5 things you may not realise a good CV will do
1. Give you the confidence to negotiate a sweeter deal
Yes, really. When your CV is achievements-based rather than task-orientated you’ll feel a million dollars, and although you might not secure a million dollar salary, you are more likely to negotiate a decent package with confidence. Achievements-based CVs hammer home the fact that employers need you as much as you need them.
2. Weed out organisations whose values are not aligned with yours
This is an important one for me. A good CV will capture the essence of what gets you out of bed in the morning (apart from coffee), what you want to achieve in life and why it’s important to you. When you are applying for jobs, go back to your mission statement (aka ‘professional profile’) each time and ask yourself whether the role will align with your mission. Conversely, if you are true to yourself when you write your profile, recruiters will quickly be able to tell whether you are a good fit for the organisation. Opportunities are always worth considering, but if it’s a match made in hell, there’s no point in wasting each other’s precious time.
3. Identify some really solid achievements you can expand upon at interview
Do not underestimate the importance of this! While you can’t always predict what the interviewers will ask you, most likely the interview will follow a familiar pattern – small talk to put you at ease, getting to know you and your motivations, quick career run through, and then several old mate competency questions. “Tell us about a time when…” If you are already familiar and comfortable with your achievements, this makes answering questions like these a little easier, and your answers will carry extra weight as the interviewers will have already got a taster from your CV. You are essentially confirming what they already knew while fleshing out the detail – how you went about achieving that particular success or overcoming a hurdle.
4. Challenge old ideas or limiting beliefs about ‘where to?’ next
Nothing like a trip down memory lane to remind you how far you’ve come. A good CV will tell a story – your career story. It will be written in such a way that shows your progression and development, explains any changes in direction, setbacks, or other bumps in the road. It will also leverage off any transferrable skills, hobbies and interests, voluntary positions, professional development and training courses so you no longer feel you are on a trajectory with no other courses of action.
5. Mean a shorter cover letter is sufficient.
Ah, cover letters. Nobody’s friend but mine. If you get your CV spot on, there should be no need for regurgitating your career history, listing your key strengths, or otherwise repeating in a cover letter the detail that is already in your CV. A one page cover letter (and I’m being generous here, because by the time you’ve put in your address and theirs, a salutation and sign off with a few cheeky spaces where a signature would go, you’re left with what? Two-thirds of a page?) is an elevator pitch that encourages me to read your awesome CV which encourages me to invite you to interview. Be gone two A4-siders of boring drivel! Tell me who you are, why you are excited about the role and why you think we’d be a good match for each other. You can also drop in a few teasers which drive me to your CV.
If your CV could use a little work and you’d like to book me, please get in touch.