The principles of a CV...

CV's are by definition a list of your past experience and skills....unfortunately many CV's have become cliche-ridden and have become just a series of buzz words that don't have an impact. More importantly, they don't offer any kind of individuality. Employers and agencies are getting bored of having to sift through CV's and research now tells us that they spend on average 10 seconds looking at your CV. This is a game changer! For me your CV needs to reflect you and why you are different. It needs to be a punchy sales document that makes use of the 10 seconds. The reader has to be able to know what you are and what you can bring to the role.

Further research also tells us it’s not just about what you put in your CV but also where you put it. With a limited attention span the reader will focus on scanning a set part of your CV and therefore you need to hook them in these sections. I call these the “F Words” and have shown the key areas of the CV below…

the F Words

I base everything I do on the principles of content, placement and individuality.

The role of your CV is to get you an interview, nothing more and nothing less! I passionately believe that everyone is an individual and that’s what employers want. So we have to use a reasonable straightforward structure that is clean and simple. The key is then the words we use and where we put them!

We need to stop copping out with the whole “I can work well in a team and also on my own” type message…we have to be different!