How CV’s have changed over the years. Employers are no longer reading CV’s, they are scanning them looking for key words and statements that help them make a decision whether to meet you or not. They are really not interested in what you did or do in your previous or current employments, they are more interested in how you made a difference, what you changed. What did you do in your role that took the business / organisation to a different level, that made them money or saved them money? i.e. they are interested in your Achievements, not in your Responsibilities.
In CV\’s of the past, people would list down everything they did in the organisation on a day to day basis. Whether it be in the area of hands-on work, working for people, people working for them (working through people), everything was listed down. They felt that informing the reader (potential employer) of everything they do in their current role and everything they did in their past roles, would secure them an interview. It probably would (will) in some cases, but not all cases. You want a CV that gets you an interview in all cases.
In the new age CV, Professional CV writers are now focusing on what you achieved among those responsibilities. In other words how you made a difference. It’s about rewording your responsibilities in words of achievements. These words are expressed in result / outcome type words e.g. ’10 technical personnel reporting to me’ versus ‘Management of team of 10 technical personnel that designed, delivered and completed a € X Project on time and within budget that saved the organisation € X over a 12 month period’.
Or another example, ‘Production planning and scheduling ‘ versus ‘Planned and scheduled production that ensured consistent and efficient manufacturing processes that delivered on time every time’. Or, ‘Responsible for sales in the west and midland regions ‘ versus ‘Achieved monthly sales targets of € X over a two period in my region which covered the West and Midlands’. With this approach, you are selling yourself to the organisation in a way that they understand, are impressed with and speaks their language. You have made it easy for them to decide to meet with you.
If employment seeking people put themselves in the employer’s shoes and learned how to speak the employer’s organisation language, by using words from the job description, words form the organisational website and last but no least wrote and worded what they achieved in their current and previous employments, they would secure many more interviews and many more job offers in return. In fact a CV written like this makes an actual interview easier for both interviewee and interviewer.
So as you now begin to review your CV after reading this, think about how you would like to read about you, what you would like to read about you so as to help you meet with you and possibly hire you. Putting yourself in the employers shoes is just simply not been done enough by job hunters.
Achieve responsibly…