It’s hard times like these that we need to help one another, many professionals are being made redundant which means a lot of competition for what little work is left with only those who stand out from the rest get the job.

We’re here today to offer you our free CV review service and explain our thinking behind our method. Our expert consultants are trained to bring out the best you in your new CV but keep it to the point. You can register with us here today to get your free CV review and take advantage of our other services.

The aim of this blog is to show you examples and our thinking behind every decision when we build a CV correctly, a CV that will show your capability and success without a shadow of a doubt. We will keep it very simple and to the point, we will be using an Office Manager as an example.

A CV must include:

• An introduction to who you are as a professional

• Your top 5 skills relevant to the job you’re applying for

• Career history with achievements 

• Education / Qualifications / Certificates

• Hobbies and interests

• Less than 2 pages long

That’s it. Why? Because that’s all you need to show how amazing you are, any more and extra and makes your CV too long.

Introduction

Here you focus on your strengths in your profession, what it is you’re good at, what can you bring to the next workplace and finish with what you’re looking for. Don’t include things like hardworking or driven or anything like that, these things are already expected of you.

Also please don’t speak in third person, it’s unnecessary.

Example:
I am an experienced Office Manager with 8 years experience of managing offices of up to 60 professionals. During my career I have covered everything from events and reception, to facilities management and team leading and I can bring that experience and leadership with me to any company I join. What I am looking for is a company that can provide me with a long term career and not a next job.

Relevant Skills

In here you will list a max of 5 skills that are most relevant to the job you’re applying for, you can find those by looking at job descriptions. Why 5? Because it’s not too long and not too short, also it limits what you can write so you have to choose the most important ones.

Example
Expertise

• Office management - multiple offices at times

• Events management - up to 700 attendees

• Front of house - first point of contact of all visitors

• Team management - proven to successfully lead and develop teams of up to 7

• Fluent in Management Systems including Microsoft Dynamics, SalesForce, CRM and Scrum Board.

Career History

Here is the biggest mistake everyone makes, they end up writing a job description when they should be telling a success story. If a recruiter wanted to read a job description, they’d go read the one they wrote. Instead what you need to include are your previous roles and what duties and achievements you had.

Example
Head of Office | Company name | Date to date

I was brought on to manage and maintain the company building and lead a team of 7. My company hosted a lot of events and had a members area where members can use the ad hoc office space when needed and I was heading all events space and member services.

Duties included but not limited to:

• Successfully Managing a building of 12 offices which lead to a better working environment, productivity and safety

• Responsible for managing events and booking calendar

• Lead operations for all events, 65 events in 2019 audiences ranging 6-700, all events receiving 85% positive feedback which lead to more member booking our facilities

• Materials management, always receiving compliments from members for our capacity and on hand office supplies

• Recruited, trained and managed a team of 7 for better working facilities

• Managed reception, dealing with member queries, our customer service is always rated above 4.5*

(Follow the same example for your next 2-3 roles, but any more we suggest listing title, company and date only, don’t want a CV longer than 2 pages)

Office Manager / Team Leader | Company name | Date to date

Office Administrator | Company name | Date to date

Team Support | Company name | Date to date

Education / Degree / Qualification

This is very simple, no one ever does this wrong, our only recommendation would be to not over complicate it by doing fancy spacing etc. if you want to do that then use a boarder-less table.

Hobbies and Interests

This is your opportunity to let them see what you are like as a person, but don’t just put any random stuff, something different like gaming or feeding the ducks, or reading fan fiction. This could become a conversation starter for people interviewing you, this will also make you more memorable than others.

Our Reasoning 

Why we use this method is because a CV should always be:

• Very clear and structured well

• Under 2 pages

• A complete story of your experience and your success, someone needing to dig in

• Each section telling a success story

• The Hiring Manager should already know you’re the right fit without having to meet you.

We hope this has been enlightening and you learned something new, if you have any other pointers that I’ve missed or a point you’d like to discuss, then let me know in the comments below.

To get your free CV review you can start by clicking here.

Good luck to all of you applying and remember, #weareinthistogether!

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