cvservices.net : a better career : new approaches to cv content

Some CVs follow the US template from a WP program, which looks unoriginal, fails to carry structured information and usually relies on disembodied lists titled "Profile", "Objectives", "Achievements" or whatever.

The idea is right, to summarise what you are offering, but it really must be at-a-glance, not a great block of unconnected superlatives.

Design guideline: ignore the supposed distinctions between a CV and a resumé, between "chronological" and "functional". You normally need about 2 pages plus a great covering letter in whatever form works for you and your career path and it is perfectly possible to achieve all objectives with one well considered (and tweakable) document..

Many CVs follow an archaic British concept from the days of typing on stencils, huge lefthand margins, no attention to design or typesetting to make the document attractive

Are you trying to say that you are so inept with your WP program that you can only type in the default 12 point Times Roman that inevitably takes up 3 pages or more, that you are so useless with margins and paragraph styles that you cannot even fit your own CV to an attractive page? Time to re-invent your CV as a subtle and laid-back sales document (see solutions).

There are brave souls who actually think about design in an original way: unfortunately this often leads them to garish graphic effects, text boxes, charts, documents too complex to print and with fonts that recipient's may not have installed.

Avoid creating the impression that you feel design is more important than content; it makes you seem shallow; design must not overwhelm content, should use universal fonts in point sizes that fit and does not need shading, lines, boxes and graphics.

2) issues with content

The information has no overall plan; poor decisions have been taken in terms of what to give priority to, what headings and heading styles to use, how to prioritise information.
This tells people that you don't think clearly.

The information is stale and skimpy, often culled from job descriptions or assembled in an unstructured list.
This tells people that you cannot communicate.

The information falls between two stools. It attempts to be effective by quoting results and trying to paint a picture of roles as opposed to mere chronology but these things are not done well enough.

3) solutions to these issues (outline concepts)

The goal is a marriage of content and design.

Think of your CV design as a workspace, a framework for communication. Obviously you lead off with your name, but do you need all those personal details or can they be relegated to page 2?

Succinct introduction? Write it last when you know what your USPs really are.

In your case, what is most important? Work record? Technical skills? Education? Potential in a new career? Whatever it is, this is what demands prominence.

What else needs to be included and what simple heading style will works?

You now have a framework.

Marshall your basic information so that it can be placed within that workspace.

USPs: list the main points you need to get across; these might be: experience, track record, training, skills-mix; methodologies, change programmes, what it takes for a new type of role in a new sector. This mix will be summarised in your application letter and it can help to roughly draft that first.

Evidence: the rest is basically corroboration: be ruthless with irrelevant facts; summarise detail (they can ask at interview); build the job/role narrative to arouse interest.

The art of the edit: write freely at first then edit and edit again.

For each theme that you are working with (or each job you are describing), briefly:

create some context: company scenario; situation you first encountered; changes

illustrate your involvement: roles, levels, structures, visions, plans, implementations, initiatives, very briefly described

offer your results, which can go way beyond targets and figures; your new product saved the company from ruin; you gave a not-for-profit organisation a national profile; you revolutionised the way the company's business structures . . .

During any edit, some trace of the original complexity remains in the language like a homeopathic remedy. What you have discarded is not lost.

These topics are covered in greater depth in CV Sage with examples and exercises.
Take a look!