GET AHEAD BY CREATING A WINNING CV

The Personal Statement

Avoid using the "first person" and too many adjectives that can be applied to any number of candidates.

In this section you need to draw attention to tangible highlights rather than any subjective personal qualities, as you need to encapsulate your skills and experience rather than how organised or hard working you are.

A weak personal statement is a missed opportunity to "sell" and or "promote" yourself to prospective clients.

So avoid statements like....

Example 1

I am collaborative in working style and able to develop and build excellent working relationships across all levels of the business, bringing high energy and focus.

Or

Example 2

I have proven myself to be a dynamic and dedicated individual with a "can do" attitude who also possesses strong organisational qualities and interpersonnel skills

And avoid contradictions and generalised clichés such as:

Strategic but operational (give a % of each if you are wearing both hats)

Works well in a team or on own.

But do include (objective) tangibles (underlined)

A degree educated and level 5 qualified CIPD professional, due to complete Level 7 CIPD November (Year) via distance learning.My current (most recent) role operating across a multi-site business, whilst generalist in nature, focused predominantly on employee relations, where ER issues took up to 70% of my time. Part of my remit was also to design and deliver training interventions to up skill managers on issues such as managing performance, absence and recruitment.

(Tailor your personal statement to highlight the key skills and/or experience required for the particular vacancy as much as possible)

Education And Professional Qualifications

Complete in chronological order, commencing with the most recent qualification, detailing your academic background. If you have your CIPD or any other HR relevant qualification put it first as you could be up against many other candidates. You should also include secondary, higher and further education, including dates attended and qualifications gained.

Professional Experience - Give A Context To Each Role

Write a brief description of the company (sector/business area) including turnover, number of employees, industry sector/ business area.

Then for each role contextualise the logistics of your role in terms of whether it is multi-site, stand alone, a remote interface, regional, national and the headcount you have responsibility for, including who you report into or whether you have any direct reports.

This will provide any prospective employer with the background to your work history and take away any assumptions, helping the recruiting manager to differentiate the level of your experience in relation to another candidate who is also a HR Advisor, for example, in the same sector(s).

Detail, in bullet point format, your main responsibilities and achievements in each position.

• Try to keep these relevant to any prospective position that you are looking for, as prospective employers will be looking for evidence of experience and transferable skills. This may help to differentiate you from other candidates.
• In addition, detail any specialist knowledge that you may have acquired in Human Resources or Learning and Development, especially tackling current HR challenges and trends.

Use Human Resources "Buzz Words"

We all relate more effectively to people who speak 'our language'. Human Resources professionals have developed their own language. The good news is that Human Resources have become more and more of a "strategic partner" in organisations and that's great because HR can contribute in a way that means higher profitability, customer satisfaction, reduced costs and good communications on a company wide basis. It can impact positively on the bottom line. Try to use words on your CV that demonstrate how you have "added value" in your role as this will be interesting to your prospective employer.

Some Additional Basic CV Advice

Software Systems

List all software and systems packages that you have had exposure to including any implementation or system rollout experience. In today's market, it is important to have strong and up to date systems skills.

Languages

In an increasingly global market, language skills are becoming more relevant. In this section of your CV you should list your language skills and your level of competency and fluency in each language.

Interests

Good employers look for well-rounded individuals who not only have a good academic record but also have other pursuits. In addition, it is often an opportunity to create common ground at the interview stage.

References

There is no need to state specific referees on your CV. Rather state that referees will be provided on request.

Other Common Pitfalls

• Limit to 2 / 3 pages - be concise
• Decide whether you are using US or UK spellings and be consistent
• Avoid typos, mis-spellings, and grammatical errors. Get someone to proof read it
• Do not write in the first person. "I" is generally not used in a CV
• A phone number is an absolute must
• Give specific dates not just the year (e.g 2004). Include the month(s) to give context to the duration. If you fail to evidence the actual months/duration then the client will assume that you only did the shortest possible tenure (for example 2018 - 2019 could be taken as 1- 2 months as in Dec 2018 to Jan 2019)
• Avoid photos
• Don't leave gaps - explain gap year, interim assignments
• Keep adding to your CV even when you are not looking, you will be thankful when the time comes to already have details of last employer, responsibilities, and achievements to hand
• Ensure that you review your CV every time you start your job search. Don't just "plonk" your latest role on your existing CV
• Allocate a weighting of bulleted content to reflect the duration and your main experience over the past few years, rather than throughout your entire past career history. Your CV should evolve not grow in length
• Make sure that your email address is professional. Avoid email addresses such as "pinkfairy@hotmail.com"
• Don't just copy the key responsibilities of your latest job description into your CV, as this is obvious. These are just a series of statements, in the wrong tense that lack any tangibles.

Online Cover Letters

The basic rules of style, brevity and clarity that apply to any covering letter also apply when you're making job applications online. Online cover letters use less formal structures than an offline cover letter, but you must make it clear what position you are applying for, who you are and where you heard of the role / organisation.

Use the covering email to provide a unique, tailored and impactful introduction to what relevant or transferable experience and skills you can bring to the role.

For example, if in addition to other skills requirements which you have, a role requires you to have had experience of TUPE transfers but you haven't had experience of TUPE don't miss the opportunity to mention other consultation experience you may have gained as a result of change; such as redundancies, restructures or relocation of premises, short term or long term contractual changes, not forgetting to include background, context, size and scale relating to the consultation programme.

For example

I was very involved in the end to end consultation for a redundancy programme following the collapse of (the organisation/business area/site) which affected 70 staff out of a total national headcount of 500... etc

Use the covering email to focus in on, and encapsulate the key tangibles relating to the job applied for

...And of course always proof read it before you send the email.

NEXT: Interview Preparation