cvservices.net : a better career : positioning and strategy

Most of the people who contact me for help with their careers materials already have a reasonably good CV that they have spent a fair amount of time developing. Almost without exception they are not happy that the documents they are working with are getting the results they need.

Typical problems include people getting THANK YOU, WE’LL CONTACT YOU IF letters from agencies, or finding that people are talking to them about the wrong level of job, or getting no response at all.

Usually, and wrongly, they think that this is because they have not tailored the CV to that job, so they do another version. Or they read some rubbish about chronological versus functional CV’s and throw out all the good bits in order to switch horses. These things do not solve the problem because they are not the issue.

It is absolutely possible to produce one generic and perfect CV that covers everything, for that job and any other, both chronological and functional. You just need to be a good writer who knows how to achieve the virtually impossible goal - of a neat, brief, alive, informative and effective CV that hits the target and generates interest. This is described more fully elsewhere on this information site.

When your CV arrives

it will be eventually looked at by people who can tell at a glance what it signifies; they do not need an idiot proof replica of the job description because they know that recruitment is a negotiation and a comparison. No candidate will have everything they might happen to like. Some candidates will have strengths they never thought of. If you dumb down your application to fit a template you may be losing a chance to exploit new possibilities.

EXAMPLE: I.T. professional working in ERP development and has walked out of his job because of a broken promise; he creates a traditional teckie CV that is full of repetitions about operating systems and query languages and the agencies offer him rubbish jobs; I shred his existing CV and write one that tells the story of an information architect and visionary capable of understanding the business case and proposing development work that could lead to innovative next generation products; he goes back to the same agencies and gets 6 interviews and 6 job offers within a week, at a much higher salary and having negotiated perks he wants like further general management training.

You need to tell them what the real message is,

not what you fear is the right thing or the safe thing. You need to get out of that box of convention and talk to the reader.

If your career is all at senior levels then everything mundane you tell them, everything well below your skillset, is a waste of space that makes you look stupid because you weren’t able to prioritise the truly interesting stuff.

If you have no career yet and you pretend you do by setting out your CV in a traditional manner you make the reader squirm with embarrassment for you. Ten years ago, Jaguar Cars, as part of their graduate recruitment application form, were asking questions designed to get round such stupidity, questions such as - HOW DID YOU RECOVER FROM YOU WORST EVER MISTAKE?

Many of the people I write CVs for have spent the last ten years embroiled in takeovers, downsizing, culture changes and what used to be called business process re-engineering. They have never changed jobs but they write CVs that confuse people and look like there have been several employers. They fail to explain the most basic background information that would help someone understand their career and they fail to point out that as the ships sank they stuck to their post, reduced losses, managed changed, supported the learning organisation, recovered lost customers, whatever...

If this is the atmosphere you have worked in and you are still standing as the smoke clears, then make a virtue out of it.

Some professional roles are hard to distinguish

This includes doctors, dentists, lawyers, people who don’t have big projects and achievements to describe. It might also include people whose work is largely concerned with ideas, issue management, co-ordination, people in the NFP sector, people who simply do not have the tangible results in terms of facts and figures that sales professionals can flaunt.

In all these cases a bare definition of job roles becomes totally meaningless. Your text needs to be sophisticated enough to relate those roles and to describe how you worked towards what objectives, no matter how intangible. Intangible objectives, virtual teamwork, alliance relationship development, project definition, marketing propositions, information analysis, knowledge management... these types expressions, if used well instead of as mere jargon, can be part of an impressive career picture that shows resourcefulness, initiative, potency, added value and the shaping of change.

Generally speaking, people believe what they read and if your text takes in the complexities of your career, without rambling, without giving them a headache and in such a way that it demonstrates clarity and contribution - they will be interested and impressed and keen to ask you more at interview. Don’t just claim to be a communicator, be a communicator!

Appointments are a negotiated process

and grown ups act like grown ups, not like children facing teacher; if you go into this process with a dull and fearful CV that contains only bare bones information you will not be treated as a real acquisition worth offering a decent package to. Ideally, like my IT example above, you should be suggesting what more you can offer, more than they have even thought of so far.

You know what other people in your line of work are doing and you know how and why what you do has added value. The problem is not writing a certain style of CV; the problem is getting the knowledge you already have out into the open and down on paper. When you apply for a job the tone must suggest a person who has something to offer that is worth them taking an interest in and paying for; far too often the tone is GIS’A JOB, verging on the pathetic...

What you do not know is what other people are saying about themselves. I know that because I see countless CV’s and application letters, failed and successful.

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