Make it Personal - Some Tips to Decluttering Your CV
We all know that CV’s are a necessary evil. Difficult to write, not much fun to read and with a mythical list of ‘rules’ to adhere to which leads to you questioning yourself.
“Is it long enough/too long?”
“Do I add a personal statement?”
“How far back should I go?”
The list goes on and on and the task becomes more and more complicated.
It needn’t be.
The purpose of this short article is to de-clutter our perception of a CV and simplify the writing process to help you stand out.
For me, the only starting point comes from the answer to this question:
“If a hiring manager has 2 CV’s in front of them with identical work experience, but can only interview one, how will they decide?”
The answer is to make it about you. Sounds obvious right? You might say that it is already about you – it’s your career history with your name on top of it. That is true; but what I mean is, evidence things that are specific to you. In each role, what did you achieve?
If you are in sales, what was your performance?
If in credit, what is your sign-off authority?
If in operations how are you measured and how have you performed against those measurements?
They are just some examples from certain job types, but I believe can be applied to any role and be evidenced on your CV.
Responsibilities are what you are there to do, achievements are what you did. It is your differentiator, unique to you.
Another area that can differentiate you, but is often overlooked, is the ‘Hobbies and Interests’ section. A CV is very 2 dimensional so it’s important to show some personality on there.
What you must do though is make your interests interesting!
If you like football, who do you support?
If you like cooking, what do cook?
Reading – what genre of books?
Music – what type?
But why the detail? It tells the reader more about you, talking points, common ground or shared interests.
They too might be a Norwich City FC fan (who isn’t?) and help you stand out.
Finally, look at each line or bullet point on your CV and ask yourself whether it needs to be there – is it relevant and does it add value? If it doesn’t, take it off. The flip side of that is whether it’s detailed enough. Is it a true reflection of who you are and what you do?
Don’t be restricted by thinking it has to be no longer than 2 pages. That’s the biggest myth of all.
With the job market continuing to bounce back, now might be a good time to update your CV and as with the CV ‘rules’, my interpretation is subjective; neither wholly right nor wholly wrong, but should hopefully give you some useful pointers.
