So you’re returning to the workforce after time-out to concentrate on your family but the last time you wrote a CV Donald Trump was hosting The Apprentice. Things have moved on in your industry and you’re not sure you even want to return to your old career. You’ve developed all these amazing time management, budgeting and delegation skills as a mother and done heaps of volunteering work at the school but you don’t know how to present that experience in a CV. Even your computer skills are rusty and your old CV template looks a bit past it.
Sound familiar? Do you keep going to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and then find you’re stuck? Here’s my advice to help you tackle your CV woes.
Is it your CV or is it something else?
I have friends with amazing experience and skills that want to start looking for a new job but haven’t gotten started yet because of what seems like the monumental task of getting a CV ready. If this sounds like you then I hate to tell you this but I think there is more to it than your CV. It sounds like something else is holding you back. Maybe you want to do something different in your career and you’re not sure what that is? Or perhaps you’re lacking in confidence about going back to work? Try journaling about what your fears are and what is holding you back? You could talk about your concerns with a friend or even a career coach. I offer a free 30 minute working mum SOS for exactly these kind of problems. Click here for more details.
Get started
This is a bit like tackling that overflowing cupboard at home. Sometimes you’ve just got to get started and once you start chipping away at it you’ll realise it’s not that bad after all. Set your timer for 50 minutes and just start writing then give yourself a reward at the end (if you’re a regular reader of mine you’ll notice I advocate this approach to scary jobs a lot). Don’t worry about getting it ‘perfect’ at this stage just start.
Tailor your CV to the job
It’s amazing how many people do not tailor their CVs for the job they’re applying for. I remember looking at CVs in my corporate days, where it was blatantly obvious that a generic CV had just been attached to an email with a standard cover letter. I get this and it mostly comes from job application fatigue. You know, just applying for way too many jobs and sometimes just not being all that bothered about the job you are applying for. You kind of get to the point where any job will do. In this situation, I urge you to be a bit more fussy because believe me when somebody really wants a job IT SHOWS in their CV and their covering letter. And you can just tell that the applicant is taking their time and not firing off an application for everything on Seek. Which brings me to …
Know what you want
This is the best way to combat job application fatigue and to ensure you have a CV that packs a punch. When you know what you want and have a good handle on how your skills fit (or can be developed to fit) the role, the rest will flow much more easily. And you won’t find yourself getting burned out by endless applications. Because you won’t be submitting endless applications. Once you know what you are aiming for you will be able to develop a standout master CV that will only need a little bit of tweaking for particular jobs.
Start with a personal summary
Your CV needs to be a reflection of you and tell your story in a compelling way. A personal summary at the front allows you to draw out the best bits of you, your history and what you are looking for. This is particularly important if you have had a break and are looking to do something different. It’s essentially your elevator pitch on paper. Here’s an example:
“A sales and marketing professional with over 15 years’ experience of driving business growth and brand awareness for clients within professional services. After many successes, including winning major pitches for key clients, I am now seeking a new challenge and wish to apply my commercial acumen, marketing and personal branding skills to the career advice and development industry. I undertook training as a life and career coach whilst on maternity leave and have subsequently set up my own coaching business where I coach mothers who are transitioning in their careers. I am a highly motivated and adaptable person and take responsibility for my own development. I’m seeking a part-time position where I can utilise my unique mixture of coaching and marketing skills.”
Emphasise your transferable skills
Remember the days when you started with your most recent job and worked backwards, demonstrating your perfectly linear career progression? Well you’re going to need a new approach, especially if you’ve been away from work for some time or you’re looking to do something different. You need to make it really easy for future employers or recruiters to see that you have the exact skills they need for the job. Partly you will cover this off in your personal summary but you will also need a key skills and strengths section following on from this. In this section you can really draw out the skills and experience you have that directly matches the job description and person specification. Employers will simply not sift through pages of job experience to find those bits that are relevant to them, especially if your last job title does not match the one they are recruiting for.
Deal with the break
Don’t shy away from mentioning your career break – deal with it in a straightforward, no nonsense way. You may want to mention your break in your personal summary but you should also include it with dates in your career history section. Don’t try to be clever and name yourself household CEO or anything like that. Just state what it was i.e. “Career break for parenting responsibilities” and move on. I also would not suggest sugar coating this description with a list of transferable skills you used i.e. running a household budget but I would draw attention to any voluntary work you did during this time such involvement in organising school events. Your transferable skills and strengths developed during your break can be highlighted in the Key skills and strengths section (see above) and can be a mixture of competencies you developed at work, in your family life and through volunteering.
Don’t forget the basics and get feedback
Use a clear, clean font with 1.5 spacing. Use bold headers and consider line breaks to separate sections. Have a section at the top that includes your personal details and make sure you get someone to look over for any spelling and grammatical errors. I offer a FREE CV Health Check for my subscribers. Send me your CV and you’ll receive clear and actionable feedback within three working days. Click here for more details about this offer.
Include a cover letter and don’t forget linkedin
Your CV should never be sent without a cover letter, email or phone call. The cover letter should draw out how you match the job specification and evaluation criteria in a short punchy way. Consider using bullet points for each of the criterion to make it really clear. Also, make sure your linkedin profile is up to date and includes a professional looking, recent picture of you. The ideal cover letter or introduction to you though, is YOU. If there is any way that you can get to talk to the employer (even if only on the phone) then you should make sure you seize the chance. This gives them a chance to get to know your personality and for you to leave an impression on them. Ideally a CV shouldn’t be sent cold. Which leads me to my final point.
Don’t rely too heavily on the CV
This might sound a bit strange after everything I’ve said above but a CV is only part of the toolbox in your job search. Ideally it should form part of a conversation with a prospective employer and cement the conversation you’ve had up until that point. I read a statistic somewhere that only 80% of jobs are advertised. Employers will usually prefer to give a job to someone they know or someone who has been referred, so you should never forget the importance of maintaining and growing your network. This is especially important when you want something that doesn’t fit the normal job mould i.e. flexible, from home or when you might not be not be the ideal candidate on paper, such as in a career change situation. Once the prospective employer sees what you can bring to the table they will be falling over themselves to give you a chance and then the CV is just a formality.
I hope this article has given you some inspiration and motivation to get started on your CV. Don’t forget to download my free CV template and make use of my FREE CV Health Check. If you need some more ideas or you’re still feeling stuck then contact me for a working mum SOS.