Contractors, treat your CV like a living, breathing document

There’s a post doing the rounds on LinkedIn where someone’s sharing the CV that got them into Meta.

Good on them! It looks like a pretty solid CV, and their advice about packing it full of outcomes and using career highlights on page one is spot on. Exactly what we recommend, so it’s great to see it worked for them, writes Matt Craven, Personal Branding Expert at The CV & Interview Advisors.

Build your CV from scratch or tweak? Build, always build.

What our poster also mentioned was that they built their CV from scratch, rather than just updating an old CV they had used last time they were looking for a job.

This is another thing we agree on.

Avoid the static

Your CV shouldn’t be a static monument to your past – it should evolve with you over time to reflect your seniority, personal brand, and value to a future client. This value is what I call your ‘value proposition.’

So sorry in advance to all the busy contractors out there, but your CV should be written from scratch every time you have a new goal, not tweaked around the edges.

Resist outdated CV templates

It means starting with a blank sheet, not a ‘Frankenstein job’ on an outdated template that no longer reflects your ambitions.

Most contractors don't do this.

They dust off their CV from 12 months ago, change the top job title, throw in a few lines, and hope for the best! Then they wonder why they’re not getting interviews and contract work.

Your front windscreen

As I always say, a proper CV isn’t just a list of jobs/assignments – it’s a business case – or, put another way, it’s a compelling argument for why someone should engage you.

It should speak to the exact requirements of the role you’re going for, not the one you had before, or the one you think they’ll compromise on. Think ‘front windscreen’ and not ‘rear view mirror’ – it needs to give irrefutable evidence of your capability to solve their problems.

Your data repository

Therefore, writing your CV is actually the easy bit.

The hard bit is collating all the raw data and narrating a document that is perfectly aligned with the needs of your clients. That’s why we developed the idea of the Career Autobiography.

A Career Autobiography is a log of your professional journey.

It’s an evolving document that captures the ‘gold dust’ of your contracting days and previous career.

What does a Career Autobiography contain?

A Career Autobiography contains:

• Every challenge overcome;
• Every success achieved; and
• Every project completed.

Put another way, your CV Career Autobiography should be every story you might forget five years from now unless you write it down!

Your source code as an IT contractor (isn’t for sharing)

But be aware, it’s not something you send to recruiters or clients. It’s for you! But it feeds everything else – your CV, your LinkedIn profile, your interview prep, and your career decisions.

It’s the source code and material for the real you -- not the polished, generic ‘you’ that often gets served up in CVs.

A CV Career Autobiography is also an awesome tool when having a client review or discussions around contract extensions and rate increases. It contains the proof that you deserve more.

Case studies

Take the ‘Career Highlights’ section on page one of a modern CV.

These aren’t bullet points lifted from a contract brief/job description. They’re mini case studies – evidence of impact.

They’re pulled from your Career Autobiography and tailored to the role. They showcase the right skills, told in the right way, for the right audience.

This isn’t just about good writing, it’s about relevance.

If the contract spec or job description talks about “digital transformation,” you show how you’ve delivered one. If it mentions “cost savings,” you give them a number. If it says, “stakeholder engagement,” you demonstrate it with a concrete example – not a throwaway line.

Don’t trust your memory

The key is not to rely on memory under pressure.

That’s how contractors end up writing weak CVs, and giving bland interview answers.

The Career Autobiography means you’ve already done the heavy lifting. You’re not scrambling for ideas or relying on your flawed memory bank; you’re selecting the best one for the task at hand.

Why the Meta CV worked

So, back to that Meta CV.

In my view, the ‘Meta CV’(as the successful candidate will inevitably update the filename to be) succeeded because it was the right tool for the job -- at that time.

But things move on, roles change, markets shift, and you become a different contractor.

Don’t hang onto your CV like it’s sacred

What got you your last role might be the very thing that holds you back from the next.

So don’t hang onto your CV like it’s sacred.

Start afresh and build it from the ground up, using your Career Autobiography for content and inspiration to shape it for the moment you’re in now. It’s all about hyper-targeting to make sure your CV ticks every box -- with a cherry on top.

Interview mastery

As mentioned, the Career Autobiography concept is useful for all sorts of scenarios, including preparing for interviews.

On May 21st, we’ll be delivering a webinar with Contractor UK on this exact topic, so join us and learn more about career autobiographies and winning work through advanced interview room tactics.

Find out more and register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7249966813755355232

Contractor CV critique

You can also take advantage a free and confidential 1-2-1 review of your contractor CV via one of our seasoned CV experts.

This is a detailed and constructive 1-2-1 session to get a handle on where your CV is at for inside or outside IR35 roles. Find out more here: https://cvandinterviewadvisors.co.uk/partners/contractor-uk