Friday, 8th March 2024
From the desk of Branching Out:
Good morning from a peaceful and dark Somerset. It is very early in the morning and I am wanting to reply to your questions about your CV. I sense that your concerns about how to write it are building and because of all the information out there I understand your confusion as to how it ‘should’ be looking.
And I agree. There are so many ‘rules’ around this document so that the ‘computer engine’ is circumvented. And the rules are ever changing and hence I come from the approach of ‘enjoy creating this document, make it simple for yourself and trust that it will open doors in the very near future’.
This document is about you and your journey thus far. It is ever changing and a document that you will be revising and revising as and when you need to.
My advice is as follows:
Have a browse at other CV layouts. What is a look that reflects you, is very simple and can be printed out with ease. Also, do you CV in a format that you can keep adding to.
In order to get going, jot down on paper some key points about yourself. This might be starting with your name, contact details and little bit about your education or work experience. Anything. This is a place from which you can branch out. And then clear time, get excited, and start typing it out! I find that setting a timer for 23 minutes and feeling that feeling of accomplishment at the beginning is what spurs me on to get the job done. The point is just to start.
And back yourself all the way. Have some fun doing this; allow your mind to keep answering the questions: ‘what else can I tell them … what else … what else’? Smile to yourself as you do this. And perhaps even listen to music that settles and inspires you. And if you knew that your CV is excellent, easy to put together and doing the job that it needs to be doing – how would you go about this task right now?
This CV is your ‘introductory letter’. It is the story of your life thus far in a format that is really easy for the reader to look at. Put yourself in their shoes – they want to know as much about you in a very short space of time. Because employers want to make the process from their side as efficiently and quickly as possible, they will SCAN your CV looking specifically for WORDS that are RELEVANT to the post that they are wanting to fill. And it is because of this that you want to really make sure that you have read the advert, the job spec, well. What do they want and what have you got that tells them that you would be a very good fit for their business?
You know the basics: your education and working experience thus far; your valued skills. And trust me when I say that once you start you will remember others things that you have done that are really relevant. Also, in doing the work you might well be prompted to ‘add to it’ by enrolling on a short and relevant course and learning another skill.
For me, the more concise the CV, the less frills around it, the easier it is to read. And remember that the CV is an introduction to yourself. Your CV is backed up by the letters that you write, what you say about yourself on LinkedIn, the conversations that you have and, interestingly, how you show up for yourself each and every day.
With every job application you might well need to adjust your CV and add something extra. Also I think that as you gain confidence and greater clarity of what you are looking for and what you have on offer so you will want to change things up a bit.
What you will find too that as you keep reaching out to companies, you will also be gaining so much useful information and knowledge about the workplace. You will be getting to know about different organisations, and also meeting people along the way. You will become more and more self assured in your abilities to engage effectively and this is the time when resilience and determination will be kicking in. This is the time too when you will be getting to know and understand yourself even better – your values, what matters to you, the clues as to what you have enjoyed doing and want to be doing more of.
And if you want to send me your first draft, I would be delighted to give you some encouraging feedback inorder to get you going.
Have a great rest of your day.
All the best
Caroline