4 things you want on your C.V.

Posted by Anne Hamill

When you’re starting to look around for your next opportunity, a good way to get focused is to create a speculative C.V. – something you can give to people in your organisation who might know of opportunities that are coming up, or pass to an interested manager who hasn’t yet formally advertised a vacancy.

Here are 4 things you want to have on that C.V.:

1. An informative personal statement
   Your personal statement is where you paint a picture of the way you best contribute to a job or team. Forget the standard descriptors that try to make out you are good at everything they might be looking for. Instead, focus on giving a clear concrete description of what you’re best at, and could bring to a job. What’s the role you usually take in a team? Are you the organised one, with attention to detail, who gets things done fast? Or are you best at collecting data and talking to people, and getting to the root of complex problems? Or are you the one who builds relationships fast with a wide range of people, or who is quick to see people’s talents and give them the work that makes them into high performers?
   
   A good personal brand or statement doesn’t always win you jobs – it only wins you jobs that you’ll be good at! A clear and direct personal statement helps people decide if your skills will be showcased in the role, and also if you bring something that is missing in the team.


2. Evidence of internal promotions
   If you have internal promotions, this is evidence that people who have worked with you in the past thought highly of you and gave you bigger responsibilities. There is no more powerful guarantee that someone is a high performer than a series of internal promotions. If you were approached to take on a bigger job by someone who knew your work, make this evident – for example by saying “My Director asked me to take on…” If you don’t have internal promotions in your C.V. – work at getting these, as they are a great proof of your abilities.


3. Evidence of high achievement in past roles
   Don’t bother to list skills or responsibilities in a job – anyone can do that, even if they weren’t very good at the work. Instead, give them evidence that you’ve been an achiever in previous roles! For this you need hard data – ideally facts and figures that showed that you improved a situation and by how much. You can also include data on why the job was challenging – for example having 50 stakeholders, a job that was 2 weeks behind schedule, and had to be completed in just 6 weeks. If you can’t get the exact facts and figures that show your success, estimate them. Failing that, do you have evidence of recognition? You might have been put forward for an award, had your project featured in the company newsletter, or received an email from the Director thanking you for your work.


4. Evidence of initiative
   I can’t count the number of times that I’ve talked to people about items on their C.V. where they’ve described a piece of work they’ve done – and I ask my favourite question – how did you get involved in this work? The answer can be “My manager assigned it to me” – but often it is “I saw the opportunity, pitched it to my manager, put a business case to the Director, and recruited and ran the team” – and yet none of the latter was obvious from their C.V.! Managers are looking for proactive people who seize responsibility rather than waiting to be told what to do. Make sure that your proactive approach shows on your C.V. with examples of where you have used your initiative.

TAKE AWAY
Whether you’re asking around for your next opportunity, or applying formally for a new role, make sure your C.V. is a great ambassador for you – describing your unique talents, hard achievement data, evidence of initiative – and proof that people you worked with wanted to give you more responsibility.