Been in a role for a long time whether it be self-employed or employed so haven’t needed a CV? What to do? Don’t panic and follow this step by step guide to achieving an attractive, attention seeking and professional resume.
- Create a list of your career history, noting dates, role titles, company names and basic remit to start.
- List your key achievements to date – keep to examples which demonstrate where you have gone above and beyond the call of duty or made a real difference. Simply noting down projects you have managed to time and budget does not demonstrate an achievement as such (you were paid to deliver the project). However if you have implemented a new programme structure to the business or dealt with particularly difficult stakeholders etc. then talk about it.
- Perform a skills audit – start by drawing a line to represent the project timeline, then note down core areas you have exposure to such as writing the business case, planning, Risk & Issues, supplier management etc.
- Take a template from the internet to start – fill in the areas you can easily do, such as dates and achievements etc. then refer to the following blog posts which will assist you in filling in the gaps:
Now you should have a good solid document to work on – you’ll need to spend some time tweaking and rewriting, but you will soon find that what seemed a wall too high to climb is merely a hurdle along the way to getting back into finding a new role.
[...] I am often approached by business owners who confess they have never needed a CV or not needed one for so many years that they wouldn’t know where to begin – there have been a few who have decided to go into contracting or permanent roles due to a number of reasons and are stuck for what to do. Whenever anyone sits down to write their first CV it is a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be – take it step by step. First of all I would like to point you to a blog article which takes you through the basics of structuring your CV and gathering information. [...]