CAREERS CLINIC
LINDA JACKSON
MANAGING DIRECOR, FAIRPLACE
After three years in my current role, I want to start looking for my next job. I’m a bit worried that my experience looks light on my CV though. How can I make sure my CV is competitive?
IF your experience is a bit light, you can still break down the skills you have and the tasks you’ve carried out, and show what you’ve accomplished – that’s actually more important. People make the mistake of making CVs look like a list of jobs they’ve done, which makes a lack of experience obvious.
But in that case, your CV will have failed anyway, because the important thing is to show the impact you’ve done had. If you’ve had a responsibility, how were you successful? If you’ve done a project, show what its effect was.
You absolutely must not lie on a CV, but you don’t have to be brutally honest either. Remember this is a sales document, and its job is to get you an interview rather than a job. Also remember that you must tailor it each time you apply for a role – like any sales document, being generic just doesn’t sell. Think of the role you’re going for, and pick and choose the things you want to project.
Typically, people who make decisions about CVs make them very quickly, so the most important information needs to be on the first half page. And don’t think a CV has to be long to be impressive – two pages are enough. There’s no point extending it with long details of your hobbies, they won’t be deal-breakers.
They will be used to make judgements on your character in interview though, so if you say you enjoy going to the theatre, make sure you’ve been recently.
When you’ve finished it, carry out the “so what?” test – read the CV through and make sure each piece of information is quantified, relevant and answers that question.
One more tip: always send your CV as a PDF rather than a word document, since someone else’s computer can mess up all your careful formatting.