Through my professional life I've had a number of formats of CV - specific for a purpose;
Internal client CV for a software consultancy - written with programming skills, time with those skills and list of project roles etc.
External CV - Followed the typical contact details, introduction, career history and qualifications. I've had this format for years. My CV had both the essence of the job description with some achievements buried in it.
Now I would say I'm a little more senior. At 45 I've been made redundant again (just the way it is with tech and UK market in dynamic global organisational structures).
I had a 2 hour coaching session as part of my redundancy package (job till end of Nov). From the past I've never felt like I should change the structure, until going through with this coach (she coaches CEO and board level, for my purposes and interests she also look after Group and functional CIOs and being a grade under CIO in a massive organisation of 230,000 people she understands the step I'm attempting to make).
I thought I would add this here - and explain.
Interesting now that they focus on STAR format on CVs and avoid simply copying out the job description for the role you have been doing;
S situation - what is the scenario?
T task - what did you need todo?
A action - what did you do?
R result - what did you achieve, what was the outcome?
Now CV STAR is a little different to interview STAR - as it's not broken into sections quite as formally but the text still covers those points.
The CV is two pages max; the first 1/5th of A4 page is what someone senior will scan to answer "should I look at this CV?", the 3/4 of the 1st page is what someone will read to ask for an interview. Only after that will someone perhaps really read the rest of the CV.
So I'm now rewriting CV in the format:
1. Name, linkedin, email, mobile on top 3 lines.
2. Personal introduction (4-5 lines in a form that exposes professional character)
3. Key Achievements in the form (cherry picked key achievements -- company, role then 4-6 lines in STAR format, dense and with numbers, this can be over 1/2 the front page)
4. Career History (chronological list of company, role, dates, then STAR format again. If roles put CV over 2 pages then add a "Previous associations" list with a simple list of names you have worked with. If you've used the gig as a key achievement - don't repeat just reference)
5. Qualifications & accreditations
6. Professional Memberships
Internal client CV for a software consultancy - written with programming skills, time with those skills and list of project roles etc.
External CV - Followed the typical contact details, introduction, career history and qualifications. I've had this format for years. My CV had both the essence of the job description with some achievements buried in it.
Now I would say I'm a little more senior. At 45 I've been made redundant again (just the way it is with tech and UK market in dynamic global organisational structures).
I had a 2 hour coaching session as part of my redundancy package (job till end of Nov). From the past I've never felt like I should change the structure, until going through with this coach (she coaches CEO and board level, for my purposes and interests she also look after Group and functional CIOs and being a grade under CIO in a massive organisation of 230,000 people she understands the step I'm attempting to make).
I thought I would add this here - and explain.
Interesting now that they focus on STAR format on CVs and avoid simply copying out the job description for the role you have been doing;
S situation - what is the scenario?
T task - what did you need todo?
A action - what did you do?
R result - what did you achieve, what was the outcome?
Now CV STAR is a little different to interview STAR - as it's not broken into sections quite as formally but the text still covers those points.
The CV is two pages max; the first 1/5th of A4 page is what someone senior will scan to answer "should I look at this CV?", the 3/4 of the 1st page is what someone will read to ask for an interview. Only after that will someone perhaps really read the rest of the CV.
So I'm now rewriting CV in the format:
1. Name, linkedin, email, mobile on top 3 lines.
2. Personal introduction (4-5 lines in a form that exposes professional character)
3. Key Achievements in the form (cherry picked key achievements -- company, role then 4-6 lines in STAR format, dense and with numbers, this can be over 1/2 the front page)
4. Career History (chronological list of company, role, dates, then STAR format again. If roles put CV over 2 pages then add a "Previous associations" list with a simple list of names you have worked with. If you've used the gig as a key achievement - don't repeat just reference)
5. Qualifications & accreditations
6. Professional Memberships