed to help you put<br />
together your own winning <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
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<strong>CV</strong>s and <strong>Resume</strong>s - <strong>Your</strong> 12 Step Action Guide<br />
I can almost see you now. Fingers poised over the<br />
keyboard, fresh blank document on the screen, this<br />
ebook alongside, waiting to get started on your<br />
brilliant new resume.<br />
Now before you get carried away, I’d like you to<br />
close up the document, put away all your old versions<br />
of resumes, and even switch the computer off for the<br />
time being.<br />
Before you begin to write, just stop and think. This is<br />
probably the most important piece of advice in the<br />
whole work book!<br />
Most resumes fail in what the writer hopes they will<br />
achieve because they have been assembled in a<br />
hurry with no real care, attention and forethought. A<br />
good resume takes time and that is why I have<br />
created this 12 Step Action Guide to lead you through<br />
the process in small, achievable steps.<br />
Take your time over each one. Fill in the ‘…over to<br />
you’ boxes and do the exercises they suggest.<br />
Scribble notes in the margins and on the Additional<br />
Notes Sheets at the end. Refer to the worksheets in<br />
the <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Toolkit and use them as further<br />
prompts to your thinking.<br />
You will find that some steps will take longer than<br />
others – that’s OK. However, I do recommend that<br />
you do the steps in sequence as one builds on<br />
another, so don’t be tempted to just jump in<br />
anywhere.<br />
But remember that <strong>CV</strong> and resume writing is more of<br />
an art than a science. Following the 12 Steps I have<br />
laid out for you in this workbook will guide you safely<br />
along the right path, but at the end of the day, the<br />
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<strong>CV</strong> has to be a unique reflection of who you are. The<br />
12 Step formula will help you assemble all the right<br />
bits, but you have to breathe life into the final<br />
product.<br />
So, on to Step 1…<br />
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Step 1 – What is the point?<br />
Many a <strong>CV</strong> or resume goes wrong right from the<br />
outset because the writer does not stop to think<br />
about the object of the exercise.<br />
‘What do you mean?’ I hear you ask.<br />
OK, so what do you think a <strong>CV</strong> is for? I have asked<br />
this question of many clients and the answer is quite<br />
often something along these lines.<br />
‘Well, it’s to tell them all about me, isn’t it? Give them<br />
all the details of education, the work I have done,<br />
what I do in my spare time and so on, so they can<br />
decide if they like me’<br />
Actually, no it isn’t.<br />
This is a common misconception with <strong>CV</strong>s. Many<br />
people take the term Curriculum Vitae too literally<br />
and turn the <strong>CV</strong> into a ‘story of their life’. Yes, it<br />
should contain information about you, but you need<br />
to think more about the needs and wants of both<br />
players in this game. You and the recruiter. What do<br />
you want to get out of your resume?<br />
‘Well, to get a job, of course!’<br />
Hmmm, yes, eventually. But there are a number of<br />
steps and stages you need to get through in order to<br />
reach that point.<br />
<strong>Your</strong> focus should be primarily on getting to the next<br />
step, which is usually to have a face-to-face meeting<br />
with someone who may be able to offer you a job or<br />
help you along your way to a new career.<br />
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The role of your <strong>CV</strong> or resume is to persuade a<br />
decision maker to take you on to the next stage,<br />
whatever it may be. To do this, it has to<br />
communicate effectively and represent you at your<br />
best in a way that demonstrates that you can meet<br />
their needs.<br />
In short, it is a sales pitch. You are the product and<br />
the recruiter is the buyer.<br />
Now you may not like this marketing idea, relegating<br />
yourself to the level of a commodity being traded,<br />
but this marketing analogy works very well and it will<br />
help you to approach writing a resume in the right<br />
frame of mind.<br />
Think about what marketing a product involves for a<br />
moment.<br />
First of all, you need to know your product in detail so<br />
you can promote it effectively. Secondly you need to<br />
understand the market you are pitching it at so that<br />
you use the right message that will appeal the<br />
potential buyer. Thirdly you need to know what you<br />
want your prospect to do (buy something, sign up for<br />
something, recommend you?).<br />
I hope you can already begin to see how this<br />
comparison works for <strong>CV</strong>s and resumes and that<br />
some careful research is going to be essential if your<br />
resume is to be successful.<br />
So there are three key areas for you to work on:<br />
1. Getting to know your product (ie you)<br />
2. Getting to know your market and your potential<br />
buyer (ie the recruiter)<br />
3. Getting clear about your own objective (what you<br />
want to have happen as a result of your <strong>CV</strong> being<br />
read)<br />
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Know yourself<br />
This is covered in Steps 3 & 4.<br />
Know your market<br />
This is covered in detail in Step 2.<br />
Know what you want<br />
What do you want your <strong>CV</strong> or resume to achieve for<br />
you? This means knowing both the short and longer<br />
term outcomes that you are seeking. Let’s face it, if<br />
you are not clear where you are going with this<br />
resume then how can you expect anyone else to<br />
work it out?<br />
So here’s the crucial question – what are your short<br />
and long term objectives? What do you want your<br />
resume to do for you?<br />
Are you seeking a permanent job, a work experience<br />
placement, an informal interview with someone<br />
about a new career area, a temporary position while<br />
you rethink your career direction? Obviously your<br />
objectives will change over time and your <strong>CV</strong> will<br />
need to adapt accordingly. But what about right<br />
now?<br />
…over to you<br />
Take some time to think about your short and long term<br />
objectives at this point in your career and write them down<br />
below.<br />
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===========================<br />
So now you know what you are trying to achieve, it is<br />
time to consider what your recruiter wants. Find out<br />
more in Step 2.<br />
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Step 2 - Who are you writing for?<br />
So now you are clear about what your own objective,<br />
you need to think about the person who is going to<br />
read your <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
As with any situation when you want to influence<br />
someone else, it is essential that you put yourself into<br />
their shoes. You need to be clear about what they<br />
want so that you can present yourself in a way that,<br />
as far as possible, matches their needs.<br />
So what is the objective of the recruiter? What are<br />
they trying to achieve?<br />
Think of it from their point of view. They have spent<br />
time and effort writing a job description and a person<br />
specification for a vacancy they have in their<br />
organisation. They want someone to fill a very<br />
specific gap, someone whose skills, knowledge and<br />
experience will dovetail well with the staff already in<br />
post.<br />
They are on a shopping trip and they know exactly<br />
what they are looking for,<br />
I am intentionally using sales and marketing language<br />
throughout this workbook, because it is important that<br />
you never forget that this is the essence of what your<br />
resume is all about. You are selling something –<br />
yourself, your skills, knowledge and experience. And<br />
the person you are sending your resume to is the<br />
buyer.<br />
And in the current economic climate, it is definitely a<br />
buyer’s market!<br />
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Time to research the job<br />
If you are applying for a post that has been<br />
advertised, now is the time to get out all the blurb you<br />
have been sent and go through it with a fine toothed<br />
comb.<br />
Job description<br />
This usually describes the role in detail. It gives you an<br />
idea of the key tasks and responsibilities of the job<br />
and shows how you fit into the hierarchy – who you<br />
will report to and who you will manage.<br />
There may be a general introduction to the overall<br />
job purpose, an outline of the main responsibilities<br />
and then a more detailed description of specific<br />
functions and required outputs of the role.<br />
Read through this slowly and carefully and highlight<br />
the key aspects of the job. What is the essence of<br />
what they are looking for? Don’t worry at this stage<br />
about whether you can do it all – you are just trying to<br />
build up a clear picture of their needs, of their ‘ideal<br />
candidate’.<br />
Make an assessment of which parts of the role are<br />
central and which ones are more of a sideline. Look<br />
for the key words that capture what they need. Jot a<br />
summary down in the box below.<br />
…over to you<br />
What are the core elements of this role? What do they want<br />
you to do if appointed?<br />
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Person specification<br />
This is where the recruiter outlines the kind of person<br />
they see as ideally suited to the role. There may be<br />
some overlap with the job description in that you<br />
could find headings such as Qualifications,<br />
Knowledge and Experience, Skills and Personal<br />
Qualities etc.. Sometimes you will be given additional<br />
information such as which aspects are deemed<br />
essential for the role and which ones just desirable.<br />
As a rule, the person specification is a more useful<br />
guide in helping you shape your resume and you will<br />
often find that the interviewer will follow up on key<br />
skills and knowledge identified here.<br />
As you did with the job description, read through the<br />
person specification slowly and carefully, noting what<br />
skills, qualities and experience are regarded as<br />
essential and which are desirable, as this will have a<br />
bearing on how well you match their requirements.<br />
Jot them down below. Highlight any keywords that<br />
succinctly capture what they want.<br />
…over to you<br />
What are the key skills, competencies and qualities required<br />
for this role?<br />
Job advertisement<br />
You may have spotted this vacancy online or in the<br />
vacancy section of a newspaper of professional<br />
journal. Although they are usually pretty short, job<br />
adverts can be a great guide for you as the recruiter<br />
has really had to boil down their needs to the<br />
absolute essentials.<br />
Go through the ad with your highlighter and pick out<br />
the keywords used.<br />
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…over to you<br />
What are the key words used to describe the role and the<br />
person required?<br />
All done?<br />
You may think that this is all the research you need to<br />
do at this stage, but don’t just stop here.<br />
Broaden your research<br />
The company<br />
No job stands on its own. It will fit within the context of<br />
the company or organisation, and this in turn fits into<br />
the wider context of an occupational field and an<br />
industry sector. If you are to really demonstrate that<br />
you are a good fit, then you need to understand<br />
what is going on beyond the boundaries of the post<br />
itself.<br />
What can you find out about the company? You<br />
may have been sent some background information<br />
when you got the job application pack, but search<br />
more widely than this.<br />
At an absolute minimum, visit the company website.<br />
What sort of image are they presenting to the world?<br />
What can you glean about their values? How big are<br />
they (local, national, global?) and are they<br />
expanding or contracting?<br />
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You will probably be able to download the company<br />
Annual Report from their website. This can be<br />
another source of useful information about the<br />
company’s performance and future plans.<br />
Do an internet search on the company name - you<br />
may find that news results crop up which will give you<br />
an idea of any good or bad press they have had<br />
recently.<br />
And it is always worth asking around for some<br />
informal, ‘insider’ information. You may find that one<br />
of your friends or colleagues know someone who<br />
works for this firm. If so, an informal chat over a<br />
coffee or a beer can provide some interesting<br />
insights.<br />
…over to you<br />
What have you been able to find out about the company?<br />
The industry sector<br />
Try the same kind of research on a wider basis,<br />
looking at the sector the company is in. Are they in<br />
finance, in engineering, in health or retail? Each<br />
sector will have its own demands and pressures and<br />
these will influence how the company is performing.<br />
Read the business pages of the newspapers and see<br />
what news stores are coming up for your job sector.<br />
Seek out the relevant professional journals that relate<br />
to this area of work – your local library should be able<br />
to help you track them down – and find out what the<br />
hot stories are.<br />
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…over to you<br />
What is going on in the industry sector you are applying to?<br />
All of this background research might seem a bit<br />
heavy and you may be tempted to skim over it. But<br />
don’t forget the marketing game. The better you<br />
know your market, the easier it will be to present<br />
yourself as knowledgeable and credible and more<br />
importantly, you will be able you to show you match<br />
the recruiters needs – because you know exactly<br />
what those needs are!<br />
===================================<br />
In Step 3 we will turn the spotlight onto the product –<br />
YOU!<br />
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Step 3 - What are you selling? The facts.<br />
If you don’t know what you are selling, how on earth<br />
can you sell it? <strong>Your</strong> next bit of preparation is all<br />
about getting to know know yourself really well.<br />
As ever, keep the marketing analogy in mind. If<br />
thinking of yourself as a product feels uncomfortable<br />
to you, just swallow hard and carry on anyway. You<br />
know you are up against many other applicants in<br />
trying to get an interview and a job, and the only way<br />
to succeed is to do everything you can to ensure that<br />
you have the edge over your competitors.<br />
<strong>Your</strong> task is to promote yourself in your best light and<br />
that means being absolutely clear about everything<br />
you have to offer. If you don’t know, do you really<br />
think your ‘buyer’ is going to spend time trying to work<br />
it out? Why should they do the work? No, you do the<br />
work so that you make it easy for them to like you.<br />
So where to begin?<br />
I have split the ‘product awareness’ section of the 12<br />
Step Action Guide into two stages. The first is<br />
relatively straightforward. You just need to collect the<br />
facts.<br />
Collect the facts first<br />
What I mean here is all the concrete information<br />
about what you have done with the relevant dates<br />
other factual data. This kind of information is always<br />
needed on a <strong>CV</strong> or resume and it is really worthwhile<br />
spending some time now collecting everything<br />
together in one place, so that next time you need it, it<br />
is all to hand.<br />
Recruiters usually take a fairly close look at the dates<br />
on your resume and are quick to spot unexplained<br />
gaps. You need to be sure that you have an<br />
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accurate record of the dates you were involved in<br />
various activities so that you can present a complete<br />
record and not leave a potential employer assuming<br />
the worst because there is an unexplained gap.<br />
When you are assembling all this factual information,<br />
don’t forget to ask friends and family to help jog your<br />
memory if you can’t quite remember what you did or<br />
the dates of various activities or events. They may<br />
even remind you of things you had completely<br />
forgotten that you did!<br />
And as you go along, assemble all this information in<br />
your <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Master File.<br />
Education, exams & qualifications<br />
Start with the part that may go back furthest in time –<br />
your education.<br />
If you have not already done so, now is the time to<br />
review what you gained from your formal education.<br />
Don’t be embarrassed if it wasn’t much. This is not to<br />
be shown to a recruiter as it stands, it is for your own<br />
personal files.<br />
Go through the questions below and make a record<br />
of the answers in your <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Master File.<br />
…over to you<br />
When were you at secondary school – start and end dates?<br />
What did you study at school?<br />
What exams did you take and when.<br />
What formal qualifications did you get? What grades?<br />
What about after school? What further study did you<br />
undertake?<br />
What were the dates of your further study?<br />
What qualifications did you aim for and what did you get?<br />
Have you returned to education to take further basic exams<br />
since your formal schooling finished? If so, when?<br />
What qualifications did you take then?<br />
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You may not need a lot of this detail for your <strong>CV</strong>, but<br />
you never know when you might be asked to fill in a<br />
bit more background.<br />
Certainly if you are asked to complete an application<br />
form rather than submit a resume, you may be faced<br />
with a series of empty boxes<br />
asking you to detail your education and<br />
qualifications, so time spent on this exercise is not<br />
going to be wasted.<br />
Professional training<br />
Now this may overlap somewhat with the details you<br />
have collected under education, but in this case I<br />
mean training that formally qualified you for the<br />
profession or occupational area you are working in.<br />
…over to you<br />
What professional or trade exams have you passed?<br />
When and where did you study?<br />
What additional professional updating have you<br />
undertaken? When?<br />
What CPD (continuing professional development) have you<br />
done and when?<br />
On-the-job training<br />
Many of us are regularly going on short courses at<br />
work, lasting a day or two or maybe less. These don’t<br />
lead to any formal qualification and are not<br />
necessarily part of the professional updating we<br />
might do, but they are still worth recording.<br />
Go back over all the jobs you have done and think of<br />
the courses you went on – the ones you wanted to do<br />
as well as the ones you were just sent on! Look back<br />
through old work diaries or calendars and ask current<br />
and former colleagues.<br />
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Here are a few prompts to get you thinking…<br />
IT courses on specific software, website creation,<br />
customer care, sales, management development,<br />
presentation skills, health and safety, data protection,<br />
equal opportunities, interviewing skills, assertiveness<br />
training, risk assessments etc..<br />
As you can see there will probably be a lot more than<br />
you imagine at first glance. List everything you can<br />
remember – you never know when it might be<br />
relevant.<br />
…over to you<br />
What on-the-job training have you done over the years?<br />
<strong>Your</strong> employment history<br />
This is the other big one. Recruiters will want to know<br />
what you have been doing in the job market. While<br />
they will usually be most interested in what you have<br />
done recently, there may be occasions when a job<br />
you did quite a while back can be mined for useful or<br />
relevant experience.<br />
Break this exercise down into categories, starting with<br />
full–time jobs. You may find it simpler to start with your<br />
current job and work backwards. List them all with<br />
start and end dates, preferably month and year, not<br />
just year. You may need to dig out old contract<br />
letters or job applications to help remind you.<br />
Spreading the net a bit wider, what about part-time<br />
or temporary jobs you have had. Were there<br />
occasions when you were out of work and so just took<br />
a temporary role to fill in? Add them to your list.<br />
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What about while you were a student? What casual<br />
jobs did you do in the evenings and during vacations<br />
to bring in a little cash? And what about workexperience<br />
you may have had as part of a<br />
programme of study. That may not have been paid,<br />
but it was still experience of work, so could be useful.<br />
Now you may be thinking things like ‘oh, that was just<br />
a bit of bar work. That doesn’t count’. Well, you just<br />
don’t know when it might be relevant. Think again.<br />
Bar work could be a good example of coping with<br />
pressure, dealing with the public, cash handling,<br />
working flexibly and so on, and so on. So don’t dismiss<br />
the ‘little’ jobs you have done. Clearly if you are in a<br />
fairly senior role now, their relevance may be pretty<br />
limited – but what if you want to change career?<br />
That can be when this older experience can still be<br />
useful.<br />
And of course include self-employment and<br />
freelance work in this section too. Have you run your<br />
own business? Have you done any<br />
consultancy work where you were paid directly, or<br />
have you worked on a freelance basis?<br />
And lastly, don’t forget periods of unemployment.<br />
Perhaps you would rather forget them, but if you omit<br />
them from your resume you run the risk of having<br />
unexplained gaps which leave the recruiter guessing.<br />
If you make a careful note of any periods when you<br />
were job seeking, you can then plan how they can<br />
be covered on your <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
So get your thinking cap on and start making your list.<br />
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…over to you<br />
What employment have you had over the years?<br />
Full-time?<br />
Part-time?<br />
Voluntary work<br />
Short –term and temporary contracts?<br />
Casual work?<br />
Work experience?<br />
Self-employment and freelance work?<br />
Unemployment?<br />
I have listed voluntary work separately from the<br />
section above, because it can sometimes be seen<br />
more as a leisure interest than work. I am thinking<br />
here of things like you helping out at a local charity<br />
either on a regular basis or just from time to time. You<br />
may have gone into a school to help children with<br />
their reading. Perhaps you coach a kids’ football<br />
team? Maybe you are on a committee at your<br />
Church or community centre? You might be a trustee<br />
on the board of a charity.<br />
This kind of work can often be quite demanding and<br />
require a wide range of skills, or perhaps doing it has<br />
enabled you to develop skills you did not have<br />
before.<br />
Make a note of any voluntary work you have done,<br />
together with the dates.<br />
…over to you<br />
What work have you done on a voluntary basis?<br />
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Interests<br />
Time out<br />
So what else do you do in your spare time? When<br />
you are not working or sleeping, how do you choose<br />
to fill your time?<br />
Many people have a passion for something outside<br />
work that they do purely for love. It could be<br />
gardening, restoring old cars, card crafting, creative<br />
cookery… the list is endless. Some of these may have<br />
involved an evening class – you might even have<br />
gained an extra qualification here. Have you studied<br />
a foreign language or learned how to manipulate<br />
and edit your photographs using Photoshop?<br />
Think back to different periods in your life. Are there<br />
interests that have fallen by the wayside that you<br />
would actually like to take up again?<br />
Make this a really comprehensive list – one that shows<br />
who you are from a different angle from the ‘work<br />
you’.<br />
…over to you<br />
What are your leisure interests? What do you choose to do in<br />
your spare time?<br />
For some people, there can still be gaps in their <strong>CV</strong>,<br />
even when they have thought about all the areas we<br />
have been through already. It is worth listing these as<br />
a reminder for yourself. Just as with periods of<br />
unemployment, you can then decide how best to<br />
account for this time on your <strong>CV</strong>, rather than just<br />
leaving gaps.<br />
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So what kind of thing do I mean? It could be<br />
situations such as:<br />
• Time off for health reasons<br />
• Raising your family<br />
• Caring for sick relatives<br />
• Time out to travel<br />
• Taking a career break<br />
Make your own list, if any of these apply to you.<br />
…over to you<br />
Have you had ‘time out’ at any stage? What were the<br />
reasons? How can you present these positively?<br />
Now you’ve got the facts in detail, make sure they<br />
are all recorded carefully in your <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Master<br />
File. You don’t want to have to go back over this<br />
ground next time you are preparing a resume, so<br />
keep all this information safe.<br />
So you’ve got a picture of the basic facts of your life<br />
and career to date, but does this really represent<br />
you? What about your hidden assets, the less<br />
tangible stuff that makes you who you are? These are<br />
the real gems in your product offer and they lie at the<br />
heart of your marketing campaign.<br />
===========================<br />
<strong>Your</strong> hidden assets are what we will look at in Step 4.<br />
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Step 4 - What are you selling? <strong>Your</strong> hidden assets.<br />
Just as we collected the hard facts about your offer in<br />
Step 3, now you need to focus in on your ‘soft skills’,<br />
on all the intangible things that make you the kind of<br />
person you are. They can sometimes be a bit difficult<br />
to pin down, but in many cases, it is these more<br />
hidden assets that will make or break the success of<br />
your application.<br />
As in Step 3, we are aiming here to collect as much<br />
information as possible. You may not need to use<br />
everything that you unpack here in your <strong>CV</strong>, but it will<br />
help you have a much stronger sense of who you are<br />
and what you can offer, so you can approach any<br />
stage of the job application process with more<br />
confidence.<br />
What is important here is that you focus on the<br />
specifics of what you can do now. Employers are not<br />
so interested in your potential or your willingness to<br />
develop. They want to know that if they recruit you,<br />
you can do what is required without them having to<br />
spend lots of time and money on training and<br />
developing you.<br />
The key areas you need to explore are your skills, your<br />
strengths, your achievements and your personal<br />
qualities.<br />
<strong>Your</strong> key skills<br />
<strong>Your</strong> skill set forms the core of your sales package.<br />
Most recruiters are concerned first of all with what you<br />
can do. After all, they will employ you to do things for<br />
them, so they want to know if you are up to the job.<br />
<strong>Your</strong> work skills<br />
Start by reviewing your experience of work. Analyse<br />
all your jobs, full time, part time, temporary roles and<br />
voluntary work. Take time to really think through what<br />
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you did, what your contribution was, what particular<br />
projects you got involved with, what your key<br />
successes were, what you learned, what you were<br />
appreciated for.<br />
To help you to do this, I have created a Job Analysis<br />
Worksheet which you will find in the Toolkit at the end<br />
of this workbook. I suggest you photocopy this and<br />
use it for each job you have had – or at very least for<br />
the most recent and relevant ones.<br />
Once you have looked at each job overall, the next<br />
step is to drill down to the skills you have by<br />
unpacking all the different tasks your job has involved.<br />
<strong>Your</strong> role may have included things such as<br />
researching and writing reports, negotiating with<br />
customers, compiling data, managing staff, using<br />
specialist equipment and so on. What skills did each<br />
of those activities require? The Skills Assessment in<br />
the Job Analysis Worksheet gives you the space to<br />
record these details. And if you are finding it difficult<br />
to identify skills, use the Skills Prompt List (also in the<br />
Toolkit) to help you.<br />
When you are doing this exercise, don’t disregard<br />
jobs you think are unimportant. You might think ‘oh, I<br />
was only a waiter’ but in fact you learn a lot in a job<br />
like that which you can transfer to other kinds of<br />
employment (such as coping with pressure, dealing<br />
with the public, juggling tasks, memorising<br />
information, working at speed, handling cash etc.).<br />
Once you have reviewed all your jobs in this way,<br />
make a note of the key skills you have to offer in the<br />
box below.<br />
…over to you<br />
What are the key skills you have developed through your<br />
work?<br />
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Skills outside work<br />
Don’t just review your work. Skills are developed in all<br />
kinds of situations, so take a look at what you do<br />
outside of work too.<br />
You may be involved in a local community group,<br />
you could be a volunteer coach at your child’s sports<br />
club, or perhaps you are just known amongst your<br />
friends for organising great parties! All of these<br />
involve skills, so unpack these other areas of your life<br />
too so that you can be really sure you have built up a<br />
complete picture of all your skills.<br />
The skills gained outside work can be particularly<br />
helpful if you are considering a career change and<br />
want to show that you have a different skill set from<br />
the one implied by your work history.<br />
Use the Skills Assessment in the Toolkit to break down<br />
activities and skills for this part of your life too and list<br />
them in the box below. They may overlap with work<br />
or may possibly show up some interesting differences.<br />
And don’t forget the skills you have gained from your<br />
time in education! These are often overlooked as we<br />
focus on the actual qualifications we were studying<br />
for. But on the way to collecting those qualifications,<br />
you will have had to develop transferrable skills such<br />
as time management, team work, research skills,<br />
written and verbal communication and much more.<br />
Often this was the first time you had to develop skills<br />
independently without parents or teachers guiding<br />
you, so do not underrate them.<br />
…over to you<br />
What are the key skills you have developed outside of work?<br />
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<strong>Your</strong> strengths<br />
What is the difference between skills and strengths?<br />
The boundaries are easily blurred, but basically skills<br />
are things you can do that you have learned, while<br />
strengths reflect your underlying, inborn talents. If you<br />
have a particular strength, you will find it easy to<br />
develop related skills. If you do not have a particular<br />
strength, you will still be able to develop a certain<br />
degree of related skill, but it will not come so naturally<br />
to you. If you work to your strengths, you will be able<br />
to perform consistently at a high level and will find<br />
that work satisfying and rewarding – so it makes sense<br />
to be clear what your strengths are!<br />
There are two ways I recommend you try to assess<br />
your underlying strengths.<br />
The first is Tom Rath’s book Strengths Finder 2.0 and<br />
the associated online assessment at<br />
http://www.strengthsfinder.com. When you buy the<br />
book, you get a unique code which gives you access<br />
to the online assessment.<br />
This book and assessment offers you the most up to<br />
date version of the Gallup designed strengths<br />
assessment. It helps you identify your top 5 strengths<br />
from a list of 34 which include themes such as<br />
Activator, Connectedness, Developer, Strategic and<br />
Learner. It also gives you examples of how these play<br />
out in real people and gives you advice on how to<br />
apply your strengths.<br />
The second recommendation is the VIA Survey of<br />
Character Strengths which you can access from the<br />
Authentic Happiness pages of Dr Martin Seligman at<br />
the University of Pennsylvania.<br />
http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/defa<br />
ult.aspx<br />
You need to register with the site to take the survey<br />
which reveals your top 5 strengths from a list of 24<br />
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including themes such as Curiosity & interest in the<br />
world, Social intelligence, Judgement, critical thinking<br />
and open-mindedness and Leadership. Seligman's<br />
book Authentic Happiness explains more about what<br />
he calls your ‘signature strengths’. He explains what<br />
they are and recommends how you incorporate<br />
them into all aspects of your work and life.<br />
Take a look at one or both of these and make a note<br />
of your key strengths in the box below.<br />
…over to you<br />
What are the top strengths you have identified?<br />
…and your weaknesses?<br />
We all worry about weaknesses and feel we should<br />
spend time working on them and developing them so<br />
that they can be eliminated. This is usually an<br />
impossible task. I don’t mean that to sound negative<br />
– it is more about acknowledging that no one is<br />
perfect. We all have areas of strength where we flow<br />
naturally and other areas where we will always<br />
struggle. It is generally more productive to work with<br />
your strengths than to spend a lot of time and effort<br />
trying to improve on your weaknesses.<br />
With any job application, your task is to focus on the<br />
positive things you have to offer. There is no place for<br />
your weaknesses on a <strong>CV</strong> or resume.<br />
Having said that, it is still useful to quietly<br />
acknowledge them to yourself, just so that you can<br />
keep them in mind when assessing how appropriate a<br />
job might be for you.<br />
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For example, you may hate figure work and feel that<br />
maths is a real weakness for you. Now many jobs<br />
may involve a little bit of figure work – pulling together<br />
the sales statistics at the end of the month, for<br />
example. You are probably quite capable of<br />
developing the basic level of skill that will enable you<br />
to do this task each month. But you know that you<br />
would never want to do a job that requires regular or<br />
detailed numerical analysis.<br />
Make a note below of any weaknesses which you do<br />
not want to find as major elements in any job you<br />
apply for.<br />
…over to you<br />
What are the weaknesses you want to avoid having to use in<br />
a job?<br />
<strong>Your</strong> achievements<br />
Achievements can be a great selling point on a<br />
resume. All employers want staff who can deliver<br />
positive outcomes. Focus on specifics here.<br />
Where have you succeeded in reducing or<br />
eliminating problems, improving systems, saving<br />
money or time? And wherever possible, quantify<br />
what you have achieved. ‘Increased sales by 25%’<br />
has more impact than ‘sales improved’.<br />
What are the achievements that you are proud of?<br />
Start with work. If you have used the Job Analysis<br />
Worksheet you will already have noted some work<br />
based achievements. But be sure to spread your<br />
thinking more widely to all of your life. As with skills,<br />
things you have achieved in your own time can still<br />
be very relevant and they can say a lot about the<br />
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kind of person you are. Once you have identified<br />
some important moments that you look back on with<br />
pride, ask yourself the following questions:<br />
• When and where did this achievement<br />
happen? What were the circumstances?<br />
• What did I do to make it happen?<br />
• What specific strengths and skills do I have<br />
that made it possible?<br />
• What does it say about the kind of person I<br />
am?<br />
We all tend to be a bit bashful about listing<br />
achievements, so a good tip to help you push past<br />
the pain barrier here is to generate a list of at least 30<br />
different ideas. It might seem impossible at first, but it<br />
is a great way of really tapping in to all the things you<br />
may have disregarded as unimportant.<br />
And if you find it difficult to identify achievements on<br />
your own, ask a few trusted friends or colleagues<br />
what they think your achievements are. It can be<br />
very revealing to see what other people admire in<br />
you. There may be things that you have done that<br />
you take for granted while others are impressed with<br />
your abilities. Maybe you need to give yourself more<br />
credit?<br />
Make a note of what you come up with in the box<br />
below.<br />
…over to you<br />
What achievements can you identify at home and at work?<br />
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<strong>Your</strong> personal qualities<br />
What kind of person are you? What is your general<br />
attitude to life? These are important factors to be<br />
aware of because they play a key part in your<br />
impact on those around you. You may want to<br />
mention a few of these in your resume or <strong>CV</strong> though<br />
you are unlikely to create a specific section for them.<br />
The list below gives you a few ideas to get you<br />
started. Take a look and check any that seem true<br />
for you.<br />
Adaptable<br />
Analytical<br />
Articulate<br />
Compassionate<br />
Confident<br />
Courageous<br />
Dynamic<br />
Enthusiastic<br />
Forthright<br />
Friendly<br />
Generous<br />
Grateful<br />
Honest<br />
Humorous<br />
Kind<br />
Level-headed<br />
Loyal<br />
Modest<br />
Optimistic<br />
Patient<br />
Perceptive<br />
Persistent<br />
Reliable<br />
Resilient<br />
Resourceful<br />
Self disciplined<br />
Sensible<br />
Thorough<br />
Tolerant<br />
Trustworthy<br />
There are many more – what else can you think of?<br />
As before, why not ask a few friends what they would<br />
say are the top personal qualities you display. Write<br />
down your conclusions in the box below.<br />
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What are your personal qualities?<br />
…over to you<br />
If you are interested in your personality and would like<br />
to explore this further, I recommend the Myers Briggs<br />
Type Indicator (MBTI) as one of the best personality<br />
assessment tools around.<br />
If you’d like to get a flavour of it, take a look at the<br />
short personality quiz on my website which gives you<br />
an idea of how it works. If you’d like to know more,<br />
you might like to take a look at my ebook, Know <strong>Your</strong><br />
Personality, Know <strong>Your</strong> <strong>Career</strong>, or you can contact<br />
me to take a full MBTI Personality Assessment.<br />
Where’s the evidence?<br />
The exercises above will have given you the chance<br />
to assess in some detail what you have to offer in<br />
terms of the intangible ‘soft skills’ and this is all very<br />
marketable material. However, there is one further<br />
addition, relevant to all the sections above, which<br />
can make all the difference between the success<br />
and failure of your <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
What is the evidence? Let’s face it, anyone can write<br />
a list of skills, strengths, achievements and qualities,<br />
but a recruiter’s reaction to a bare list is likely to be -<br />
‘So what? Prove it!’<br />
Evidence is crucial if you are going to be credible, so<br />
once you have identified the skills etc which you want<br />
to highlight on your resume, make sure you that for<br />
each, you come up with an example, a situation,<br />
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where you can show that you have put this skill or<br />
quality into<br />
practice and achieved a positive outcome. The<br />
same applies with achievements in that you need to<br />
be specific about the circumstances of the<br />
achievement. You will have done this already if you<br />
answered the questions suggested under the<br />
Achievements section above.<br />
You will find an Evidence Summary in the Toolkit<br />
which you can use to record the evidence you can<br />
use for each skill, strength etc. Fill this in as you go<br />
along and refer back to it as you assemble your<br />
resume.<br />
You may find it helpful to plan how you present your<br />
evidence by using the START acronym. It goes like<br />
this:<br />
S – set the scene – what were the circumstances<br />
T – describe the task – what specifically were you<br />
asked to deliver<br />
A - what action did you take and what<br />
skills/strengths/qualities were you using? You could<br />
mention challenges or difficulties overcome too.<br />
R – what was the result of your efforts? Be specific<br />
here – increased sales by x%, reduced costs or<br />
complaints, amount of money raised, projects<br />
completed within budgets and time limits.<br />
T – what did your experience in this situation or project<br />
teach you? What might you do differently next time?<br />
Make sure when you plan what evidence you will use<br />
that you focus on what you did, rather than what the<br />
whole team you were working with delivered.<br />
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What is your ‘brand’?<br />
It is worth mentioning the concept of ‘personal<br />
branding’ here. This is more difficult to pin down than<br />
skills, strengths and achievements, but it can still play<br />
an important part in how you present yourself and<br />
how you are perceived by others. At some level, it is<br />
part of what you are selling when you apply for jobs.<br />
We are all familiar with the concept of branding for<br />
products such as Coca Cola, Nike or BMW. It applies<br />
to people too – think of the brand that is Madonna or<br />
David Beckham. But it is relevant to ordinary people<br />
like you and me too.<br />
So what do we mean by this idea of a personal<br />
brand?<br />
It is something about the essence of you that stays in<br />
other people’s minds. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon<br />
described it as ‘what people say about you when<br />
you are not in the room’. It is made up of how you<br />
look, what you do, what you have a reputation for.<br />
As it grows, your brand begins to set expectations of<br />
you before people even meet you.<br />
<strong>Your</strong> brand doesn’t appear overnight – it is something<br />
you will work on over months and years both<br />
consciously and unconsciously. Some of it will evolve<br />
naturally, some of it you can intentionally develop.<br />
However, for a brand to be really powerful, it needs<br />
to be authentic. In other words, you can’t make<br />
yourself into something you are not.<br />
How to define your brand<br />
Here’s one way of approaching it. Try asking yourself<br />
the following questions:<br />
• What words describe you best and sum up<br />
who you are?<br />
• What would your strap line be?<br />
• What do you want to be known for?<br />
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• What do you want people to say about you<br />
and your work when you are not in the<br />
room?<br />
You might find it helps to start by writing down as<br />
many words as you can that feel like you. Then you<br />
can sift through and refine them down to the three<br />
that are the closest representation.<br />
Here are a few to get you thinking…<br />
Solid, creative, reliable, sociable, challenging,<br />
dependable results-orientated, fun, focused, quick<br />
witted, driven, imaginative, people person, quirky,<br />
dynamic, good with detail, supportive…<br />
You choose. Which words capture what you<br />
represent?<br />
Then think about the job, the occupation, the sector<br />
you are applying for with the <strong>CV</strong> or resume you are<br />
now writing. How does this brand fit with your<br />
potential employer? Is there a good match?<br />
Obviously you want there to be a comfortable fit<br />
between your brand and the company. It doesn’t<br />
make sense to try and be something you<br />
are not, so don’t try and shoe-horn yourself into a job<br />
which you know will be a bad fit. If you feel your<br />
brand is ‘imaginative, creative and fun’ you might not<br />
fit in too well with a firm of corporate lawyers!<br />
Brands are not set in tablets of stone – they can and<br />
should evolve organically over time. You would be<br />
unlikely to represent yourself at 50 in the same way as<br />
you presented yourself at 25!<br />
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Sum up your brand here…<br />
…over to you<br />
Once you have been through all the sections in Step<br />
4, add everything you have identified about your<br />
hidden assets to your <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Master File on<br />
your computer. It is a good idea to keep copies of<br />
your various worksheets too. <strong>Your</strong> Job Analysis<br />
Worksheets and your Evidence Summaries in<br />
particular are always useful to refer back to.<br />
Together with the factual information you have<br />
collected in Step 3, you now have a pretty<br />
comprehensive picture of who you are and what you<br />
have to offer, ready for you to refer back to every<br />
time you want to put a <strong>CV</strong> together.<br />
===========================<br />
You should now have a 360 o view of what both sides<br />
want in this job application process – both you and<br />
the employer. In Step 5, we look for the match<br />
between the two.<br />
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Step 5 – Where’s the match?<br />
You are making great progress!<br />
You should now have a clear picture of what the<br />
recruiter is looking for and also of what you have to<br />
offer – both concrete qualifications and experience<br />
and your less tangible but critically important assets<br />
like skills and personal qualities. With this careful<br />
research under your belt, you are now in a much<br />
better position to turn your resume into a targeted<br />
sales pitch.<br />
Always remember that writing a successful <strong>CV</strong> or<br />
resume is a marketing exercise. So your task now is to<br />
identify the overlap between what you have and<br />
what they want.<br />
Overleaf you will find a chart for you to summarise<br />
what you have learned so far. Review your research<br />
and list the key points in the two columns below. At<br />
the same time, go over any job analysis sheets and<br />
task / skills reviews you have completed as an<br />
additional reminder of what you can offer.<br />
As you are writing, look out for the match between<br />
your skills and experience and the needs of the<br />
employer. Once you have completed both columns,<br />
you should be able to see where the overlaps lie.<br />
Highlight the key points on their ‘wish list’ and identify<br />
the parts of your offer that show you meet them.<br />
You may match their needs in many ways, in which<br />
case you will need to decide what areas you will<br />
promote most strongly, which ones will be most<br />
relevant and will make you stand out from the<br />
competition.<br />
You may be tempted to focus on the areas you feel<br />
are your greatest strengths, but always stop and ask<br />
yourself ‘is this relevant to this employer and for this<br />
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job? Will mentioning this add weight to my pitch?’ If<br />
the answer is no, then omit it and focus on other more<br />
relevant aspects of your offer.<br />
In most cases, recruiters will be looking for as good a<br />
match as possible to their needs. Ideally, they do not<br />
want to have to spend time and money training you,<br />
so the more closely you meet their needs the better.<br />
Short listing is often done with a simple checklist or<br />
grid which is<br />
used to mark off whether you meet each of their<br />
desired criteria. Make sure you do everything you<br />
can to draw their attention to how you meet their<br />
needs. Make it easy for them to see the match.<br />
And don’t forget that you will need evidence of the<br />
skills, knowledge and experience you are claiming, so<br />
when choosing what to include, consider how you will<br />
prove to the reader that you have put this skill/quality<br />
to good use in the past.<br />
Generally speaking, aim for at least a 70% match<br />
between what they want and what you can offer. If<br />
the match is lower, but the areas where you have less<br />
to offer are listed as ‘desirable’ rather than ‘essential’<br />
by the recruiter, then it is still worth a try. If you are<br />
missing a number of the key, essential requirements,<br />
think hard about whether you want to apply on this<br />
occasion.<br />
…over to you<br />
What do they want? What can you offer?<br />
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If you need more space to summarise their needs and<br />
your offer, just copy this grid or use the Additional<br />
Notes sheets at the end of this workbook.<br />
===========================<br />
Now you are clear about whether there is a good<br />
enough match between you and the job and you<br />
know exactly how you meet the needs of the<br />
recruiter, you can start thinking about how you will<br />
present this information to best effect. Step 6 starts by<br />
considering the different styles of <strong>CV</strong> you can choose<br />
between.<br />
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Step 6 - Which style of <strong>CV</strong>?<br />
You will find that quite a number of <strong>CV</strong> or resume<br />
styles are recommended in different books and by<br />
different people and this can all get very confusing.<br />
In fact, when you look more closely, they really all boil<br />
down to just 2 types:<br />
1. Chronological<br />
2. Skills based<br />
There are of course a number of variations on these<br />
two basics, which I will mention, but let’s start by<br />
looking at these two main styles in a little more detail<br />
and highlighting the key features of each.<br />
Chronological resume or <strong>CV</strong><br />
This is what most people think of first when they start<br />
to assemble a <strong>CV</strong>. They just present the facts in date<br />
order, tell the story of their life/career, and leave the<br />
reader to work out what is relevant. At its simplest, this<br />
is what a chronological resume is. But as you will<br />
already have gathered, a <strong>CV</strong> should be something<br />
rather more than a simple ‘story of your life’.<br />
Nevertheless, there is still a place for the<br />
chronological <strong>CV</strong>. As the title suggests, this style of<br />
<strong>CV</strong> presents your education and employment<br />
experience in date order so that your reader can<br />
follow how your career has unfolded.<br />
However, to make a chronological <strong>CV</strong> work<br />
effectively for you, the first adjustment you should<br />
make is to reverse the chronology, beginning with<br />
your most recent experience first and tracking<br />
backwards. This is because your most recent<br />
experience is usually at a higher level and in many<br />
cases is likely to be more relevant to where you want<br />
to go next.<br />
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This style of <strong>CV</strong> works well if your career has followed<br />
a steady path and your next career move fits in with<br />
this.<br />
In most cases, it will make sense to put your work<br />
experience first and your education second. Only if<br />
you have very recently finished studying or if the job<br />
you are applying for places great emphasis on<br />
relevant academic qualifications would you put<br />
education first.<br />
What else do you add to a chronological resume?<br />
After you have included the chronology of your work<br />
and education, the rest is up to you. You select what<br />
will help you make a strong case for yourself. Take a<br />
look at Step 7 for the range of possible section<br />
headings you could add to make up your <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
Will this style work for you?<br />
Look at the list below and check whether any of the<br />
points apply to you. If yes, then a chronological<br />
resume could be the one to choose.<br />
• Is your most recent job an important part of your<br />
‘sales pitch’ that gives you a high level of<br />
credibility?<br />
• Does your employment history show a natural and<br />
sustained growth and development in the area<br />
you are now aiming for?<br />
• Does the path your career has taken clearly<br />
indicate the development of a particular skill set?<br />
• Are your previous jobs and the job you are now<br />
seeking in traditional fields (eg accountancy, law,<br />
education)?<br />
• Is your educational background non-traditional<br />
but your employment has followed a clear<br />
pattern?<br />
• Is your educational record a significant part of your<br />
‘match’ for the job?<br />
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…over to you<br />
How well does the chronological style fit the bill for you?<br />
Skills based resume or <strong>CV</strong><br />
As the name suggests, the skills based <strong>CV</strong> style<br />
focuses on the key skills you have to offer. In this<br />
case, the emphasis is on what you can do rather than<br />
simply listing the jobs you have done and leaving the<br />
recruiter to draw conclusions from that.<br />
The first page of the <strong>CV</strong> focuses on a particular list of<br />
skills, linked to the skills the recruiter is looking for and<br />
offering evidence to demonstrate when these skills<br />
have been used effectively.<br />
This style of resume usually makes it much easier for<br />
you to quickly prove to the employer that you have<br />
just what they are looking for. It can be a great way<br />
of really capturing their attention in the first 15<br />
seconds – always a good thing to achieve if you can.<br />
Having emphasised your skills at the outset, the space<br />
devoted to listing your employment history and<br />
education can be trimmed down.<br />
And other headings? As with the chronological <strong>CV</strong>,<br />
that is up to you to choose headings that will add to<br />
your ‘sales pitch’. Take a look at Step 7 for the range<br />
of possible headings you could add to make up your<br />
<strong>CV</strong>.<br />
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Will this style work for you?<br />
Look at the list below and check whether any of the<br />
points apply to you. If yes, then a skills based resume<br />
could be the one to choose.<br />
• Do you particularly want to emphasise skills and<br />
experience which may not show strongly in your<br />
recent jobs?<br />
• Do you want to return to a skill set you used in an<br />
earlier role (ie your career feels like it has gone off<br />
track)?<br />
• Are you aiming to change career or industry<br />
sector?<br />
• Is your work experience a bit of a mixed picture?<br />
• Do you appear to have worked in a fairly narrow<br />
range of functions in the jobs you have done?<br />
• Do you want to break away from an occupational<br />
‘label’ that you have got stuck with?<br />
…over to you<br />
How well does the skills based style fit the bill for you?<br />
So the Chronological <strong>CV</strong> and the Skills based <strong>CV</strong> are<br />
the two main styles for you to consider, but as I said,<br />
there are a number of variations on these themes.<br />
Functional resume or <strong>CV</strong><br />
This kind of resume has much in common with a skills<br />
based model, but in this case, rather than skills, you<br />
highlight the professional functions that you have<br />
experience of. This could include broad functions<br />
such as:<br />
project management sales<br />
budget control staff training<br />
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marketing research and<br />
development<br />
recruitment customer<br />
services<br />
business development quality control<br />
strategic planning contract<br />
management<br />
If you are looking to move up within your current field<br />
of work or move sideways to a different organisation<br />
but want to continue to use the functional expertise<br />
you have developed, this style of resume will help to<br />
showcase the abilities that you can apply in any job.<br />
…over to you<br />
Which professional functions do you want to highlight?<br />
Combination resume or <strong>CV</strong><br />
You won’t be surprised to hear that a combination<br />
resume pulls together aspects of the previous styles.<br />
You can use this style to highlight relevant skills and<br />
experience, but at the same time, a reverse listing of<br />
your employment history shows your consistent<br />
record. This kind of combination can establish you as<br />
an expert in your field both from the relevance of<br />
your employment history and from the particular skill<br />
set you are offering.<br />
It can also work if you have a mixed employment<br />
history as it allows you to highlight relevant skills and<br />
experience and at the same time, play down the<br />
twists and turns your career may have taken. You<br />
can adjust the chronology of your employment<br />
history, for example by presenting ‘Related<br />
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Experience’ and then ‘Other Experience’ to pull the<br />
most important parts of your employment history to<br />
the top.<br />
Will this style work for you?<br />
Look at the list below and check whether any of the<br />
points apply to you. If yes, then a combination<br />
resume could be the one to choose.<br />
• Are your skills and achievements the key ‘selling<br />
points’ in your application?<br />
• Are you making a sideways step that may be a<br />
little unexpected but where your skills are still very<br />
relevant?<br />
• Does your employment history show a fairly logical<br />
progression but with a few ‘blips’?<br />
• Do you have a wide range of relevant skills and<br />
experience that you want to highlight up front on<br />
your <strong>CV</strong>?<br />
• Do you want to play down the differences<br />
between the sector or company you are leaving<br />
and the one you are now hoping to join?<br />
• Does your career history and skill set not really fit<br />
any set pattern?<br />
…over to you<br />
How well does the combination style fit the bill for you?<br />
How to choose?<br />
How to you decide which one to use? Well hopefully<br />
the checklists with each style will have given you an<br />
idea of which one will best fit your circumstances. If<br />
you are very unsure, why not draft out a version in<br />
each style and then ask yourself which one will be<br />
more convincing to the reader.<br />
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Bottom line? Use the one that works best for you<br />
each time you produce a <strong>CV</strong>. This means you should<br />
not be wedded to one style - you might use different<br />
formats for different posts. For example, there may<br />
be occasions when you are applying for a job that<br />
connects closely with your work history and on other<br />
occasions, you may be making a significant shift in<br />
direction. It may be appropriate to change the style<br />
of your <strong>CV</strong> for each.<br />
What matters most is that you use a style that allows<br />
you to get your crucial ‘sales pitch’ onto the first page<br />
of your resume. Busy recruiters typically spend as little<br />
as 30 seconds or so on a <strong>CV</strong> so you have very limited<br />
time to make an impression.<br />
The impact your <strong>CV</strong> has will also depend on the<br />
additional sections you include, so before you finally<br />
decide, take a look at Step 7, which covers the<br />
different sections you can add to a resume.<br />
Many resumes are likely to end up as combinations. It<br />
is essential that you do not use standard <strong>CV</strong> formats<br />
rigidly. They are there to give you a framework, but<br />
the final decider is whether it helps you present<br />
yourself positively. If one model doesn’t work, then<br />
feel free to tweak it.<br />
===========================<br />
Not ready to decide which style of <strong>CV</strong> is right for you?<br />
That’s fine. Let’s move on to Step 7 and look at the<br />
different sections you can add to your <strong>CV</strong>. This will<br />
help you decide which general style will work best for<br />
you.<br />
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Step 7 - <strong>CV</strong> & resume sections<br />
I am often asked what information must be included<br />
in a <strong>CV</strong> or resume. This might seem like a simple<br />
question, but as ever, there is more to it than meets<br />
the eye.<br />
There are a few sections that are pretty well essential<br />
as they cover core information that every potential<br />
employer will need to see. But beyond that, you can<br />
allow yourself quite a lot of flexibility. The whole issue<br />
of sections and headings is more open to<br />
interpretation than you might think.<br />
Adapt, adapt…<br />
Remember that your resume is a marketing tool, so<br />
your job is to adjust and adapt it so that it presents<br />
you in the best possible light. If that means adding,<br />
omitting or changing section headings, then go<br />
ahead and do it! Don’t let your assumptions about<br />
what a resume ‘should’ contain restrict you and<br />
inhibit your from making it promote you in the best<br />
way possible.<br />
For example, you will certainly want to include details<br />
of the various jobs you have done, but you can label<br />
that section in a number of ways. Instead of Work<br />
Experience, you could use Employment, Professional<br />
Experience or <strong>Career</strong> History. You can probably think<br />
of other terms that might be more appropriate for<br />
your own situation. If so, go ahead and use them –<br />
provided they help make the content of your resume<br />
clearer to the reader and don’t just look pretentious<br />
(So don’t use something like Professional Pathway if<br />
you have just had a random selection of jobs in bars<br />
and restaurants!)<br />
Beyond the obvious essentials, there are also a<br />
number of additional sections you might like to<br />
include to complete your <strong>CV</strong>. These are all optional,<br />
though you will of course need to use some of them.<br />
Select the ones that allow you to introduce some<br />
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valuable extra information to your resume that will<br />
add to your case. If a heading doesn’t seem to work<br />
for you, you don’t have to use it. Try something else.<br />
So what is absolutely essential?<br />
Personal details<br />
<strong>Your</strong> name. Make this the heading of your resume.<br />
This document is all about you, so it is entirely<br />
appropriate that your name features in large letters at<br />
the top of page one. Don’t be bashful. Use the<br />
name you are normally called, eg if your name is<br />
Margaret Josephine Keeler, but everyone calls you<br />
Jo, put Jo Keeler at the top of your <strong>CV</strong>, not your full<br />
name.<br />
How to make contact. If the reader of your resume<br />
likes the look of you, you want to make it as easy as<br />
possible for them to get in touch with you. So help<br />
them by giving them as many options as possible.<br />
<strong>Your</strong> address should be complete including any<br />
postal code. You don’t want the letter inviting you for<br />
interview to go astray, do you? If you know you will<br />
be away for several weeks at a time when you might<br />
be getting a response, then you can either add a<br />
second address or alternatively, get a trusted friend<br />
to check your mail regularly for you.<br />
Phone number. Include a landline and mobile or cell<br />
phone number. Remember that your mobile is now a<br />
business phone and so make sure that you answer<br />
any calls from unknown numbers in a professional<br />
manner – first impressions count! And don’t forget to<br />
check your voicemail regularly.<br />
Email address is essential these days. Check and<br />
double check that you have not made any typos<br />
that would leave messages lost in cyberspace. And<br />
think about the email address you are planning to<br />
use. koolkitten@hotmail.com may not project quite<br />
the image you are hoping. Ask yourself, does it fit in<br />
with my brand? If not, create a new and more<br />
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appropriate email address for your job search – and<br />
remember to check it regularly!<br />
A website address could be a useful addition to this<br />
section. It is by no means compulsory, but if you are<br />
applying for a job where web skills are important, it<br />
could be a good showcase for your talents. Also if<br />
you have a lot of interesting experience or a portfolio<br />
of work you would like the recruiter to see, it can be a<br />
good way of presenting them with more than would<br />
ever fit into a standard <strong>CV</strong> or resume format.<br />
If you are not a web designer, you could ask a techy<br />
friend to put up a simple site for you that will become<br />
o kind of online <strong>CV</strong>. But do keep<br />
your brand in mind. Websites project strong<br />
messages about the people behind them. How do<br />
you want to come across? Serious and business like?<br />
Fun and funky? Slick and professional? Creative and<br />
original? Will this be a good fit for the reader of your<br />
<strong>CV</strong>? You will find more about websites on page 98.<br />
Other personal information? Date of birth?<br />
Nationality? National Insurance number? Don’t<br />
bother. None of these are likely to be mission critical<br />
in demonstrating your ability to do the job – see page<br />
92 on what to leave out of your <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
…over to you<br />
Use this space to summarise the personal information you will<br />
put on your resume.<br />
Do all your personal details have to be at the top of<br />
your <strong>CV</strong>? Generally speaking, this is the best place<br />
for them to be. It is where recruiters will look first.<br />
However, if you are very pushed for space – say you<br />
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Education<br />
are trying to create a single page resume – then you<br />
could consider putting your contact details in a<br />
header or footer. But do not reduce the font size –<br />
make sure they are still easy to read.<br />
Every resume should have some reference to your<br />
educational history, but generally speaking, the<br />
longer ago it was, the less space you need to devote<br />
to it. If you are a recent graduate, then what you<br />
have studied at College or University and how your<br />
schooling led up to this is still relevant. If you were last<br />
in full–time education 25 years ago, then you can<br />
probably relegate most of it to a few lines and<br />
probably omit pre University education completely.<br />
On the other hand, if you have studied a degree,<br />
such as Law or Engineering, which formed part of a<br />
professional training which you are still pursuing, then<br />
do mention it, even if it was a long time ago.<br />
If you have taken rather general sounding courses at<br />
College or University eg business studies or humanities<br />
and your education is still<br />
quite a recent event, then it can add value if you<br />
unpack some of the content of your course to show<br />
that there is some relevance to the job you are now<br />
aiming for. You may also like to draw attention to the<br />
broad based skills you have acquired as a result of<br />
being a student, eg time management, working<br />
collaboratively and juggling conflicting demands.<br />
It is usually a good idea to present your education in<br />
reverse order as it is likely to be the most recent study<br />
that is both relevant and at the highest level. As you<br />
go back in time, provide less detail and certainly do<br />
not go as far back as primary education!<br />
You do not usually need to give school names,<br />
though your College or University name should be<br />
added. Long lists of examinations passed with grades<br />
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are also not usually necessary. If your grades were<br />
not brilliant, then just leave them out altogether -<br />
don’t invite your reader to draw any negative<br />
conclusions about you!<br />
Dates are usually included, but are not always<br />
essential if your education plays a small role in the<br />
‘pitch’ you are assembling.<br />
…over to you<br />
Make a note of your most important educational<br />
attainments that you definitely want to include in this <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
Make sure they are relevant to the job you are now applying<br />
for.<br />
Work experience/employment history<br />
<strong>Your</strong> work experience is usually at the centre of the<br />
pitch you are assembling for your reader so think long<br />
and hard about how you will present it to the best<br />
effect.<br />
If your work has followed a predictable pattern and<br />
you are now aiming at the next step up, then list your<br />
career path in reverse order to<br />
highlight that progression. Give the name of the<br />
company or organisation and your job title. You do<br />
not usually need to give the address or location unless<br />
you want to show familiarity with a particular part of<br />
the country or emphasise international experience.<br />
How far back do you go? Ideally you should show a<br />
complete work history, but that will depend on how<br />
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long and varied it is! If you have had many different<br />
jobs over the last 15-20 years, then a complete listing<br />
is probably not the best approach. The last 5 years or<br />
so are generally the most important. If your work<br />
history goes back a long way, then group older jobs<br />
under a general heading eg retail experience or<br />
office and admin roles.<br />
If there has been a significant shift of direction at<br />
some point in your career, you may like to list your<br />
work experience under two headings – ‘related<br />
experience’ and ‘other experience’, obviously paying<br />
more attention to the related roles.<br />
If your work history is very jumbled, with a wide<br />
variety of different roles over time, then group the<br />
jobs you have done to make as coherent a picture as<br />
you can – abandon chronology if need be. You<br />
should also put your efforts into a ‘Key Skills’ section so<br />
you can really emphasise the relevant skills that have<br />
come from such varied experience.<br />
Do include dates in this section. This enables a<br />
seriously interested reader to review how your career<br />
has developed and see how much time you have<br />
spent in different roles. Don’t worry about exact start<br />
and end dates, just put the year.<br />
Dealing with gaps. Gaps should best be avoided on<br />
a resume and if you have short gaps of a month or so<br />
here and there, then just dating your employment by<br />
year will help disguise them. If you have had longer<br />
periods of ‘time out’, it is better to be up front about<br />
them rather than just leaving an unexplained hole in<br />
the sequence of your employment, otherwise a<br />
reader is left to assume the worst!<br />
Look back at Step 3 where you listed the periods of<br />
‘time out’ you have had. Unemployment is a<br />
relatively common occurrence these days, so do not<br />
feel you have to hide it. What matters more is that<br />
you present<br />
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Key skills<br />
References<br />
it as a time when you kept positive and were either<br />
actively seeking work or doing other things such as<br />
further study. Show that you filled your time<br />
productively.<br />
If you had time off due to ill-health, make it clear that<br />
you have fully recovered, but don’t go into a lengthy<br />
medical history.<br />
Time out for family commitments is also perfectly<br />
acceptable and you can list it with no more detail<br />
than that. The interview is the time when this may be<br />
explored further, but always keep the recruiter’s<br />
attention focused on issues that are relevant to your<br />
ability to do the job and do not get sidetracked.<br />
Clearly if you have chosen to write a skills based <strong>CV</strong>,<br />
then the Key Skills section is essential. However, as it is<br />
not always used in chronological <strong>CV</strong>s, I have<br />
included it under Additional Headings below as an<br />
optional section.<br />
Should you include the details of referees on your<br />
<strong>CV</strong>? I think the answer depends on how you are<br />
planning to use your <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
If you are sending your <strong>CV</strong> out on a speculative basis,<br />
hoping that you might get invited for an informal<br />
chat, then it is probably best to exclude the<br />
references section from your <strong>CV</strong> altogether. You<br />
never quite know where this kind of <strong>CV</strong> will end up – it<br />
could be passed to different departments in a<br />
company, for example. This makes it difficult for you<br />
to provide the name of a referee who you know will<br />
be relevant and who you have briefed appropriately<br />
in advance about the kind of reference you need.<br />
On the other hand, if you are applying for a specific,<br />
advertised post, then I am inclined to say that you<br />
should include details of your referees, provided there<br />
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is space to accommodate them. If space is limited,<br />
the common alternative is to simply state that<br />
‘References are available on request.’<br />
My argument for including them if you can falls in with<br />
the general policy of doing everything possible to<br />
encourage the recruiter to like you and that means<br />
making at easy as possible to process your<br />
application quickly and easily. It may be that they<br />
would like to check out your references early on in<br />
the application process and if they have to get back<br />
in touch with you to find out who your referees are, it<br />
just adds extra time when they may be in a hurry.<br />
Who is suitable to be a referee?<br />
Ideally, you should use people who know you in a<br />
work capacity and who will be seen to offer an<br />
objective opinion of you as a person and as an<br />
employee. You can use people from previous jobs as<br />
well as your current one (and bear in mind that you<br />
can ask that current employers are not approached<br />
until after interview). You can also use people who<br />
know you well outside work, such as members of<br />
social or community organisations you are involved in,<br />
but avoid using friends and relations.<br />
The majority of recruiters will follow up references<br />
before they finally confirm your job offer, so it is worth<br />
selecting referees who will provide the right finishing<br />
touch to your self marketing efforts.<br />
Who could you use?<br />
Write down the names of as many different people as<br />
you can think of who might be useful as referees.<br />
Think about the how you are promoting yourself in the<br />
resume you are working on right now. Who could<br />
give positive feedback on your abilities in a way that<br />
would highlight your suitability for this role?<br />
Start by just brainstorming as many people as you can<br />
and list their names below.<br />
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…over to you<br />
Jot down as many people as you can think of who could act<br />
as a referee for you.<br />
Once you have generated lots of names, use the<br />
Referees Details Summary in the Toolkit to collect all<br />
their contact details so you have them ready to<br />
hand. Make notes about how they might be able to<br />
help, how they know you, what kind of roles they<br />
would be able to recommend you for.<br />
Then you must make contact with them and ask their<br />
permission to use them as a referee. This is more than<br />
just a courtesy – it is your opportunity to prime them<br />
about the role you are applying for and about the<br />
sort of skills and experience sought for the role. The<br />
extent to which you direct them will depend on how<br />
well you know them, but there is nothing wrong with<br />
pointing out to them what the key skills are that this<br />
new employer is seeking and asking that they<br />
mention these in particular in the reference they<br />
write. It might be helpful to send them a copy of your<br />
resume too, so they can refresh their memory of you.<br />
So these are the sections I would suggest should<br />
always be in a <strong>CV</strong> or resume, but there are many<br />
more you could include.<br />
Now take a look through the list below, and consider<br />
which additional sections will help you make a strong<br />
case for yourself. Read the description and think<br />
about how you might use these sections. If you think<br />
they would add to your case, make a note of them in<br />
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the …over to you box on page 63 at the end of this<br />
Step.<br />
Additional sections<br />
You may consider that some of the sections which I<br />
have chosen to call 'optional' are actually essential<br />
elements in your own <strong>CV</strong>. That is entirely as it should<br />
be. My objective is to provide you with the guidelines<br />
and tools for you to use at your own discretion to<br />
create your own personalised sales document - your<br />
own <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
I have intentionally made the ‘required’ list above<br />
quite short, because I want to encourage you to think<br />
flexibly about how you put your <strong>CV</strong> together. You<br />
should always be asking yourself ‘does this section<br />
allow me to include some interesting and positive<br />
information about myself that could influence a<br />
recruiter in my favour?’ If the answer is no, if you are<br />
struggling to think of any content for that section,<br />
then just leave it out.<br />
Personal profile<br />
A well written profile can give your resume great<br />
impact from the word go. But profile writing is not<br />
easy and a badly written one may leave the recruiter<br />
groaning at the platitudes you have trotted out to the<br />
extent that they may not bother to read any further.<br />
A profile is rather like a written version of the elevator<br />
speech. It needs to be brief, focused and have an<br />
instant positive impact. Probably three to five<br />
sentences and about five lines of text is ample. If you<br />
write more you are getting too long winded.<br />
You will find more about writing your profile in Step 8.<br />
<strong>Career</strong> objective<br />
The same caveats apply to career objective as to<br />
personal profiles. As already mentioned, think<br />
carefully before using this section. You run the risk of<br />
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narrowing down your options too far if you are over<br />
specific about your career objective. On the other<br />
hand, if you are very focused on your next step, you<br />
may choose to make that stand out in the way you<br />
present yourself.<br />
Skills summary / key skills<br />
This can be an absolutely central section in your <strong>CV</strong>,<br />
especially if you have a mixed work history and/or<br />
you are changing your career direction. This can be<br />
a great opportunity for you to show the reader of your<br />
resume that you meet their needs. This is where all the<br />
work you have done in Step 2 and Step 4 comes<br />
together.<br />
You need to decide which top four or five skills you<br />
will highlight. Make sure they are ones which the<br />
reader will immediately identify as essential<br />
requirements from their perspective.<br />
Once you have done that, start by listing them on<br />
your resume. You might chose things like team work,<br />
project management, financial accounting,<br />
customer service and so on. Then follow the skill you<br />
have mentioned with a brief example of a situation<br />
where you have put that skill into practice<br />
successfully. It is this evidence that is the essential<br />
element of a Key Skills section. Let’s face it, anyone<br />
can write a list of skills and claim that they are good<br />
at them, but it is the examples you give (which they<br />
may discuss further with you at interview – so don’t<br />
just make them up!) that make your claims for these<br />
skills seem credible.<br />
Do your best to draw examples from a range of<br />
different situations or employments. It helps show that<br />
your skill set has been developing over a period of<br />
time.<br />
Professional / Technical skills<br />
This additional skills heading allows you to emphasise<br />
particular professional or technical skills separately<br />
from more generic transferable skills like team work or<br />
time management. This can be important for<br />
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specialist roles where your technical expertise is<br />
central to your ability to do the job.<br />
You could choose to list particular specialist software<br />
you have used, programming languages you can<br />
use, laboratory equipment and processes you are<br />
familiar with and so on. The person specification will<br />
give you an indication of which specialist skills are<br />
worthwhile highlighting here.<br />
Achievements<br />
This can be a great way of adding some real impact<br />
to your resume. An achievements section gives you<br />
the opportunity to direct the reader very specifically<br />
towards some of the highlights that showcase<br />
relevant skills, knowledge and experience. But for this<br />
section to work well, you need to be specific about<br />
what you have achieved. As I mentioned in Step 4,<br />
make sure you state clear outcomes and quantify<br />
them wherever possible eg increased sales by 12%,<br />
raised £30,000 in project funding. Refer back to the<br />
Evidence Summary you filled in at Step 4.<br />
Remember the START acronym I introduced you to in<br />
Step 4? Go back to it now on page 39 and review<br />
how you can use it to build the Achievements section<br />
of your resume.<br />
This acronym is a great tool when preparing interview<br />
answers, but it can help focus your thinking when<br />
planning your resume too.<br />
Additional training / Professional training<br />
Rather than listing all your training and education<br />
together, it can sometimes be a useful strategy to list<br />
additional or professional training separately on your<br />
<strong>CV</strong>. This applies especially if you have undertaken<br />
further professional development to keep up to date<br />
or taken courses in your own time in order to redirect<br />
your career. Any training can be a good way of<br />
showing that you have a positive attitude to your own<br />
development<br />
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But don’t feel you have to list everything. As ever,<br />
stop and consider whether the training is relevant.<br />
Will it impress the reader and add value to your pitch?<br />
If it is purely non-vocational then you may decide to<br />
perhaps list it under interests instead or omit it<br />
altogether?<br />
Activities and interests<br />
This section is more likely to be used by those of you<br />
who are relatively early in your career. If you have<br />
limited work experience, an outline of what you do<br />
outside of work allows you to show something of<br />
yourself from a different angle. But make sure you<br />
make this section work hard for you. A simple list of<br />
‘reading, cinema and travel’ really adds nothing of<br />
any value to your <strong>CV</strong>. Most people enjoy these<br />
things, so this does not help to differentiate you or<br />
show what is unique about you.<br />
Always think about how you can use your interests to<br />
add something new to the story you are telling. It is<br />
important to go beyond a simple list. Explain why you<br />
are involved in this activity and what you get out of it.<br />
Make sure that you tease out any relevant skills you<br />
are gaining from your involvement.<br />
Think carefully about the ‘message’ your interests<br />
send. Are they presenting the right kind of image?<br />
Consider the different impact of, say, having an<br />
interest in playing competitive team sports vs playing<br />
computer games. Be cautious too, if you think your<br />
interests may be in conflict with the values of the<br />
organisation you are applying for. Active political<br />
interests, for example, could work in your favour or<br />
against you depending on the organisation you are<br />
applying to.<br />
If you are changing careers, this section can play an<br />
important role in showing how you have gained new<br />
and relevant experience outside work. In this case,<br />
you might expand the interests section to help<br />
strengthen your case for entry into a new field of<br />
work.<br />
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And if you don’t think you have any interests worth<br />
listing, omit this section - but also think about what you<br />
could start getting involved in that would allow you to<br />
present yourself in a positive light and develop<br />
additional skills!<br />
This section is not always mission critical, so if you find<br />
yourself short of space on your resume, omitting this<br />
section can give you more room to focus on more<br />
significant parts of your experience.<br />
Voluntary work<br />
There are a number of situations where this section<br />
can be particularly useful.<br />
If you are trying to get into social work or the not-forprofit<br />
sector, areas where you need to demonstrate a<br />
real commitment to the work before you will be<br />
considered, you will certainly need to do some<br />
voluntary work to just build up a portfolio of relevant<br />
experience. Listing this in a separate section from<br />
your work experience draws attention to it and helps<br />
highlight your dedication.<br />
If you are working on a career change, you may<br />
have done some voluntary work in the new sector<br />
you are trying to enter as part of your research. Even<br />
if this was only a matter of days here and there, it is<br />
still worth listing. As mentioned above, it will go a long<br />
way in demonstrating how serious you are about this<br />
new career area.<br />
If you have had a period of unemployment, it is<br />
important to show that you have used that time<br />
productively and that you have gone out of your way<br />
to keep up to date or to extend your skills. Doing<br />
voluntary work is one of the options that many people<br />
turn to when unemployed, and you can use it to your<br />
advantage on your resume.<br />
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Experience abroad<br />
It may not always be necessary to highlight work that<br />
you have done in other countries. In some cases, you<br />
would just list it in the work experience section along<br />
with the other jobs you have done in your career.<br />
But in some cases, the fact that you have worked in<br />
another country could be a crucial factor that might<br />
tip things in your favour. Say you spent a year after<br />
graduating in Japan and you now want to work in<br />
the Japan Cultural Centre in your own country. In this<br />
case, your time abroad would be a valuable asset to<br />
promote and worth listing under a separate heading.<br />
Honours and awards<br />
Use this section if you have a number of items worth<br />
listing separately. This may include scholarships you<br />
have been awarded, prizes or commendations you<br />
have received or important offices or<br />
responsibilities you have held. But if the list is short, or<br />
has only one entry, don’t draw attention to it in a<br />
separate section!<br />
Professional memberships<br />
Publications<br />
This section allows you to indicate any professional<br />
memberships or affiliations. In some cases, it is<br />
essential to be a member of a relevant professional<br />
body and in these cases you may want to indicate<br />
your level of membership.<br />
You may also be helpful to mention your involvement<br />
with the professional body if you have been an active<br />
member and served on any committees or attended<br />
or presented at annual conferences.<br />
This is most likely to be relevant in an academic <strong>CV</strong> or<br />
resume. In the case of academic roles, then your<br />
publications will be important in demonstrating that<br />
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Any more?<br />
you have been active in your field and that your<br />
research has appeared in peer reviewed journals.<br />
If you have just had a couple of articles printed in an<br />
in-house company magazine, that is probably not<br />
worth mentioning – unless you are making a career<br />
change to journalism, in which case you should have<br />
as much as possible in this list.<br />
Are there any other headings you could include?<br />
Well, I have covered the main ones in this section, but<br />
as you know, I am a great believer in customising a<br />
<strong>CV</strong> so that it works for you, rather than you trying to<br />
shoe horn yourself into a standard format. So if there<br />
are any other aspects of your work, study or other life<br />
experience that you feel will help you stand out from<br />
the crowd, then consider creating a special heading<br />
that will focus attention on your particular offering.<br />
Now you have been through all the options and<br />
possibly considered some additional ones of your<br />
own, make a note of the headings you have decided<br />
will work best for you for this particular <strong>CV</strong> that you<br />
are working on.<br />
…over to you<br />
List the headings you are planning to use. (Don’t worry too<br />
much about sequence just yet).<br />
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=================================<br />
Now you have chosen the most useful section<br />
headings for your situation, you may want to refer<br />
back to Step 6 to make a final decision about the<br />
format you’re your <strong>CV</strong> or resume. You are also ready<br />
to start filling in the detail in the sections you have<br />
chosen. It’s time to move on to Step 8 to find out<br />
more.<br />
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Step 8 – Pulling it all together<br />
Now it is time to assemble the information you have<br />
gathered from Steps 2 – 7<br />
By now you should know:<br />
What the employer wants<br />
(Step 2)<br />
The facts about what you can offer<br />
(Step 3)<br />
The hidden assets you are selling<br />
(Step 4)<br />
How their needs and your offer overlap<br />
(Step 5)<br />
Which <strong>CV</strong> or resume style you think will be right for<br />
you (Step 6)<br />
Which section headings you will use<br />
(Step 7)<br />
You have already done the necessary research and<br />
reflection in preparation for writing your <strong>CV</strong>, you know<br />
what you are selling and what your buyer is looking<br />
for, so with this in mind, you are ready to start<br />
completing the various sections you are planning to<br />
use.<br />
Let me remind you again that this is a marketing<br />
exercise. You are the one trying to persuade the<br />
buyer/recruiter to interview you, so the responsibility<br />
lies with you to make it easy for them to understand<br />
what you are selling. <strong>Your</strong> job is to put the relevant<br />
information clearly under their noses so they can’t fail<br />
to see how you meet their needs.<br />
You should have a good idea by now of what you<br />
want to highlight and what will make the reader of<br />
your resume sit up and take notice, so now you need<br />
to focus on making it eye-catching and accessible to<br />
the reader.<br />
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Let’s begin with some tips on the style of writing that is<br />
the most effective in a resume or <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
General tips on writing style<br />
Remember that your <strong>CV</strong> is a prime piece of evidence<br />
for the quality of your written communication skills, so<br />
think long and hard about how you are using your<br />
resume to communicate!<br />
• Adopt a simple, but not simplistic style. Aim<br />
to be succinct and to the point. Most two<br />
page <strong>CV</strong>s contain about 850 words. You<br />
need to make sure they all count.<br />
• <strong>Your</strong> language and writing style should be<br />
appropriate for the role you are aiming for –<br />
a senior research scientist will, of course,<br />
present herself somewhat differently from a<br />
waitress.<br />
• Use active language that puts you at the<br />
centre. The <strong>CV</strong> is about what you can do,<br />
so write things like ‘I proposed a<br />
restructuring…’ rather than ‘It was proposed<br />
that we should restructure.’<br />
• Don’t begin all your claims with ‘I am…’ or ‘I<br />
have…’. Use a telegram style eg ‘Managed<br />
team of 12 staff’, ‘Responsible for a budget<br />
of £XXK’.<br />
• Use short and punchy bullet points when<br />
listing skills and achievements so that your<br />
key selling points are easily accessible to the<br />
reader. A <strong>CV</strong> is not the place to subtly imply<br />
that you have particular skills or experience.<br />
If you’ve got it, say so.<br />
• Quantify outcomes wherever you can. Eg<br />
‘increased sales by 18%’ or ‘reduced<br />
complaints from 10 a week to 2.’<br />
• Be consistent in your use of tenses as far as<br />
possible. <strong>Your</strong> current job may be described<br />
in the present tense, but everything else<br />
should be past tense.<br />
• Avoid using jargon, technical language and<br />
acronyms.<br />
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• Use strong action words that give a positive<br />
impression. Read more about this important<br />
point in the section below on Using action<br />
words.<br />
• Watch out for unnecessary repetition,<br />
especially when describing similar roles.<br />
• Don’t make vague, generalised statements<br />
such as ‘I have wide ranging experience’ or<br />
‘I am an excellent communicator/team<br />
player’. These are likely to be claimed by<br />
most applicants. Be specific and focus on<br />
actual outcomes.<br />
• If you know you tend to write long,<br />
convoluted sentences, revise and edit,<br />
breaking them up into shorter ones.<br />
• Avoid fancy words that make you sound like<br />
you have swallowed a dictionary<br />
(augmented, instigated, utilised…). They will<br />
make you sound pretentious and probably<br />
put the reader off rather than impress.<br />
Remember the Plain English Campaign?<br />
http://www.plainenglish.co.uk. Take a look<br />
round their website if you think your writing<br />
style tends to be a bit flowery. Here is a<br />
lovely example from them which shows how<br />
overblown English can be simplified:<br />
‘High-quality learning environments are a necessary<br />
precondition for the facilitation and enhancement of<br />
the ongoing learning process’.<br />
And then the simplified version…<br />
‘Children need good schools if they are to learn<br />
properly’.<br />
Using action words<br />
It is amazing how much you can influence the impact<br />
of your resume by simply choosing your words<br />
carefully. Language is an incredibly powerful tool<br />
and if you don’t concentrate on getting it to work for<br />
you, you will probably find it is working against you.<br />
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Remember what I have said before about the tired<br />
recruiter wading through dozens if not hundreds of<br />
resumes? You need to make sure yours really<br />
catches their eye, even if it is the 73rd one they have<br />
looked at today!<br />
By using a telegram style and bullet points, you can<br />
ensure that each sentence begins with an active<br />
verb. Starting with a verb gives it much greater<br />
impact, so make sure you choose words which will<br />
create the impression you want.<br />
Take a look at this description:<br />
‘I was given the task of re-organising the process for<br />
publicising and distributing our monthly newsletter to<br />
clients. So I reviewed current practice, asked our<br />
clients what they wanted and drew up a revised<br />
plan. This was accepted by my manager and is now<br />
in use.’<br />
Now look at this one:<br />
‘<strong>Plan</strong>ned and completed a thorough review of<br />
publicity and distribution processes for our client<br />
newsletter, including a survey of users, and as a result,<br />
achieved a 38% increase in circulation.’<br />
The second one is much snappier with the writer<br />
taking ownership of the task. The ‘telegram style’ of<br />
writing, avoiding excessive use of ‘I’, and using strong,<br />
active verbs give the shorter statement much more<br />
impact. And the writer manages to get in a key piece<br />
of evidence – a 38% increase in circulation.<br />
You will find an Action Words Prompt List in the <strong>CV</strong> &<br />
<strong>Resume</strong> Toolkit at the end of this workbook. Refer to it<br />
for ideas as you are drafting your <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
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Getting going<br />
It is generally a good idea to start by writing freely,<br />
getting much more down than you will need. It is<br />
always easier to edit down later than vice versa, so<br />
don’t be inhibited at this stage by worries about how<br />
long your resume should be. Just get your ideas<br />
down on paper or on to your computer. Be<br />
experimental. Try expressing things in different ways<br />
and see what works.<br />
If you find it awkward writing about yourself, think of<br />
someone you know who seems to present themselves<br />
confidently. How would they present themselves on<br />
paper? Or imagine you were helping someone else<br />
to write their <strong>CV</strong>. How would you encourage them to<br />
promote themselves more positively?<br />
Completing the sections you have chosen<br />
Start with the more straightforward sections, which just<br />
require factual information, such as Personal Details,<br />
Education / Qualifications and Referees. You can also<br />
fill in the basic dates and names of your various<br />
periods of employment. If you get going with these<br />
easier sections, you will find you have done a big<br />
chunk of the task and completing the rest of your<br />
resume will feel less daunting.<br />
Once you have got the factual content out of the<br />
way, you can focus on the really important sections<br />
of your <strong>CV</strong>. These are the detail of your Employment<br />
History, your Key Skills and Achievements, and your<br />
Personal Profile / <strong>Career</strong> Objective. <strong>Your</strong> Education<br />
can also be<br />
important, but this depends on the stage of your<br />
career and the significance of academic<br />
achievement in your chosen line of work. These are<br />
the areas you need to spend most time on, crafting<br />
them carefully so that they present you in the best<br />
possible light.<br />
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As you focus on each one in turn, go back over the<br />
writing tips above, sift through the Action Words<br />
Prompt List for inspiration and always keep your mind<br />
firmly on what you now know the recruiter wants to<br />
read.<br />
This is also a good point to go back to your <strong>CV</strong> &<br />
<strong>Resume</strong> Master File on your computer. The<br />
advantage of creating this as a computer file is that it<br />
allows you to cut and paste when you are assembling<br />
your <strong>CV</strong>. This may seem like a great time saving<br />
device, but beware! Make sure that you read<br />
through your resume very carefully as it is easy to cut<br />
and paste chunks from your <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Master File<br />
that don’t make sense.<br />
Finally, don’t forget to give evidence! Refer back to<br />
your Evidence Summary and to the advice on<br />
evidence in Step 4 on page 38. It is very easy to slip<br />
into writing lists of what you can offer. That’s great as<br />
far as it goes, but saying that you are ‘an effective<br />
negotiator’ will only work if you add something about<br />
the situations where your negotiation skills have led to<br />
positive results.<br />
Writing about your education<br />
If you are well established in your career, you<br />
probably do not need to give much space to your<br />
education other than mentioning key relevant<br />
qualifications. Keep it short and succinct.<br />
However, if your work experience is still fairly limited, it<br />
is a good idea to use your educational experience as<br />
another source of skills. Mention of what you have<br />
gained from the experience of Higher Education<br />
rather than just listing modules or courses taken. You<br />
may wish to mention any specific research projects or<br />
dissertations you have written, provided they are<br />
relevant to the job you are now applying for.<br />
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Writing about your employment<br />
The way you complete this section will depend on the<br />
style of <strong>CV</strong> you have chosen. If you are using a<br />
chronological format, then key information about<br />
each job is included as you go along. If you have<br />
chosen a skills-based format, then the key elements of<br />
your work experience will be highlighted separately<br />
and you can devote less space to describing your<br />
roles individually.<br />
If you are writing about each job in turn, beware of<br />
falling into the trap of writing out a job description for<br />
each role. Focus instead on a few key responsibilities<br />
and then highlight relevant skills and achievements in<br />
each role.<br />
It is a good idea to plan the employment section as a<br />
whole so that you do not repeat yourself in each role.<br />
If you aim to highlight skills A, B and C you may like to<br />
focus on how you used skills A & B in your current role<br />
and C in a previous role.<br />
Devote more space and effort to your more recent<br />
work experience if it links well with what you are<br />
applying for. As you go back in time, you can give<br />
less detail.<br />
Writing about your skills and achievements<br />
When you completed Step 5, you should have<br />
identified clearly which skills and achievements will<br />
impress this particular recruiter for this job. Make sure<br />
you keep this in mind now as you write.<br />
A good way of drawing the reader’s eye to the key<br />
words in your skills list is to bold them up as<br />
subheadings:<br />
‘Staff management. Managed a team of 12<br />
specialist staff; delivered ongoing training and<br />
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support leading to a 10% improvement in team<br />
output.’<br />
Wherever possible, use figures to quantify<br />
achievements. This adds authority and impact to<br />
your claims.<br />
Writing your personal profile and/or career objective<br />
It is a good idea to leave writing your profile to the<br />
end. You can then review what information you have<br />
included in your resume as a whole and can pull out<br />
the key elements you want to highlight for extra<br />
impact.<br />
So what should you include? Focus on what you<br />
have to offer that they also need. Highlight<br />
achievements and recent relevant successes, rather<br />
than what you want to do or your potential to<br />
perform in a particular role. Avoid generalities.<br />
Introduce yourself via any relevant employment<br />
background and you could mention your level or<br />
seniority, length of experience, your previous role and<br />
sector. However, if you are a career changer you<br />
may not want to be specific about your past role<br />
here, so you would focus attention on your skills and<br />
achievements.<br />
Many personal profiles indicate what job or area of<br />
responsibility you are aiming for. Take care when<br />
including this kind of information as in most cases you<br />
may well want to keep your options open. If you are<br />
too specific about the role you are looking for then<br />
you may exclude yourself unwittingly from other<br />
related opportunities. If this resume is being sent on a<br />
speculative basis, and particularly if you are a career<br />
changer, then avoid being too prescriptive here.<br />
Bottom line – the profile should demonstrate a strong<br />
link to the job/area you are applying for to help the<br />
reader immediately see that you are worth<br />
interviewing.<br />
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<strong>Career</strong> coach John Lees has suggested a useful<br />
model to help you structure a personal profile. It<br />
simply recommends that you use the formula ‘you –<br />
what – next’.<br />
You = introduce yourself via the roles you have had –<br />
provided they are relevant.<br />
What = highlight what skills and experience you can<br />
offer that makes you a good candidate for this post<br />
and key results you have achieved.<br />
Next = Indicate where you see your career going<br />
next, as long as you have a specific objective in mind<br />
that relates closely to this application.<br />
Profiles are normally written in the third person – for<br />
example ‘Qualified HR professional with 6 years<br />
experience, specialising in training and<br />
development.’<br />
As I have already indicated, avoid tired and<br />
hackneyed phrases and clichés such as self starter,<br />
highly motivated, loyal, hardworking, committed,<br />
team player, great communicator, team player as<br />
they fail to differentiate you sufficiently. If you find you<br />
are being vague and woolly, focus in more closely on<br />
specifics and give concrete evidence in support.<br />
Keep the tone positive with a focus on achievements.<br />
And at every stage, keep on asking yourself ‘does this<br />
add something positive to my pitch’?<br />
…over to you<br />
Take your time to draft out the key sections of your <strong>CV</strong>. Write<br />
and rewrite until you are happy that you have created a<br />
picture that presents you positively and ‘ticks the boxes’ for<br />
the recruiter.<br />
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Sequence of your chosen sections<br />
Now you have fleshed out the sections you are<br />
planning to use on your <strong>CV</strong> or resume, you can make<br />
final decisions about the order you will place them in.<br />
In most cases, it will look like this. <strong>Your</strong> Personal Details<br />
and Profile / <strong>Career</strong> Objective clearly need to come<br />
first. If you are using a skills based format, then your<br />
Skills and Achievements are likely to be the next<br />
section. If you have a reasonable amount of relevant<br />
work experience, that will be your next priority, with<br />
education after that. Finally, interests and referees.<br />
If you are using a chronological format (which may or<br />
may not include a Profile) start with employment if<br />
you have already established yourself in the world of<br />
work. If you are a recent graduate, or have<br />
recently retrained, then you may wish to put<br />
Education & Qualifications first.<br />
But the final deciding factor in the sequencing of your<br />
resume, is to ensure that the most relevant and<br />
compelling information appears on page one. A <strong>CV</strong><br />
is not the place to be bashful. Always front load your<br />
key selling points, so that you achieve the maximum<br />
impact as soon as the recruiter starts reading. Only if<br />
you hook their attention early will they bother to turn<br />
over to page two.<br />
Proof read carefully<br />
When you have finished writing, go back over what<br />
you have written with a fine toothed comb, looking<br />
out for any spelling or grammatical errors. Do not just<br />
rely on the spelling and grammar checker on your<br />
computer. Typos like ‘manger’ instead of ‘manager’,<br />
‘form’ instead of ‘from’ or ‘collage’ instead of<br />
‘college’ are very easily overlooked if you just skim<br />
read and your spell checker will miss them too.<br />
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Remember that it is quite possible for a recruiter to<br />
have to read through well over 100 resumes to select<br />
a shortlist of 8-10 people. In this kind of situation, small<br />
factors like spelling mistakes can be all it takes to get<br />
your <strong>CV</strong> placed on the reject pile.<br />
This may seem unfair, and it does of course mean that<br />
sometimes, good candidates are passed over<br />
because they have failed to pay attention to the<br />
details at this stage of the application process. All<br />
you can do is to make absolutely sure that you are<br />
not one of those who will fail because of a minor<br />
error.<br />
Last, but not least, try reading your <strong>CV</strong> out loud. It will<br />
give you a good idea if it sounds convincing or trite.<br />
=================================<br />
Now you have got the content of your <strong>CV</strong> just right,<br />
you are ready to move on to Step 9 - making it really<br />
look the part too.<br />
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Step 9 – Making it look the part<br />
General look and feel<br />
It is very easy to get totally focused on getting the<br />
content of your resume right and then ending up<br />
neglecting how it looks.<br />
Now you might feel that looks are all a bit superficial<br />
and surely the content is what matters, but you are<br />
operating in a fast paced decision making situation<br />
here, so initial impact is vital.<br />
The minute your resume reaches the top of the pile, it<br />
is beginning to gain or lose points in the mind of the<br />
recruiter - and this is before they even start to read.<br />
Just as you unconsciously form an impression of a<br />
person as soon as they walk through the door from<br />
the clothes they wear, and from the way they walk<br />
and talk, the same kind of thing happens with a<br />
resume.<br />
Employers expect much higher standard of<br />
presentation these days now that the majority of us<br />
have access to PCs. Ideally we should be able to<br />
demonstrate our IT skills with a well turned out resume.<br />
The arm’s length test.<br />
So you need to be sure that your resume has an<br />
immediate visual impact. A good way of assessing<br />
this is the arm’s length test. How does it look when<br />
you hold it at a distance where you possibly can’t<br />
read more than the headings, but you can – and will<br />
– form a general impression?<br />
Is it neat and tidy? Do all the columns and margins<br />
line up? Are fonts used consistently throughout? Do<br />
the headings stand out clearly? Does it look like a<br />
professional document?<br />
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Why not try this right now with an old resume that you<br />
have used in the past?<br />
…over to you<br />
Try the arm’s length test with an old <strong>CV</strong>. What message<br />
does it give just from the way it looks?<br />
Promoting your brand.<br />
Remember we talked about your ‘brand’ back in<br />
Step 4, the underlying message about who you are<br />
and what you represent? Well, the look and feel of<br />
your <strong>CV</strong> will play a big part in communicating that<br />
message. Make sure it adds to the image you are<br />
trying to create rather than contradicting or<br />
detracting from it.<br />
Back to the marketing analogy – you want the reader<br />
to ‘buy’ your product. You have already done a lot<br />
of work on analysing what you have to offer; now you<br />
have to think about how you present it. A great<br />
product in a boring or inappropriate box will probably<br />
not sell. (Well, it might if it had a sufficiently good<br />
reputation, but that is another part of the process of<br />
building your brand!)<br />
Make life as easy as you can for the recruiter. Make<br />
your <strong>CV</strong> easy to scan quickly and to read closely.<br />
Make all the key information as accessible as<br />
possible. Make sure your key selling points jump out.<br />
Help them to like you and want to know you better.<br />
So which aspects of layout do you need to consider?<br />
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Font<br />
Choose your font carefully. The key issue that should<br />
influence your choice is ease of reading. You want<br />
the recruiter to be able to read your resume quickly<br />
and easily, don’t you?<br />
Generally speaking, sans serif fonts like Arial, Verdana<br />
and this one, Century Gothic, are easier on the eye.<br />
Bear in mind that a 12pt font size will appear<br />
differently according to the typeface you have<br />
chosen.<br />
This is Verdana 12pt<br />
This is Arial 12pt<br />
This is Times New Roman 12pt<br />
This is Kartika 12pt<br />
Generally speaking, don’t go below 10pt as it begins<br />
to get too small to read comfortably.<br />
Think about whether a modern or more traditional<br />
typeface will fit in the ‘brand’ you are promoting.<br />
Experiment with different fonts and try the arm’s<br />
length test (p80) again.<br />
…over to you<br />
Experiment by applying a few different fonts to your draft<br />
resume. How do they look? Which one works best for you?<br />
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Headings<br />
You have already chosen which headings you will use<br />
in your <strong>CV</strong> in Step 7.<br />
Headings play a critical role in helping your reader<br />
navigate quickly and easily around your <strong>CV</strong>. Make<br />
sure that they can be clearly distinguished from the<br />
basic content so a reader can scan directly to the<br />
information they want to read. Making them slightly<br />
larger and bolded is usually enough.<br />
However, don’t make them so big that they<br />
jump off the page and it is best to avoid<br />
underlining or BLOCK CAPITALS and<br />
certainly AVOID USING BOTH TOGETHER! As with<br />
emails, the latter tends to look like you are shouting.<br />
Headings are an opportunity to use a different font<br />
and possibly even colour to help them stand out, but<br />
choose your alternative font with care. Think about<br />
how well it fits with the basic font you have chosen. I<br />
have selected AMERICANA BT for the headings in<br />
this ebook, which contrasts but does not clash with<br />
Century Gothic. Lucida Handwriting, on the other hand<br />
would look out of place as a header font.<br />
You might like to take a look at a few professionally<br />
designed books and company reports to see how<br />
different fonts, sizes and colours can be used<br />
effectively.<br />
…over to you<br />
What works well in professionally produced documents?<br />
Which font style, size and colour will you use for you<br />
headings?<br />
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Colour<br />
Paper<br />
In this case, I mean the colour of the text and<br />
headings in your resume. As a general rule, be<br />
cautious. If you are not a trained graphic designer, it<br />
is easy to get carried away with the use of colour,<br />
thinking it will all add impact.<br />
It will. But often it will be the wrong kind of impact.<br />
If you want to use colour, only introduce one other<br />
colour and keep the base font in black. As I have<br />
already suggested, you might like to use a different<br />
colour for the section headings of your <strong>CV</strong>, but if you<br />
do, then err on the side of caution. Pick a<br />
conservative option like dark blue or dark green.<br />
And it is essential that you try photocopying your <strong>CV</strong><br />
in black and white before you make a final decision.<br />
It is quite possible that your <strong>CV</strong> will<br />
be copied to all members of a selection panel, so you<br />
need to be aware of what kind of document they will<br />
be receiving. Colours may appear very differently in<br />
a black and white copy and you could find that the<br />
appearance of your <strong>CV</strong> is surprisingly different.<br />
If in doubt, stick with black text throughout and let<br />
your choice of header font and size do the work for<br />
you.<br />
It is generally safest to stick with white (the comments<br />
about photocopying I mentioned above apply here<br />
too). Try to use a reasonable quality of paper, but<br />
don’t feel you have to spend money on something<br />
fancy.<br />
If you really want to use a coloured paper, choose<br />
very pale grey, blue or beige, but make sure that the<br />
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Photos<br />
Length<br />
colour fits in with the overall ‘feel’ you are trying to<br />
create.<br />
You might think that a photograph would help a<br />
potential employer get a better sense of who you<br />
are, but you don’t really have any control over how<br />
they will respond to your picture.<br />
In some cases, a photo could present a problem if a<br />
recruiter is taking care to minimise possible gender,<br />
race or age bias from the selection process, either<br />
because of specific legislation or simply as a matter of<br />
good practice. Photographs also photocopy badly<br />
and an acceptable original may present a less<br />
favourable impression once it has been copied.<br />
If you are applying for a post in another country, do<br />
check whether a photograph is expected, but as a<br />
general rule, I would not include a photograph.<br />
If you do decide to include one, build it into the<br />
layout of your <strong>CV</strong>. Arrange the personal information<br />
at the top allowing space for the photograph, don’t<br />
just staple at to the corner. Scan it in and insert it into<br />
the space. And make sure it is a good quality photo<br />
that fits with the image and brand you are projecting.<br />
In the USA, a resume is typically a single side. In the<br />
UK, a <strong>CV</strong> is usually 2 sides, occasionally longer.<br />
Remember that a <strong>CV</strong> or resume is about getting your<br />
point across clearly and succinctly, so if you find your<br />
<strong>CV</strong> is spreading onto 3 or more pages, you are<br />
probably being too long winded. If it is too long it<br />
can suggest a lack of focus on you part and may<br />
indicate poor written communication skills. Bottom<br />
line – anything past 2 pages probably won’t be read.<br />
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Exceptions to the two page guideline might be if you<br />
are very senior and have a lot of very relevant<br />
experience to present. Also, academic <strong>CV</strong>s tend to<br />
be longer because of the requirement to present<br />
information about research and publications.<br />
Be aware of what is typical in the sector you are<br />
applying to and adjust your <strong>CV</strong> accordingly.<br />
If you have limited work experience and find you run<br />
out of content at 1½ pages, then either expand it to<br />
two pages (adjust the layout, space out the sections,<br />
change the font size) or reduce it to a single side. I<br />
generally recommend the first approach as reducing<br />
it often leads to a cramped end product with critical<br />
‘selling points’ missing.<br />
As always, think about it from the point of view of a<br />
busy recruiter. Keep your <strong>CV</strong> or resume focused and<br />
to the point and, whatever the length, make sure<br />
page one has the necessary impact to hook them in.<br />
Bullet points<br />
Dates<br />
I have mentioned bullet points already when<br />
discussing how to write your content.<br />
Do use them. They make the text of your <strong>CV</strong> a lot<br />
easier to scan read quickly. A dense paragraph of<br />
text is extremely uninviting to a reader, while a series<br />
of short bullet points invite them in and allow you to<br />
draw attention to your key selling points.<br />
However, they are not appropriate for every section<br />
of your resume. Keep them for the core content eg<br />
skills and achievements that naturally breaks into this<br />
format. <strong>Your</strong> personal contact information, your<br />
profile and referees are better off as plain text.<br />
We have discussed dates under education and<br />
employment in Step 7 above. Most recruiters will<br />
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Keywords<br />
want to build up a picture of how your career has<br />
unfolded over time and will be looking for any<br />
unexplained gaps.<br />
But that said, dates are simply factual background<br />
data, they are unlikely to be critical in swaying a<br />
decision to interview you one way or another.<br />
Many resumes list dates down the left hand side of<br />
the page in a blank column. However, because<br />
English is read from left to right, that space on the left<br />
is prime selling space. You don’t want to waste that<br />
on a largely empty column with nothing more than<br />
dates in it. It makes more sense to place dates on the<br />
right hand side of your resume.<br />
You have already taken a close look at the Job<br />
Description and Person Specification in Step 2, so you<br />
know exactly what the company is looking for.<br />
In keeping with the idea that your task is to<br />
demonstrate that you match their needs, make the<br />
effort to use and highlight particular keywords from<br />
the specification for the role. If they say they want<br />
team work, then use that phrase rather than saying<br />
you are good at motivating others. Give them what<br />
they ask for!<br />
You could use the keywords as sub-headings in a<br />
section on Key Skills or could just bold them up in the<br />
main text of your resume. And in line with what I have<br />
mentioned above about English being read from left<br />
to right, try place keywords towards the left hand side<br />
of the page.<br />
This tactic of using and bolding specific keywords can<br />
be really important if <strong>CV</strong> is being submitted<br />
electronically to an agency. Their<br />
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first sift through applications could be done using<br />
specialist software to pick out the keywords the<br />
recruiter is looking for. So your choice of words could<br />
be critical in getting you to the next stage of the<br />
selection process.<br />
…over to you<br />
Go back to Step 2 and remind yourself what they key<br />
requirements are for this particular job. Which keywords do<br />
you need to make sure appear in your <strong>CV</strong>?<br />
The space in between<br />
This may seem odd, but the blank space in between<br />
all your carefully crafted text is important too. To<br />
create a strong visual impact, make sure that you<br />
don’t overload the page with reams of dense text.<br />
Keep the margins a reasonable size. Allow a couple<br />
of blank lines between sections. Indent your bullet<br />
points so there is more white space alongside them.<br />
These tips will help your <strong>CV</strong> have an open,<br />
uncluttered feel. And above all, it will make it easier<br />
to read – which is exactly what you are aiming for.<br />
Consistency<br />
You would be amazed how many <strong>CV</strong>s I have seen<br />
where the formatting and font style and size all<br />
change from section to section. This is such a give<br />
away of a <strong>CV</strong> that has been assembled in pieces,<br />
probably drawn from previous versions and just<br />
pasted together without any attempt to review it for<br />
overall coherence and consistency. But to a<br />
recruiter, anything less than a completely consistent<br />
style throughout speaks of a slip-shod, couldn’t be<br />
bothered attitude.<br />
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So check and double check that all your headings<br />
are of the same style throughout, that you have used<br />
the same base font and that your bullet points match<br />
and are equally indented.<br />
Do learn to set and use tabs – it makes it a lot easier<br />
to keep your blocks of text neatly aligned! Or if you<br />
are an advanced Word user, define styles for different<br />
levels of heading and body text throughout.<br />
Presentation folders<br />
Don’t bother. If you are applying for a lot of jobs, the<br />
cost of fancy folders could add up quite quickly.<br />
More importantly, for most recruiters who are wading<br />
through dozens of resumes, any kind of folder,<br />
however smart, will be an irritation that will detract<br />
from the positive impact you are trying to create.<br />
Final adjustments<br />
The above are the main elements that will affect the<br />
general look and feel of your resume. Above all, it<br />
should look neat and professional and should<br />
demonstrate that you have devoted care and<br />
attention to presentation as well as to content.<br />
You can make small adjustments here and there if<br />
you find your <strong>CV</strong> goes just over the length you have<br />
chosen or if sections split over two pages. A tiny<br />
reduction on the margins or in font size, for example,<br />
may be all it needs to get it all to fit nicely.<br />
Always finish with the arm’s length test (see page 74)<br />
again to check the overall impact of any changes<br />
you have made.<br />
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…over to you<br />
Go back over your draft <strong>CV</strong> and work on the layout, using<br />
the tips and decisions from this section so you really develop<br />
the visual impact of your <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
Finish with the ‘arm’s length’ test. How does it look?<br />
===========================<br />
Moving on to Step 10, you will be pleased to hear that<br />
it is time to take a break!<br />
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Step 10 – Take a break<br />
Phew! That’s most of the hard work over. By now you<br />
should have assembled a <strong>CV</strong> or resume that…<br />
• Is closely targeted to match the needs of<br />
the recruiter<br />
• Promotes your skills and experience in the<br />
best possible light<br />
• Looks polished and professional<br />
After all that work, you deserve a well earned rest –<br />
and in fact, taking a break from your <strong>CV</strong> is exactly<br />
what you should be doing at this point. You have<br />
probably been toiling over it for some time and<br />
without a doubt, it can get to the point where you<br />
can’t really look at your own work objectively any<br />
longer. You need to put a bit of breathing space<br />
between you and your product!<br />
So print out a copy of your resume, but then put it<br />
aside and don’t look at it for a few days.<br />
Three reviews<br />
Review one<br />
When you are ready to revisit it, try these three<br />
approaches reviewing your <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
Start with a green highlighter pen and go through the<br />
whole resume, marking in green everything that adds<br />
something positive to your pitch. Then mark in yellow<br />
everything that is neutral, and finally mark with red<br />
anything that could be misinterpreted or seen in a<br />
negative light.<br />
How are the colours distributed? Page one should be<br />
primarily green. <strong>Your</strong> personal details may be yellow,<br />
but the rest of the content should all be making a<br />
positive contribution. There should be no red. If there<br />
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Review two<br />
Review three<br />
is, work out ways of either omitting it or presenting it in<br />
a different light. At very least, it should be relegated<br />
to page two. Page two may have more yellow<br />
amongst the green and if there are any unavoidable<br />
‘red sections’ in your career history on this page, they<br />
should be reduced as far as possible so that they do<br />
not distract attention away from.<br />
Put yourself into the shoes of a recruiter, imagine you<br />
don’t know this person and read your resume through<br />
with a fresh pair of eyes. What do you think of it when<br />
seen from this perspective? How would you judge this<br />
person if you had never met them? Would you<br />
consider inviting them for interview?<br />
Read it out loud, slowly, as if you were reading it to<br />
the recruiter. This is a great way of making you slow<br />
down and focus on every word. You may well spot<br />
typos and grammatical errors as you do this. It will<br />
also help you see where you have used incoherent or<br />
pretentious language.<br />
Go back to the classic mistakes listed on pages 13-14.<br />
Have you fallen into any of the traps?<br />
===========================<br />
Now that you have undertaken your own review of<br />
your <strong>CV</strong>, it is time to get an independent and outside<br />
view. This is what Step 11 is all about.<br />
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Step 11 – Get an independent view<br />
You may feel nervous about asking someone else to<br />
comment on your resume, but it is a really valuable<br />
way of getting feedback and you will find that others<br />
will spot things in your <strong>CV</strong> that you had not noticed, in<br />
spite of all the care and attention you have devoted<br />
to putting it together.<br />
From a friend<br />
Choose a friend who you trust to be supportive and<br />
constructive in their comments. Perhaps the safest<br />
way to do this is to agree to comment on each<br />
others’ resumes and to give each other both positive<br />
feedback as well as constructive criticism.<br />
Key points to cover…<br />
• What do you like about the <strong>CV</strong> and what<br />
works well?<br />
• Are there any spelling mistakes, typos or<br />
grammatical errors?<br />
• What is the general impact of the <strong>CV</strong>?<br />
• Does it represent you accurately and<br />
positively?<br />
• What does it say about your ‘brand’?<br />
• Is the writing style clear and appropriate to<br />
the job/occupational area?<br />
• Is there any irrelevant material or<br />
unnecessary repetition?<br />
• Does it pass the ‘arm’s length test’?<br />
• What suggestions do they have for changes<br />
and improvements – and why do they think<br />
they will help?<br />
• Would you interview me on the basis of this<br />
<strong>CV</strong>?<br />
Remember, however, that this is a friend, not an HR<br />
professional or a recruiter. By all means listen carefully<br />
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to their feedback, but don’t feel you have to take<br />
every word of it on board. At the same time, if they<br />
have used some good ideas in their <strong>CV</strong> that you had<br />
not thought of, don’t hesitate to use them. Have a<br />
discussion with them about what will work and what<br />
won’t for this particular <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
From a professional<br />
Once you have asked a friend, you may want to get<br />
some professional advice too. This could still be<br />
informal – you may know someone who works in HR or<br />
in a recruitment agency, or perhaps you have a<br />
former colleague who was involved in recruitment.<br />
Feedback from someone who has been on the<br />
receiving end of <strong>CV</strong>s and resumes will give you a<br />
different take and could well save you from sending<br />
out something that would fail at the first hurdle.<br />
If you want more in depth feedback from a<br />
professional, you can pay for <strong>CV</strong> services. You will<br />
find more about this in the Need more help? section<br />
on page 100 below.<br />
…over to you<br />
Make a note of the comments and suggestions you have<br />
received. Which ones will you implement now? Which ones<br />
will you retain as good ideas for possible future use?<br />
=============================<br />
This brings us to the final <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Checklist<br />
which you will find in Step 12.<br />
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Step 12 - <strong>Your</strong> <strong>CV</strong> and <strong>Resume</strong> checklist<br />
Once you have completed your <strong>CV</strong> and got<br />
feedback form others, use this checklist as a final<br />
review of what you have done. Does your resume<br />
pass the test?<br />
There are two key questions to ask yourself:<br />
a) ‘So what?’ Look at every bit of information you<br />
have included and see if it passes the ‘so what’ test.<br />
Does it really add something useful to the case you<br />
are making for yourself for this particular job or<br />
opportunity?<br />
b) Would I offer this person an interview if this is what<br />
they sent me? If the answer is, ‘hmmm, not sure’, then<br />
go back and revise it a bit more<br />
Before you started<br />
• Did you thoroughly research the company, the<br />
occupational area and the specific job you are<br />
applying for?<br />
• Did you review all your own experience and<br />
identify the key skills, qualities and experience that<br />
you have to offer?<br />
• Are you clear which of these are relevant to the<br />
job or opportunity you are applying for?<br />
• Did you conclude that you have got a lot to offer<br />
that overlaps with their needs and that you really<br />
want this job?<br />
• Did you consider the different styles of <strong>CV</strong> or<br />
resume and work out which one would serve you<br />
best this time?<br />
• Did you review the headings you would use,<br />
omitting the ones that were not relevant and<br />
adding new ones if they seemed appropriate?<br />
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Look and feel<br />
• Does it pass the ‘arm’s length test?’<br />
• Is your name clearly stated at the top of your <strong>CV</strong> in<br />
a large font?<br />
• Does the <strong>CV</strong> look professional and business-like?<br />
• Does it reflect your ‘brand’?<br />
• Have you thoroughly checked it for spelling,<br />
grammar and correct use of language?<br />
• Have you double-checked all the dates for<br />
accuracy?<br />
• Does it follow a consistent layout? Do the dates<br />
follow in the same order for both your education<br />
and employment sections?<br />
• Is the most relevant information given higher<br />
priority and more space?<br />
• Is the most important information on page one?<br />
• Have you used relevant keywords, generally on<br />
the left of the page and bolded where<br />
appropriate?<br />
• Do your section headings stand out clearly?<br />
• Do the headings accurately reflect what the<br />
sections contain?<br />
• Is it easy to read and are fonts consistent<br />
throughout?<br />
• Does it fit on to your chosen one or two pages<br />
without looking crowded?<br />
• Have you checked that you have not split a<br />
section over two pages?<br />
• Have you used positive action words?<br />
• Is your <strong>CV</strong> a good demonstration of your written<br />
communication skills?<br />
• Is it jargon free?<br />
• Does it have a positive, upbeat tone?<br />
Personal details<br />
• Is your personal information accurate and up-to<br />
date?<br />
• Will the employer be able to contact you easily at<br />
the address given?<br />
• Have you included landline, mobile and email<br />
address?<br />
• Is your email address appropriate for business use?<br />
• Have you left out unnecessary details such as<br />
marital status, number of children and driving<br />
licence?<br />
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• Have you included a suitable website you can<br />
direct recruiters to? If not, could you create one?<br />
• Have you checked and double checked all the<br />
dates for absolute accuracy?<br />
<strong>Your</strong> profile<br />
• Does your profile present you in a positive light?<br />
• Does it focus on what you can offer?<br />
• Does it make a strong link to the post you are now<br />
applying for?<br />
Education and training<br />
• Does this section include more than a mere listing<br />
of places of study and qualifications?<br />
• Have you considered whether it is in your interest<br />
to include or exclude exam grades?<br />
• Have you listed your most recent or important<br />
qualifications first?<br />
• Are the dates clear – but just listed as years, not<br />
months?<br />
• Have you mentioned your dissertation – if it is<br />
relevant to the job?<br />
• Have you mentioned any scholarships or awards<br />
that would show relevant skills?<br />
• Have you included additional professional training<br />
since you left full time education?<br />
• Have you included any additional short courses<br />
you have attended? Are they relevant?<br />
Work experience<br />
• Have you included all your experience of work –<br />
full-time, part-time and voluntary?<br />
• If not, have you left out anything that could have<br />
worked in your favour by demonstrating useful<br />
transferable skills?<br />
• Is it listed in reverse chronological order to match<br />
your education?<br />
• Does it work better for you to split your work<br />
experience into ‘relevant’ and ‘other’ to allow you<br />
to highlight the most important experiences first?<br />
• Have you provided greater detail on more<br />
relevant experience?<br />
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• Have you highlighted the skills you have<br />
developed rather than just listing duties?<br />
• Have you mentioned any key successes or<br />
achievements at work?<br />
• Have you grouped similar jobs together if you are<br />
short of space or have an extensive work history?<br />
Skills, qualities, experience & achievements<br />
Interests<br />
• Have you clearly demonstrated evidence of the<br />
skills outlined in the advert, job specification or<br />
employer's promotional material?<br />
• Have you used examples to demonstrate these<br />
skills, quantifying outcomes where possible?<br />
• Have you drawn evidence from all areas of your<br />
life including home, academic, work, hobbies &<br />
interests etc.?<br />
• Have you highlighted relevant achievements?<br />
• Have you used this section to demonstrate more of<br />
the skills and competencies the employer is looking<br />
for?<br />
• Do you say what you have gained or learned from<br />
your various interests?<br />
• Have you concentrated on a few key interests with<br />
some explanation rather than giving a long list?<br />
• Does this section add something positive to your<br />
resume about the kind of person you are?<br />
References<br />
• If you are including addresses of referees, have<br />
you asked their permission and explained what sort<br />
of opportunities you are applying for?<br />
• Are you confident they will write a good reference<br />
for you?<br />
• Have you included their name, position, address,<br />
phone number and email address?<br />
• Can they be contacted easily?<br />
• If you have run out of space have you added the<br />
line: 'Names and addresses of referees can be<br />
supplied on request'.<br />
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Finally<br />
• Have you had your <strong>CV</strong> reviewed by someone else<br />
to make sure it is error free and reads well?<br />
• Have you got the correct details of the person you<br />
are sending it to?<br />
Congratulations - you’re done!<br />
If you have carefully worked through the 12 Steps in<br />
this Action Guide, you should now have a well<br />
researched, carefully targeted resume which you can<br />
be confident will have a positive impact on the<br />
recruiter you have designed it for. You will also have<br />
created a <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Master File which will ensure<br />
that you have all the relevant information at your<br />
fingertips and will enable you to put your next <strong>CV</strong><br />
together with much less effort.<br />
For a few final tips on getting your <strong>CV</strong> right, just read<br />
through the remaining sections of this workbook.<br />
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What to leave out of your <strong>Resume</strong><br />
Date of birth<br />
Gender<br />
We have talked a lot about what to put in to your <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
Is there anything that you should definitely leave out?<br />
Well, predictably, I have to say anything which does<br />
not add something positive to your marketing<br />
campaign. As we have said before, your <strong>CV</strong> is not<br />
just a ‘braindump’ of everything you can think of<br />
about your employment and education. It is a very<br />
carefully honed marketing campaign, targeted<br />
closely at a particular job and/or employer.<br />
So question everything that you are considering<br />
including and always ask if it adds to the case you<br />
are making.<br />
Here are a few hints as to what you should NOT<br />
normally include:<br />
Many countries now have legislation against<br />
discrimination on the grounds of age. <strong>Your</strong> age really<br />
should not be a factor in any recruitment decision so<br />
it is not really relevant to your case. The recruiter will<br />
of course be able to make a rough guess from the<br />
dates of your education and the extent of your<br />
employment history, but you don’t need to highlight it<br />
– especially if you still feel concerned that old<br />
fashioned age prejudices may influence decisions<br />
made.<br />
The same applies as above. <strong>Your</strong> name will of course<br />
indicate your gender in most cases, but if you have a<br />
unisex name like Chris or Sandeep, don’t feel obliged<br />
to add Mr or Ms to your name or to specify your<br />
gender. The recruiter should be making their<br />
selection decisions based on your skills and<br />
experience, so keep them focused on that. If your<br />
gender is unclear from your name, you may get<br />
letters addressed to Mr when you are a Ms – but does<br />
that really bother you?<br />
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Marital status and children<br />
Nationality<br />
Health issues<br />
Recruiters really do not need to know whether you<br />
are married or not or whether you have children.<br />
When you are applying for a job, keep then focused<br />
on what you can do, on how you can meet their<br />
needs and do the job to a high standard. Discussions<br />
of how your home life<br />
might impact on your work and about whether you<br />
have or are planning a family are inappropriate.<br />
Don’t invite them by mentioning these issues.<br />
Generally speaking, this is another issue you do not<br />
need to raise on a <strong>CV</strong> or resume. The exception<br />
might be where there could be concerns about your<br />
right to work in the country. If you think this could be<br />
a concern, you may wish to reassure them that you<br />
have a work permit.<br />
You do not need to disclose any health issues,<br />
temporary or permanent, at this stage. Equal<br />
opportunities legislation will usually mean that a future<br />
employer should take action to enable you to work<br />
and provide additional support to make this possible.<br />
However, these are issues for you to raise at interview<br />
– preferably at the end once you are confident that<br />
you have made a strong case for yourself and<br />
demonstrated you are a good fit for the job.<br />
Religious or political convictions<br />
These are best left off a <strong>CV</strong>. Exceptions are of course<br />
where they are central to the role eg church based<br />
work or political positions.<br />
Why you are leaving your current job<br />
There is no need to go into your reasons for leaving<br />
your current job, especially if there are some<br />
negatives in your motivation. You could be fed up<br />
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Current salary<br />
Failures<br />
with the company politics and in-fighting, maybe you<br />
don’t get on with your current boss, or perhaps you<br />
are just bored with an undemanding role. Leave any<br />
discussion of your motivation to the interview stage,<br />
where you can present the issues in a positive light.<br />
An exception might be if you have been made<br />
redundant. This does not hold the stigma it may have<br />
done in the past and often simply arises as a result of<br />
company restructuring. For many people, once they<br />
have got over the initial shock, redundancy can be a<br />
great opportunity. Make sure you indicate that you<br />
see it that way to any future employers.<br />
The best place to discuss salary is at the end of an<br />
interview when you have got a better idea of how<br />
strongly you have been able to make a case for<br />
yourself.<br />
If you put your current salary – or the salary you are<br />
aspiring to – you may put a recruiter off before you<br />
have started. Pitch it too low and they think you are<br />
lacking experience or confidence in your abilities.<br />
Pitch it too high and you are out of the frame before<br />
you have begun.<br />
<strong>Your</strong> resume is a place to celebrate the best of you,<br />
to show yourself off in a positive light and impress a<br />
recruiter. It is likely that we all have failures or have<br />
made mistakes at some point in our working lives, but<br />
there is no need to draw attention to them. Weak<br />
exam grades or failures are a good example. Just<br />
omit the grades if you think they will harm your case.<br />
If your ‘failures’ are difficult to hide eg your business<br />
went bust or you were sacked, simply mention the<br />
briefest of facts in your resume and draw attention to<br />
what you learned from the experience.<br />
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Humour<br />
Last but not least, don’t crack jokes. They rarely work<br />
on paper and are likely to irritate the reader rather<br />
than entertain. You want them to see that you are<br />
taking this job application process seriously. If you are<br />
a natural joker, save if for after you have got the job!<br />
…over to you<br />
Make a note here of anything you need to be sure that you<br />
omit from your <strong>CV</strong>. Are there any weak spots or failures that<br />
could work against you?<br />
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Additional tips<br />
Don’t tell lies<br />
There can be a great temptation when preparing a<br />
resume for a job you really, really want, to start<br />
stretching the truth a little - and it is more common<br />
that you might think for applicants to put out and out<br />
lies on their <strong>CV</strong>. What is the harm, you might say, in<br />
just exaggerating a little bit? I have one answer to<br />
that question…<br />
Don’t do it – it is just not worth the risk.<br />
If you lie about qualifications, what happens when<br />
they ask to see the certificates or say they will follow<br />
up with your school or college? If you claim to have<br />
skills you haven’t got, what happens when on day<br />
one of your new job they expect you to tackle<br />
something you can’t do? What happens when the<br />
interviewer starts probing you for more detail about a<br />
project you say you led and your story begins to look<br />
a bit thin? You want to be able to put on a polished<br />
and confident performance at interview, and if you<br />
are wrong-footed by an interviewer asking you about<br />
a ‘creative’ aspect of your <strong>CV</strong>, you could easily blow<br />
the whole thing.<br />
All of the above scenarios will expose you as<br />
someone who cannot be trusted. If you are found<br />
out at interview, this will mean that everything else<br />
you claim will be doubted and you will certainly not<br />
be offered the job. If you are found out after you<br />
have been appointed, the recruiter has good reason<br />
to fire you immediately and they probably will.<br />
The flip side of this coin, however, is that you are not<br />
obliged to reveal weaknesses that may detract from<br />
your application. <strong>Your</strong> resume should not be a ‘warts<br />
and all’ version of your career history. <strong>Your</strong> aim is to<br />
present a positive message, and that definitely does<br />
not include drawing attention to any weaknesses you<br />
may have.<br />
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Using <strong>CV</strong> / <strong>Resume</strong> templates<br />
You will find a host of templates available on the<br />
internet and Word offers a selection too. My<br />
suggestion would be to take a look at them for ideas,<br />
but to avoid using them directly.<br />
If you have come this far with this workbook, you will<br />
know by now that your <strong>CV</strong> should be individual and<br />
unique to you and to the particular role you are<br />
applying for. If you try and shoehorn yourself into a<br />
standard template, you will immediately lose the<br />
flexibility of presenting yourself in a unique way to<br />
closely match the needs of a recruiter.<br />
So my view on templates is to use them for ideas, but<br />
not to imagine that they will offer an easy way out of<br />
producing you own unique sales proposition.<br />
<strong>Your</strong> online identity<br />
Remember we talked about the resume being part of<br />
your overall brand? It is important to realise that your<br />
brand is made up of much more than what you<br />
present in the two pages of your <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
Have you thought about what is already out there in<br />
cyberspace about you? It is important to bear in<br />
mind that future employers may just type your name<br />
into Google and see what comes up.<br />
Have you tried that yet? You might be interested to<br />
see what shows up. Take some time to review your<br />
presence on the internet, especially on social<br />
networking sites. Does it present the image of you<br />
that you would want a future employer to see?<br />
If the impression is not quite what you want a future<br />
employer to see, don’t panic, this is an area where<br />
you can actively manage the impression you make.<br />
Review how you use sites such as Facebook or<br />
MySpace, and adjust the security settings to limit<br />
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access if necessary. You might want to cull some of<br />
the pictures you may have posted.<br />
You should also consider creating a business profile<br />
on sites such as LinkedIn and Ecademy.<br />
<strong>Your</strong> own website<br />
And if you want to be more proactive in creating your<br />
online identity, what about creating your own website<br />
or blog?<br />
A simple website can be used as a kind of extended<br />
resume, which allows you to offer much more<br />
information than you would be able to fit on to a <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
Make sure it is appropriate to your occupation and<br />
level and that you are happy for a recruiter to see it.<br />
Ask yourself if it presents your ‘brand’ effectively.<br />
And a website offers you a great opportunity to post<br />
a short video too. They say a picture is worth a<br />
thousand words so a well made video must be worth<br />
even more than that. It allows you to showcase<br />
something of who you are and can also<br />
communicate energy, drive and professionalism.<br />
Videos can be made quickly and easily these days,<br />
but as before, take your time to ensure that it presents<br />
you in the best possible light.<br />
You really can get the internet to work for you these<br />
days if you use it intelligently. If you haven’t got the<br />
technical skills, then consider asking a friend to help or<br />
you may even decide it is worth paying someone to<br />
help you to develop your online identity.<br />
Applying via the internet<br />
You may well find you are asked to apply online or<br />
submit your <strong>CV</strong> or resume electronically. So what do<br />
you need to watch out for here?<br />
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There is something so very instant about online<br />
applications that it is very easy to just fire something<br />
off in a hurry without really thinking it through. Maybe<br />
you have only just seen the vacancy and the<br />
deadline is coming up, so you are rushing to put an<br />
application together. Before you click send, always<br />
stop and ask yourself, ‘do I really want this job? (and if<br />
you say yes, I want any job, that is not the right<br />
answer!)<br />
Recruiters will spot hurried and ill considered<br />
applications a mile off and they will be rejected out<br />
of hand in favour of any candidate who has shown<br />
that they have made some effort to present<br />
themselves appropriately. So knee-jerk applications<br />
will be a waste of your time and the recruiters’.<br />
If you do decide to apply, you will be tempted to do<br />
a cut and paste job from an old <strong>CV</strong> or an application<br />
form you have kept from a<br />
previous job or to lift sections from your <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong><br />
Master File. By all means use the benefits that<br />
technology offers to save time, but always go through<br />
the careful matching process outlined in this<br />
workbook to be sure that you are meeting the<br />
employer’s needs.<br />
And on a practical note, if you are cutting and<br />
pasting into a web based form, it is usually a good<br />
idea to drop your copy into a plain text file like<br />
Notepad first so that you don’t get weird formatting<br />
appearing in the online version.<br />
On the issue of formatting going wrong, if you have<br />
spent a lot of time making your <strong>CV</strong> look really<br />
professional, matching headings, aligning columns<br />
and so on, you might prefer to convert it to a pdf<br />
before you send it as an email attachment. This way<br />
you can be sure that all your hard work is preserved<br />
when it is opened at the other end.<br />
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Keyword scanning<br />
If you are applying through a recruitment agency or<br />
to a large company, the first stage of selection may<br />
be done electronically. This means your resume will<br />
be scanned for certain keywords and the computer<br />
will need to pick up a suitable ‘match’ before passing<br />
your application on to the next round.<br />
Clearly the trick here is to do your best to second<br />
guess the keywords a company will be looking for. In<br />
the case of hard technical skills, this is relatively<br />
straightforward – specific software or hardware skills<br />
may be needed, for example. In the case of softer<br />
skills, your best bet is to read the job advert, the Job<br />
Description and Person Specification carefully and<br />
identify the ‘essentials’ the recruiter is seeking.<br />
Make sure you use the same words on your <strong>CV</strong>, not<br />
synonyms. And watch out for typos – if you are<br />
claiming familiarity with Excel, but have typed it Exel,<br />
the computer keyword checker will pass you by.<br />
Do you dare to be different?<br />
Most people suggest that you should err on the side<br />
of caution with <strong>CV</strong>s and resumes, keeping them<br />
simple and conservative in style. Generally speaking,<br />
I would agree with this. The world of recruitment<br />
tends to favour a more conservative approach<br />
But you might be wondering whether it would be<br />
worth being a bit quirky or unusual, because this will<br />
catch the reader’s eye. After all you want your<br />
resume to jump out of the pile of 100 the recruiter has<br />
to wade through, don’t you?<br />
Well, perhaps…<br />
There is a place for being different with your resume,<br />
but it will not always have the effect you want. Think<br />
very carefully about whether it will work for or against<br />
you. If in doubt, play safe.<br />
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The key question is ‘what kind of company or<br />
organisation are you applying to?’ Exceptions to the<br />
above ‘play safe’ rule might be if you are aiming for a<br />
highly creative role, say in a design company or an<br />
advertising agency. In cases where the key quality<br />
the employer is looking for is the ability to come up<br />
with new and inventive ideas, then at very least, the<br />
layout of your <strong>CV</strong> should be a demonstration of your<br />
design approach. You may want to go a step further<br />
and come up with a really creative version, your <strong>CV</strong><br />
could be a place to demonstrate this (I have seen 3D<br />
<strong>CV</strong>s, ones laid out like a page from a magazine and<br />
one like a calendar with content on each ‘month’).<br />
On the other hand, a portfolio of your work could do<br />
the same, leaving your resume does the plain talking<br />
for you.<br />
When NOT to use a <strong>CV</strong> or resume<br />
Don’t send a <strong>CV</strong> or resume to apply for a job if you<br />
have been asked to submit an application form!<br />
You would think this is pretty obvious, but it happens<br />
surprisingly often. Recruiters use application forms for<br />
a reason. They want to collect specific information<br />
from you framed in a set of standard questions so that<br />
it is easier to compare applicants.<br />
An application form that is only partly filled in and just<br />
says ‘see attached resume’ implies that you are a)<br />
unable to follow instructions and b) not willing to put<br />
yourself out in any way to meet the recruiter’s needs.<br />
If you give out the underlying message that you can’t<br />
be bothered, then the recruiter is very likely not to be<br />
bothered with you either!<br />
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Need more help?<br />
<strong>CV</strong> & resume writing agencies<br />
You may be thinking that all this sounds like hard work<br />
and be feeling tempted to just turn to a <strong>CV</strong> or resume<br />
writing agency.<br />
Think carefully. The quality of <strong>CV</strong> produced by such<br />
agencies varies enormously and the price is not<br />
always the best indicator of quality though a good<br />
result will certainly cost you.<br />
But the quality is heavily dependent on the amount of<br />
time the resume writer spends with you, finding out<br />
about who you are, what you are ‘selling’ and who<br />
you are pitching to. Essentially they need to interview<br />
you in detail to find out all the information you will<br />
identify for yourself with this workbook. If you have<br />
not already done the thinking for yourself, it will be<br />
hard for them to tease that information out of you in a<br />
half hour phone call or meeting.<br />
At the end of the day, it is only too easy for a<br />
professionally written <strong>CV</strong> to come across as a bit<br />
sterile and formulaic and this is the last impression you<br />
want to give, whatever job you are applying for.<br />
As we have said before, your <strong>CV</strong> is part of your overall<br />
brand and to my mind, this means it has to be your<br />
own work as only you know yourself inside out.<br />
<strong>Career</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> <strong>Coaching</strong><br />
As you may know from my websites How To Change<br />
<strong>Career</strong>s and <strong>Career</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> <strong>Coaching</strong>, I have worked as<br />
a careers professional for nearly 25 years now, so if<br />
you are still struggling with your <strong>CV</strong> or resume or<br />
would like to have an objective perspective on your<br />
efforts, I would be happy to help.<br />
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I offer a comprehensive Job Search Programme<br />
which includes support with general job search<br />
strategies, <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> help and assistance with<br />
interview technique, including mock interviews.<br />
Please note that I do not offer a <strong>CV</strong> / resume writing<br />
service as I strongly believe that with the right support,<br />
it is best for you to produce your own <strong>CV</strong>.<br />
<strong>Career</strong> MOT<br />
If you need wider ranging help with your career and<br />
are considering a complete career change but don’t<br />
know where to begin, then why not take a look at my<br />
complimentary <strong>Career</strong> MOT. I offer a limited number<br />
of these sessions each month, so if you are interested,<br />
sign up on my site and you will then receive a<br />
questionnaire which will help me assess your suitability.<br />
Follow this <strong>Career</strong> MOT link to find out more.<br />
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<strong>Your</strong> <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Toolkit<br />
• Job Analysis Worksheet<br />
• Skills Prompt List<br />
• Evidence Record<br />
• Referees Record<br />
• Action Words Prompt List<br />
• <strong>CV</strong> & <strong>Resume</strong> Checklist<br />
• Sample <strong>CV</strong>s & <strong>Resume</strong>s<br />
• Recommended Resources<br />
• Additional Notes Sheets<br />
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Job Analysis Worksheet<br />
When you are reviewing what you have to offer as part of<br />
your preparation for putting your <strong>CV</strong> together, it is time well<br />
spent if you analyse all the jobs you have done to see what<br />
they reveal about the experience, knowledge, skills,<br />
achievements you have.<br />
Use a copy of this worksheet for each job you have done as<br />
a prompt to your thinking. Include voluntary and part-time<br />
roles as you are learning and gaining experience from every<br />
experience of work you have had.<br />
Job<br />
Title……………………………………………………………………<br />
Start and end dates……………………………………………….<br />
What did your Job Description require you to do?<br />
What did you do over and above the requirements of your<br />
job?<br />
123<br />
Continued over…
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What new things did you take on that you had not done<br />
before?<br />
What additional training (formal or informal) did you<br />
receive?<br />
What achievements (projects, initiatives, new ideas<br />
implemented etc) were you particularly proud of?<br />
What examples of positive feedback did you get from your<br />
manager, your colleagues and/or your clients?<br />
124<br />
Continued over…
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Skills Assessment<br />
Now list in detail the tasks your job involved and then review<br />
what skills you were using to carry out each task. If you find<br />
it difficult to identify skills, take a look at the Skills Prompt List<br />
also in this Toolkit. Another good idea is to do this exercise<br />
with a friend or colleague, who can help you to pin down<br />
the skills you have developed through your work.<br />
Task Skills used<br />
This list will become a useful source of evidence for the skills<br />
you are claiming you have, so refer back to it as you<br />
assemble your resume.<br />
This is a useful exercise for non-work activities too. Review<br />
what you do outside of work, such as clubs, committees,<br />
volunteering etc - you are developing and using skills there<br />
too.<br />
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Skills Prompt List<br />
Feeling stuck when trying to identify your skills? It is always a<br />
good idea to start with the job and the tasks you have<br />
done, but if you find your mind going blank when you try to<br />
analyse what skills you have used, just turn to this list as a<br />
prompt.<br />
Accounting<br />
Accuracy<br />
Adaptability<br />
Administration<br />
Advising<br />
Ambition<br />
Analysing<br />
Anticipating<br />
Appreciating others<br />
Arbitration<br />
Assembling<br />
Assertiveness<br />
Attention to detail<br />
Auditing<br />
Being methodical<br />
Business awareness<br />
Budgeting<br />
Calculating<br />
Caring<br />
Change management<br />
Committee work<br />
Common sense<br />
Communicating<br />
Completing tasks<br />
Computing<br />
Confidence<br />
Consulting<br />
Controlling<br />
Co-operating<br />
Co-ordinating<br />
Coping with pressure<br />
Counselling<br />
Creativity<br />
Customer care<br />
Debating<br />
Decisiveness<br />
Delegating<br />
Designing<br />
126<br />
Developing<br />
Devising<br />
Diplomacy<br />
Discovering<br />
Displaying<br />
Drawing<br />
Drive<br />
Dynamism<br />
Editing<br />
Emotional intelligence<br />
Empathy<br />
Energy<br />
Enforcing<br />
Entertaining<br />
Enthusiasm<br />
Evaluating<br />
Examining<br />
Experimenting<br />
Explaining<br />
Facilitating<br />
Filing<br />
Financial management<br />
Finishing<br />
Fixing<br />
Flexibility<br />
Forecasting<br />
Fund raising<br />
Generating ideas<br />
Good humour<br />
Guiding<br />
Hypothesising<br />
Imagination<br />
Impartiality<br />
Implementing<br />
Improving<br />
Improvising<br />
Independence<br />
Influencing
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Initiating<br />
Initiative<br />
Innovating<br />
Insight<br />
Inspiring others<br />
Instructing<br />
Intelligence<br />
Interpreting – languages<br />
Interpreting - information<br />
Interviewing<br />
Intuition<br />
Investigating<br />
Inventiveness<br />
Investing<br />
Judgement<br />
Kindness<br />
Knowledge sharing<br />
Languages<br />
Lateral thinking<br />
Leadership<br />
Learning<br />
Lecturing<br />
Listening<br />
Logical thinking<br />
Managing information<br />
Manual dexterity<br />
Marketing<br />
Mediating<br />
Meeting deadlines<br />
Memorising<br />
Motivating – self<br />
Motivating – others<br />
Multi-tasking<br />
Musical performance<br />
Negotiating<br />
Networking<br />
Numeracy<br />
Observing<br />
Open-mindedness<br />
Oral communication<br />
Organising<br />
Perceiving<br />
Performing<br />
Persistence<br />
Persuading<br />
127<br />
Photography<br />
Physical fitness<br />
<strong>Plan</strong>ning<br />
Positive attitude<br />
Precision<br />
Preparing<br />
Presenting<br />
Prioritising<br />
Pro-activity<br />
Problem solving<br />
Programming<br />
Proof reading<br />
Publicising<br />
Questioning<br />
Rapport building<br />
Reading<br />
Reasoning<br />
Recruiting<br />
Referring<br />
Reliability<br />
Reporting<br />
Representing<br />
Researching<br />
Resilience<br />
Responsibility<br />
Reviewing<br />
Searching<br />
Self awareness<br />
Self starter<br />
Selling<br />
Social skills<br />
Solution-focus<br />
Strategic perspective<br />
Summarising<br />
Supervising<br />
Teaching<br />
Team work<br />
Time management<br />
Training<br />
Translating<br />
Understanding –<br />
data/things<br />
Understanding – people<br />
Vision<br />
Visualising<br />
Writing
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Evidence Record<br />
Skill, strength, achievement or<br />
quality<br />
128<br />
Evidence demonstrating when you<br />
have used this effectively
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Name<br />
Position<br />
Address<br />
Referees Record<br />
Use this grid to keep a record of people who could act as<br />
referees for you.<br />
Email<br />
Phone number<br />
Comments<br />
Contacted……………………………<br />
Agreed………………………….Y / N<br />
Name<br />
Position<br />
Address<br />
Email<br />
Phone number<br />
Comments<br />
Contacted……………………………<br />
Agreed………………………….Y / N<br />
Name<br />
Position<br />
Address<br />
Email<br />
Phone number<br />
Comments<br />
Contacted……………………………<br />
Agreed………………………….Y / N<br />
129<br />
Name<br />
Position<br />
Address<br />
Email<br />
Phone number<br />
Comments<br />
Contacted……………………………<br />
Agreed………………………….Y / N<br />
Name<br />
Position<br />
Address<br />
Email<br />
Phone number<br />
Comments<br />
Contacted……………………………<br />
Agreed………………………….Y / N<br />
Name<br />
Position<br />
Address<br />
Email<br />
Phone number<br />
Comments<br />
Contacted……………………………<br />
Agreed………………………….Y / N
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Action Words Prompt List<br />
A<br />
Accomplished<br />
Achieved<br />
Acquainted<br />
Acquired<br />
Activated<br />
Adapted<br />
Addressed<br />
Accelerated<br />
Administered<br />
Advised<br />
Amended<br />
Amplified<br />
Analysed<br />
Anticipated<br />
Applied<br />
Appraised<br />
Approved<br />
Arbitrated<br />
Arranged<br />
Assembled<br />
Assessed<br />
Assimilated<br />
Assisted<br />
Attained<br />
Audited<br />
Authorised<br />
Averted<br />
B<br />
Balanced<br />
Bought<br />
Budgeted<br />
Built<br />
C<br />
Calculated<br />
Captured<br />
Cared for<br />
Categorised<br />
Centralised<br />
Charted<br />
Checked<br />
Coached<br />
Collaborated<br />
Collated<br />
Collected<br />
Combined<br />
Commanded<br />
Compiled<br />
Completed<br />
Composed<br />
Compounded<br />
Computed<br />
Conceived<br />
Concluded<br />
Condensed<br />
Conducted<br />
Confirmed<br />
Consolidated<br />
Constructed<br />
Consulted<br />
Contracted<br />
Contributed<br />
130<br />
Controlled<br />
Converted<br />
Conveyed<br />
Convinced<br />
Co-opted<br />
Co-ordinated<br />
Corrected<br />
Corresponded<br />
Counselled<br />
Created<br />
Criticised<br />
Customised<br />
Cut<br />
D<br />
Decentralised<br />
Decided<br />
Decreased<br />
Defined<br />
Delegated<br />
Delivered<br />
Demonstrated<br />
Designed<br />
Detected<br />
Determined<br />
Developed<br />
Devised<br />
Diagnosed<br />
Directed<br />
Discharged<br />
Discovered<br />
Dispensed
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G<br />
Invented<br />
Disposed<br />
Disproved<br />
Distributed<br />
Diversified<br />
Documented<br />
Doubled<br />
Drove<br />
E<br />
Earned<br />
Edited<br />
Effected<br />
Eliminated<br />
Enabled<br />
Enacted<br />
Encouraged<br />
Enforced<br />
Engaged<br />
Engineered<br />
Enlarged<br />
Ensured<br />
Established<br />
Estimated<br />
Evaluated<br />
Expanded<br />
F<br />
Facilitated<br />
Familiarised<br />
Forecast<br />
Formed<br />
Formulated<br />
Founded<br />
Gained<br />
Generated<br />
Guided<br />
H<br />
Handled<br />
Helped<br />
I<br />
Identified<br />
Imparted<br />
Implemented<br />
Improved<br />
Improvised<br />
Inaugurated<br />
Incorporated<br />
Increased<br />
Indicated<br />
Influenced<br />
Initiated<br />
Inspected<br />
Inspired<br />
Installed<br />
Instigated<br />
Instituted<br />
Instructed<br />
Insured<br />
Integrated<br />
Interacted<br />
Interpreted<br />
Intervened<br />
Interviewed<br />
Introduced<br />
131<br />
Invested<br />
Investigated<br />
Involved<br />
J<br />
Judged<br />
L<br />
Launched<br />
Led<br />
Learned<br />
Lectured<br />
Liaised<br />
M<br />
Maintained<br />
Maintained<br />
Managed<br />
Marketed<br />
Measured<br />
Mediated<br />
Merged<br />
Minimised<br />
Modernised<br />
Modified<br />
Monitored<br />
Motivated<br />
N<br />
Negotiated<br />
Networked<br />
O<br />
Observed<br />
Obtained<br />
Operated
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Organised<br />
Purchased<br />
Scheduled<br />
Originated<br />
Oversaw<br />
P<br />
Participated<br />
Performed<br />
Persevered<br />
Persuaded<br />
Pioneered<br />
<strong>Plan</strong>ned<br />
Positioned<br />
Predicted<br />
Prepared<br />
Presented<br />
Prevented<br />
Prioritised<br />
Procured<br />
Produced<br />
Programmed<br />
Progressed<br />
Promoted<br />
Prompted<br />
Proposed<br />
Protected<br />
Proved<br />
Published<br />
Q<br />
Qualified<br />
Quantified<br />
Questioned<br />
R<br />
Ran (e.g. an<br />
event)<br />
Realised<br />
Recommended<br />
Recorded<br />
Recruited<br />
Redesigned<br />
Reduced<br />
Regulated<br />
Reorganised<br />
Represented<br />
Researched<br />
Resolved<br />
Resourced<br />
Responsible for<br />
Reviewed<br />
Revised<br />
Revitalised<br />
Revived<br />
S<br />
Saved<br />
132<br />
Selected<br />
Served<br />
Set up<br />
Shaped<br />
Simplified<br />
Solved<br />
Specified<br />
Staffed<br />
Standardised<br />
Stimulated<br />
Streamlined<br />
Strengthened<br />
Structured<br />
Succeeded<br />
Supervised<br />
Supported<br />
T<br />
Tested<br />
Trained<br />
Translated<br />
V<br />
Verified<br />
W<br />
Won<br />
..and there are<br />
many more
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
Sample <strong>CV</strong>s and <strong>Resume</strong>s<br />
Sorry to disappoint you here, but I do not want to<br />
distract you by giving you examples.<br />
Why is that?<br />
From my experience, there is an enormous risk that<br />
you will just take a quick look, decided you like one or<br />
the other of them and then copy it slavishly.<br />
I want you to think carefully about what will make<br />
your resume really work for you, on each particular<br />
occasion you prepare it.<br />
I want you to create a look and feel that reflects the<br />
brand you are projecting.<br />
And I also want you to stay flexible, so that if a<br />
particular situation arises, you may decide to change<br />
the way your resume looks as well as the story it tells.<br />
If you are really desperate for examples, just type ‘cv<br />
examples’ or ‘resume samples’ into Google, or take a<br />
look at some of the Microsoft templates. But then use<br />
what you have learned from going through this<br />
workbook to adapt and adjust them to meet you<br />
particular needs.<br />
133
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
Recommended Resources<br />
Websites<br />
How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s<br />
www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
A comprehensive guide to making a successful career<br />
change.<br />
<strong>Career</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> <strong>Coaching</strong><br />
www.career-plan-coaching.com<br />
A guide to career coaching services available from Cherry<br />
Douglas.<br />
VIA Survey of Character Strengths<br />
http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/default.asp<br />
x<br />
Professional <strong>Resume</strong>s<br />
http://www.professional-resume-example.com/<br />
One of the most comprehensive resume sites I have found<br />
with lots of great advice.<br />
Recruiters’ Pet Peeves<br />
http://content.monster.co.uk/9334_en-GB_p1.asp<br />
Plain English Campaign<br />
http://www.plainenglish.co.uk<br />
Advice on writing clear English<br />
http://www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/<br />
General tips on writing<br />
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/writing/<br />
134
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
Books<br />
<strong>CV</strong> Messages To Win Jobs<br />
John Lees<br />
High Impact <strong>CV</strong>s<br />
John Middleton<br />
Strengthsfinder 2.0<br />
Tom Rath<br />
Brand You<br />
John Purkiss & David Royston-Lee<br />
Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve <strong>Career</strong> Success<br />
Dan Schawbel<br />
Other ebooks by Cherry Douglas<br />
(available from the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website)<br />
Know <strong>Your</strong> Personality, Know <strong>Your</strong> <strong>Career</strong><br />
Want to know more about your personality and how it can<br />
guide you in making the right career choice?<br />
11¾ Ways To Kick Start <strong>Your</strong> <strong>Career</strong> Change<br />
If your commitment to career change is flagging, just dip in<br />
here for ideas to get the show back on the road again.<br />
135
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
Additional Notes<br />
136
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
Additional Notes<br />
137
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
Additional Notes<br />
138
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
About the author, Cherry Douglas<br />
Cherry Douglas<br />
Cherry Douglas is <strong>Your</strong><br />
<strong>Career</strong> Change Guide.<br />
I am a UK based professional<br />
career coach and career<br />
change consultant.<br />
I have been supporting<br />
people like you, with career<br />
choice, career change and<br />
job search issues for over 20<br />
years.<br />
I started my working life in retail management and quickly realised<br />
that the ‘helping people’ dimension of the job was of more interest<br />
and gave me more satisfaction than the commercial aspects.<br />
So I consulted a professional career coach for advice about my<br />
own career - and realised that the career coach’s job was just the<br />
kind of thing I was looking for myself. This convinced me to give up<br />
my job in retail management and return to college to study a<br />
postgraduate diploma in <strong>Career</strong>s Guidance.<br />
Since that day, I have never looked back, never regretted that<br />
move.<br />
My qualifications in psychology, coaching and careers guidance,<br />
as well as my extensive experience mean that I am very familiar<br />
with the steps and stages my clients need to go through to make a<br />
successful job application or career change.<br />
And having made career changes myself, I also understand the<br />
challenges and difficulties that you may be facing in dealing with<br />
your own career issues – and can probably help you too, to<br />
overcome your own problems and obstacles.<br />
Over the years, I have been privileged to work with hundreds of<br />
clients, helping them to find their way forward with their careers,<br />
supporting them with anything from a quick <strong>CV</strong> review to a<br />
complete career change.<br />
In addition I have on many occasions been on the other side of the<br />
desk in the recruitment process, so I understand exactly what it is<br />
139
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
like to sift through <strong>CV</strong>s and resumes, selecting candidates for short<br />
listing and to then continue with the interview and final selection<br />
process.<br />
This means that you can use the ideas in this <strong>Workbook</strong> with<br />
confidence, knowing that they are based on extensive knowledge<br />
and experience.<br />
I hope you find this workbook useful and that it helps you transform<br />
your <strong>CV</strong> or resume and get the job or career you are looking for.<br />
Feedback and comments<br />
I would love to hear your comments about this workbook. If you<br />
have found it helpful or have any suggestions for improvements,<br />
please get in touch with me via either of my websites.<br />
<strong>Career</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> <strong>Coaching</strong><br />
How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s<br />
I look forward to hearing from you!<br />
Cherry Douglas<br />
140
Visit the How To Change <strong>Career</strong>s website for the best advice on changing careers<br />
http://www.how-to-change-careers.com<br />
© Cherry Douglas, <strong>Your</strong> <strong>Career</strong> Change Guide<br />
2011<br />
141