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This article was written by IR35Calc, which provides a range of calculators for contractors from tax to net pay calculations. Abstract The market is a very different beast to what it was a couple of years ago... ah, the good ole days hey! The dotcom bubble burst, and other companies simply realised that investing in technology and being the first to be buzzword compliant wasn't actually providing much real business value. The result? Lots of spare developers on the market and much more competition. With the competition high and literally hundreds of developers going after the same jobs, it is important to get yourself to that all important interview. Thus, it is even more critical than ever that you have a good CV. This article gives advice on how to write high impact targeted CVs. Where Am I coming From? I'm a consultant myself, so I get hired and also hire other contractors to work on my teams. So I get to see a lot of CVs. My father has also spent the last 9 years working as a professional career consultant and has written CVs for just over 1000 people. Now, I'm not saying that the method I'll describe in this article is the best, but I personally find it works. It also isn't exactly rocket science either. I'll start by considering the filtering process that happens, and use that as motivation to write the killer CV. Filtering CV's Right, lets say I've got 200 CVs on my desk for one position. (Granted, agents normally do most of the filtering work, but lets suppose I get sent 200 for the sake of this discussion). I need to get this list down to 10 that I'm prepared to read fully and I've got one hour to do it in. Here's what I do: Step 1: Anything longer than 4 pages. Can't be bothered to read. --> In the bin Step 2: No profile or list of skills on the front page. Don't want to search for them. --> In the bin Step 3: CV is a big essay with sentences. No bullet points. Too much hassle to read. --> In the bin Okay, how many have I got left? Lets say the answer is 100. What's next? Do a quick 10 second scan of each front page: Step 4: Profile and skills on front page does not really match requirement. --> In the bin Okay, I'm now down to 40. Time to build a 'potentials' pile. Back to the 10 second scans. Step 5: Profile and skills on front page exactly match requirements. --> keep I'm now down to 10 CVs and it is time to look past the first page. These are the non technical qualities I will be looking for: Any candidate meeting the criteria will potentially get interviewed. The interview stage then filters out the blaggers and weirdos :-) What Is A CV For? A CV is designed to get you an interview. Nothing else. What Is A High Impact Targeted CV? During the filtering process you literally have 10 seconds to make an impact before you get put into the bin. Simple as that. If your front page does not scream at the reader 'I'm perfect for the job' then the CV has failed to do it's job. A high impact targeted CV creates a high impact on the front page with the CV content tailored directly to target the position you are after. What NOT To Put On The Front Page You only have one sheet of A4 to make that 10 second impact. So, if you start listing all your schooling you did 20 years ago and the fact that you love squash and have a clean driving licence that isn't really going to get you the job. Unless of course you are applying to be chauffeur driving squash playing teacher! Here's a list of pointless information that wastes space on the front page: What SHOULD Be On The Front Page You need to convey the message to the reader that you are precisely the person for the job. You need to show that you have the skills they are looking for and that you have demonstrated use of those skills for other clients and provided business value to those clients by utilising those skills. There are essentially 4 sections to the front page of a high impact CV: 1. Your name, address and contact details. 2. A profile of you. 4 lines. 3. List of skills. Bullet points. 4. List of achievements. Bullet points. Here's an example: Joe Bloggs 1 main street, London ABC 123 Tel: 01234 5677889 Email: joebloggs@pleasespamme.com PROFILE Highly proficient SENIOR ANALYST PROGRAMMER with 10 years experience building Financial Risk applications for major blue chip clients using OO, C++, Oracle, UML, ADO. Full life cycle knowledge, including RUP, SSADM, and PRINCE methodologies. Now seeking next rewarding opportunity to make a successful impact in a customer focused team. EXPERTISE ACHIEVEMENTS That's it. The difficulty, in my experience, is coming up with the achievements. You really have to dig deep and think about what business benefits you added by building software for your clients. The Next Couple Of Pages This is where you list you work experience. No essays. Short and sweet, using bullet points. It is here that you are explaining the things you built and what skills you used. You should also add some benefits as well if you can. Here's an example taken from my own CV: www.mlhsbc.co.uk - Merrill Lynch HSBC - Global on-line brokerage and banking Development Team Leader - Retail Banking Feb 2000 to July 2001 (18 months, 3 renewals) A few things to note: Explicitly list the number of months you were there and the number of renewals. This tells the reader that you are reliable and that people value your work. Stick to bullet points. No one wants to read essays. Another tip is to highlight the keys bits in bold text so they stand out. That's just a personal preference. The Last Page This is where you list your Education, training, and hobbies. Keep this compact. If you have a degree and 5 years experience then you don't need to list every subject and grade of every GCSE. Targeting The CV You now have an idea of perhaps how to improve your CV so it shouts at the reader and stops them putting you in the bin with all the other essay writers! Now you need to make sure that the CV is targeted for the role you are going after. This is the easy bit. If the job advert says they are looking for a trapeze artist then you dress the CV up to make it look as though you are the best trapeze artist in the whole of the country. If they are after a lion tamer then the same rules apply. The key here to make sure that your CV is tailored for the position that you are applying for. It will not be uncommon for you to have different multiple copies of your CV to be used for different roles. You need to play on the strengths and experience you have gained from previous positions and showed that you have key transferable skills that can be applied in the new position. So, if you are going for a trapeze artist position for which you have 3 years experience, but have done 5 years lion taming, is would be best to tame the lion taming (oh, excuse me on that one, not intended) experience down and focus on the trapeze experience. Closing Comments The method I've described here for formatting CVs is just one way of doing it. Might not be the best, but for me it has worked. I hope that the article has been useful to you and that it will help you in your job search in these tough time of the market. Good luck Dave Chaplin Jan 7, 2003 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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