CV Advice
You know those CVs with paragraphs on top that say something like "I am an ambitious, pro-active team player with a broad range of skills and competencies, encompassing sales management, strategic thinking and bottom-line delivery..." These are absolutely meaningless, subjective space-wasters that at best annoy the reader and at worst get them to hit the "delete" button without reading further. It's true! Ask any recruiter!
What is useful (and we have research to prove it*) – is to state your career objective at the top of the CV, under your personal details. "With a background in sales and leadership roles in the automotive industry, I am now looking for a senior sales/operational role within the UK or Asia in a similar technical environment." This is the heart of what we do with our outplacement clients – help them to identify a crystal-clear career objective and then state this clearly to potential employers. You don't need to call it anything (most definitely not "executive summary"), just include it... and no more than three lines please. "I am X and I want Y and this is what I can do for you."
The harsh reality is that your CV is often "filtered" by the most junior person in the recruitment agency or HR department. It is then put on a database and you want it to be retrieved in the most relevant searches. The clearer you are about what you want to do (and what you can offer clients) then the more likely you are to come up in relevant searches of databases or job boards. Help to make the recruiter's job easier by explaining what you want and what you can do for them so they can match you to vacancies easily. They don't have requirements for "dynamic, entrepreneurs with high standards of integrity". They want facts, backed up by evidence of achievements in your CV.
Put this objective on your Linked In profile too, so your aims are clear to anyone looking at your profile.
Is this the most sensible, straight-talking career advice you've come across? Then please contact us to discuss how we can save you weeks of fruitless job-searching.
"It's always hard to write your own CV, particularly when you are usually being approached by headhunters. Zena gave me some very useful, sensible and logical advice on how to structure my CV. I found the time that I spent with Zena invaluable"
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* Source: Jim E. H. Bright and Sonia Hutton, "The impact of competency statements on resumes for short-listing decisions." International Journal of Selection and Assessment, Volume 8, Number 2, June 2000.