Horses for Courses

by Adam @BubbleJobs

I’m not a horse racing person… In fact my knowledge of this sport is limited to the occasional each way bet on a nag with a name I happen to like. But the phrase “horses for courses” is a very common term and familiar to most of us whether we like a punt on the races or not.

The phrase relates to the fact that horse racing tracks tend to be rated based on similar characteristics they possess and that certain horses perform better at certain courses. Obvious really….but where am I going with this?

Well, if you read my blog you’ll know that in my career I’ve helped a lot of people find a lot of jobs. One of the most frequent questions I’m asked is, “Can you help me with my CV?” or “How should I write my CV” or, unbelievably in some cases……”What’s a Curriculum Vitae?”

Ah, the CV. Yes that document we all know we “need to look at” and “really should keep up to date” but rarely do. And when you arrive at that point in your career when you’re looking for you next job, it really does seem like the most laborious task to sit down, dust off your CV and think about getting it up to date. We’ve all been there, me included, faced with that particular challenge, and thinking that actually, watching an episode of Bargain Hunt or cutting the lawn with a pair of nail clippers would be far more stimulating.

But, when you eventually manage to get over the psychological trauma of the task at hand, it’s worth spending some time thinking about getting your CV in tip top shape and ready to send out to all those eager employers and recruiters out there. Now there’s a lot of tools and resources out there, offering help and advice on how to construct the perfect CV, some good….some….not so much.

So to give you a pointer, here’s my top tips to creating a ‘thoroughbred CV’, and a document that will see you ‘winning by a country mile’….yes there’s the horsey link again!

1. Horses for Courses. Consider what job you’re applying for, what kind of career area you’re in and then construct your document accordingly. Sounds obvious but you won’t believe how many people don’t get this. If you’re a graphic designer then make your CV a visual document, (engaging, high impact, loud, graphical!) On the other hand if, you’re a web developer or programmer then you might want to consider ensuring your CV is well laid out, logical, highlighting your considerable technical skills and programming languages. If you’re a sales person, lay your CV out to highlight your performance against your targets. Focus on your key wins, clients you’ve secured, deals you’ve done…. you get the picture….“Horses for Courses”.

2. Keep it short (ish). Two to three pages max. Unless you’ve written 5000 whitepapers or invented the internet then employers generally want to see what jobs you’ve had, what you’re really good at / what you can do for them and a little bit about what you’re like. If you’ve had loads of jobs, just detail the last four or five and then make a list of the other positions you’ve held. Most employers aren’t going to make a connection between what you were successfully doing eight jobs ago with what they want you to do tomorrow.

3. Keep it logical. This is particularly important if you’ve been busy multi-tasking, running your own online start-up project or radio station outside of the day job. All great information that a prospective employer will be keen to know but keep your experience in an easy to follow, chronological order. Don’t forget the person reading your CV wants to be able to quickly see what you’ve done and when you’ve done it. They DON’T want to have to cross reference your experience with the Mayan calendar to figure out exactly what you were doing at a particular point in time. And for heaven’s sake don’t think that detailing your experience in ‘reverse chronological’ order is a good idea. It isn’t!….latest experience first…ALWAYS!

4. Content is key. This really is the bit that you have to spend most time thinking about and it’s worth getting this right. Try to imagine that you’ve got two A4 pages to communicate who you are, how to contact you, what you’re particularly good at, what you want to do, what you’ve done in your career, your education, what you like doing outside of work…oh and whether your driving licence is “Full and Clean”. That’s a big task, and please don’t think the answer is to write your CV in Arial, size 7pt….that won’t work. See if you can answer all these questions and write it all down without thinking about the amount of content. Then re-read it all and start to strip out what you don’t think is relevant. Then re-read it again and think about how you could present certain parts in a different format, bullet pointed or much more abbreviated. Then re-read it again and strip out more pieces that an employer might not be interested in. If you keep repeating this process, you’ll eventually end up with something that is an informative, detailed but easy to read snapshot of you. Exactly what a prospective employer is looking for.

5. General appearance. Try to think about the ‘layout’ of your CV. It doesn’t have to read like a traditional Word document or letter. Yes your name should go at the top but what else? You don’t have to be a graphic designer, but what about detailing your skills in a table or matrix? Could you use different colours, font sizes, bullet points, add a photo, margins, borders, headings, all that good stuff that your word processor can do? Or if you really want to make a good impression, why not contact a local graphic design agency and see whether they could lay it all out for you?…..it’s not expensive. As a little tip, once you’re happy with the look of it get a copy of it in PDF format…..it just looks so much better…believe me.

6. Pitch yourself effectively. Your CV is your personal sales document. It’s your foot in the door or a window through which an employer only wants to take a brief peek to see if you’re worth further scrutiny. Remember “Horses for Courses”. Think about the job you’re applying for. Tailor your CV to fit the job vacancy. If you’ve done all the above it won’t take a lot but the devil really is in the detail and it might just give you the edge. Also don’t think that you have to make your CV completely unique and unlike anything anyone’s ever seen before. You can try, but I would argue that at some point or other there’s been billions of CVs out there.

So when it’s time for your next job search and you’re at that point where it’s time to “do the CV” avoid the temptation of just “adding your most recent experience” to your existing CV and be satisfied that “that’ll do”…. It won’t. Invest the time into creating something you’ll be proud of, something that really represents you. Do that and you might just find yourself at the “head of the chasing pack” rather than “falling at the first hurdle”.

Have you got any helpful advice or tips about CV writing that you’d like to share? Leave us a comment below.