In an increasingly competitive recruitment market for senior roles, McLean Public’s Managing Partner, Jonathan Swain, offers 10 surefire – but simple – tips to ensure your CV has the impact you want:
- Intro passage: This is arguably the most critical part of a CV – it’s the first thing recruiters and hiring managers see when they look at your CV. Ensure it fully summarises your Unique Selling Points and avoids bland words that obscure what you are actually good at. Finally, the last sentence of this intro passage should indicate what might be the next steps in your career, e.g, “Now looking for interim transformation roles in large complex organisations that are focussed on growth and have a clear mission and social purpose”.
- Detail the dates: Ensure all dates on your CV are accounted for (year and month). If you have been travelling abroad on a later life gap year, for example, say so. Nothing spooks a potential hiring manager more than unclear chronology, or worse still, dates that overlap or are missing entirely.
- Highlight the scale and complexity of where you have worked: This is important. Unless you personally work for, for example UK Research and Innovation, you are unlikely to know that it is made up of seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England with a combined budget of £6 billion and has 7,000 staff. Make sure you get across the purpose, scale and complexity for each organisation you have worked for.
- Highlight the remit and responsibilities of the roles you have had: Similarly, make sure you get across straight after this (and before you outline your achievements) your key responsibilities in each role. Budgets? Team size? Major projects? Key deliverables? If they mattered then, put them in.
- Ensure your achievements stand out: Every single word matters on a CV. For every bullet point you write for each role ask yourself the following question: “So what?”. Each bullet point should highlight tangible and measurable achievements. Avoid outlining your role responsibilities (they belong in your Job Description). Outline your achievements and the impact they had.
- Add metrics where relevant: Numbers and % always stand out on a CV. Use as much as possible where relevant to highlight Tip 5.
- Add in referees: With the caveat that these should not be contacted without your prior approval, ensure you add in at the bottom of the CV a couple of people who can vouch for your credentials and professional offer to another employer. If you don’t, a potential employer will wonder why you haven’t.
- Eliminate any language that undersells you: Don’t fall in the middle of the “I” or “we” conundrum. Give yourself credit where it’s due. Own your successes and achievements and ensure you shout out about them loudly. If you can’t in your own CV, where can you?
- Avoid irrelevant personal information: No one needs to know that you are the South-East Organiser of the Coronation Street Fan Club. At best it’s a distraction to potential employers. Unless, of course, you are looking to join the cast…..but that’s a different article.
- Leave AI at the door: And now the controversial one. AI is increasingly being used on both the content and presentation of CVs. However, AI CVs are in danger of being blandly similar in language. You want to stand out. No one knows your career better than you. Be literally the author of your own success.
Should you want to talk to us at McLean Public about your career and professional plans for the future please do get in touch with us at hello@mcleanpublic.com.