[Free CV Examples Inside] How to get your message across on your CV

In The Monday Munch this week we’re talking about the importance of listening to feedback on your CV so that you can check that it’s sending the messages you intend to send to your reader.

The key message being that it’s not about what you think you said, but about how the reader is interpreting it. The point being that if people are not getting the message you want when they read your CV, its up to you to change it so that they do.

So, what other messages does your CV need to get across?

Your CV doesn’t need to just get across what you do. In fact, if that’s all it gets across it may well not be too successful. It needs to tell the reader something about who you are in terms of some of your qualities, and it needs to get across the results and benefits that you’ve brought to your organisation and customers (and could therefore do for a future employer).

Your messages need to be punchy and to the point. Remember that the job of the CV is not to get you a job; it’s to get you a conversation – usually an interview. They need to be relevant to the reader and the role(s) you’re applying for.

Style is important

Most people are familiar with the traditional style of CV where all of your achievements are in a main Career Summary (or your version of that title) section. We call this style Reverse Chronological. It starts with your most recent role and goes back chronologically through your career. This is brilliant if you’re going for a similar role, or perhaps the next step up, where the reader is interested in what you’re doing now and have done in recent years.

But it’s not so good when you’re making a career change or significant change of direction. In this case, you may want to highlight achievements from earlier in your career or from outside of work altogether. The reverse chronological style would mean that the things relevant to your reader may not appear until page 2. And if there’s nothing on page 1 they’re interested in, they probably won’t get to page 2. If you’re trying to make a career change it could be catastrophic, as the things on page 1 probably won’t even match what you’re going for.

For example, when became a Professional Career Coach back in 2001, my recent work history had been in computer system development doing things like project leading and supporting users of management information systems. Prior to that, I’d had a career as a cartographer. So, whilst I had a little coaching experience from my professional life, it certainly wasn’t enough on its own to grab a reader’s attention in the career coaching industry, and there was nowhere to write about my extensive coaching experience outside of work.

What I needed was a different style, what we call a Functional or Skills Based CV. In this style of CV the career history is relegated to page 2 and is brief, often literally just a list of job titles, companies and dates. The main body of the CV, starting on page 1 under the profile is about Key Skills and Achievements, and the achievements are grouped by the type of skills they represent, not when and where you did them.

Free CV examples

1. If you want to see what the different styles of CV I’ve mentioned look like, visit my free CV examples to download some templates for free. There’s even one for a combination of the two styles which is useful if you’ve been in your current job for a very long time.

How to Create a CV that Works

2. If you need help with the detail of the CV and you either don’t have the budget for one-to-one coaching, or prefer to work on it by yourself, my How to Write a CV that Works online course is for you.

Finding a Qualified and Accredited Career Coach Near You

Although most of us Career Coaches do a lot of work by phone/Skype, if you want to find a properly qualified/accredited Career Coach near you, search the UK Register of Career Development Professionals