If you only do one thing this week … sort out your CV
January 18, 2010 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
Admit it, your CV’s mouldy. Why wouldn’t it be? There are skirting boards to clean, the freezer to defrost and the curtains could do with an iron. Like other parts of your life your CV could probably do with a spring clean. It’s cold and dark outside, you’re feeling skint, so why not make this the week you dust it down.
In employment terms 2009 was, to put it mildly, rocky. Hopefully things will settle down this year. If they do, there could be new job opportunities; if they don’t, some workers may be forced to consider a career change. Either way, you want to be able to act fast if you see the right job advertised.
Picture the scene: you see the perfect opening but your CV (which dates back to circa the year you first entered the working world) can’t be turned around fast enough to get your application in before the deadline. That’s the why you should, but what about the how?
Career coach John Lees, author of Career Reboot, says: “The first 30 words absolutely matter. Somebody will make a decision about you in the first 10 or 20 seconds.” As a result, you should think very carefully about how you introduce yourself. “If you start with ‘purchasing professional’ or ‘languages graduate’ you may have put yourself into a category you can’t escape,” Lees warns. “If you find you’re being offered the same tired old jobs you’re trying to escape you are probably responsible.”
One way to avoid getting pigeonholed is to focus on your skills rather than your work history. “Bad CVs tend to be back to front,” Lees says…
Read the original article at Guardian