John Paul Executive Sales & Marketing Recruitment

How to write a CV that gets you an interview

 

First of all, if you are applying to an email address the subject and content of your email needs to inspire the recipient to open your CV.

When applying for a vacancy via a web portal or a talent management application it will be the information on the first page of your CV that will have the biggest impact on whether you are invited for interview or not.

Creating your covering letter

This should be an email NOT an actual letter

	Subject (Impact to gain airtime) this is your headline
	First sentence (The Why) what’s in it for you
	Followed by what’s in it for them. This is your RELEVANT highlights
	- Key Achievements
	- Career Summary
	- Career Objectives
	Final sentence is the hook or call to action. This should be a compelling statement motivating them and making it easy for them to meet with you to discuss further.

Creating your CV

Whatever you call it, your CV, curriculum vitae, resume or profile document, the most important thing is that it clearly explains to the reader what it is that you can do for them. It won’t get you a job but if your CV is a well presented, good source of relevant information and sells you to the reader; it will get you an interview.

CV plan is to produce 3 documents: -

1. Anonymous Online CV

While agencies and companies must adhere to the UK’s strict data protection laws it is still advisable to control the availability of your personal information from online job boards.

Using an anonymous CV online will ensure agencies or employers who want to speak to you about a role must contact you through that site rather than directly. It is then within your control as to who has your personal information and contact details.

The level of anonymity on this CV is entirely at your discretion but we would recommend the omission of your personal details: name, address, email, mobile, and the name of your current employer. Online CVs can become widely read and it would be unfortunate for your employer to become aware of your inclination to leave.

It is important to remember that recruiters source CVs from the internet by entering key words and phrases into search engines and job sites. These words and phrases are the only link to your CV and the more people that find it the higher the number of opportunities presented to you.

Master CV

Your master CV should have every piece of information on it. You can then tailor it for applications to specific roles by deleting irrelevant information and saving it as a new document.

The master document will not be sent to anyone it is merely a formatted source of information that will enable you to easily match you experience more efficiently to roles that you identify. Therefore you need more information.

You want this information presented in the following format.

	First of all you need to list all of your key achievements
	Then you need to write how they came about
	- The situation or the problem that presented an opportunity
	- The solution you provided
	- The outcome (this must be successful or it defeats the object)

There are many ways and theories on how people measure and judge CV's. Your documents will change the mould for the future, so the more time spent now the less time spent later.

Job Specific CV

This is the CV which you will send in direct response to adverts. You can create it be editing your Master CV to match relevant experience to the key specifics of the role.

Below is a guide to the recommended approach when applying for a role

1. Each application for a role will involve an initial brain storm, covering direct experience - management experience - market knowledge - product knowledge - route to market experience - ability and situation experience, by yourself to see if there is any additional information that you can add to your CV that is relevant.

2. You will then use this information and the information on your master to create a matching headline. This will be your subject in emails, it will also go in your covering letter and in the main body of the email application and is designed to stimulate and attract. This is easier to do than it sounds provided you have a master document to pull information from.

3. The next step is to pull 2/3 highlights, examples that demonstrate your success that make it easy for the reader to understand your talent from your CV that matches the role/opportunity, these will be separate paragraphs and easy to read based on: -

	The situation that presented an opportunity
	The problem
	The solution you provided
	The outcome (this must be successful or it defeats the object)

4. They will go immediately after your first sentence of your covering letter and in the main body of the email application.

5. Once this is completed you need to create a relevant CV, the amount of CV's in circulation full of irrelevant information clog up band width - waste paper - waste toner etc., you want a hard hitting document that catches the attention of the reader and one that delivers a solution - "YOU". Pull off the following information: -

	Mini presentations on matching scenario’s (see step 3 above)
	Matching bullet pointed information
	- What you’ve sold (a brief sentence or 2 on the technology)
	- How you’ve sold it (direct, indirect, account management, new business)
	- Who you’ve sold it to (finance vertical, public sector vertical, resellers, SI’s and give a few examples of some of the names of deals / partners and deals sizes)
	- Targets
	- Achievement against target
	- Any other achievements

 

 

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