CV Writing Guide For Managers

You need a CV writing guide that'll get you shortlisted for management interviews even though it's a truly dreadful jobs market out there. That's what this article offers.

This CV writing guide helps you market your way to success rather than focus on selling your skills to possibly unwilling buyers. You start the process by finding out the employers' view of the perfect candidate. Even if you feel you're a far from perfect candidate, you need to collect this information as it'll guide you in pitching your CV and deciding which types of employers to target.

Go online and put in the search terms for the type of management job you want, then trawl through the job ads. Save copies of everything that gives useful information about that particular sector of the jobs market and what employers are asking for. Don't restrict your search to management jobs within the right geographical area because all you want to do right now is to discover what criteria your target employers use when deciding which candidates to interview.

If you're relying on recruitment consultancies to help you find your next job, then you need to list the exact phrases and words agencies use in advertising the management jobs that interest you. This CV writing guide recommends using exactly the same words and phrases that appear in the job ads - recruitment agencies use software that searches their databases for these terms when they look for candidates to interview.

Go through all your saved material, highlighting every key point (eg the specific qualifications and management experience most employers ask for). Check the employers' priorities advises this CV writing guide - if they put budget management skills before technical expertise you should do the same on your own CV.

Summarise all the data you've highlighted in a master file, ready for use when you begin writing your CV.

It's only at this stage - when the employers' view of the perfect candidate for the job is crystal clear - that you can begin to think about actually writing your CV.

When preparing to write your CV, the first question to decide is which CV format will help me sell my services most effectively? Any good online CV writing guide will point out the variety of CV formats available to job hunters and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each (a functional CV is particularly well suited to a new graduate or mid-career professional, for example). Ignore any CV writing guide which claims there's only one perfect CV template - that just isn't true.

You must search for objective evidence (eg sales value, increased profitability, etc) when writing your CV so you can evidence each claim about your successes. This approach also means you won't produce the bland, generic type of CV most recruiters instantly bin!

The whole purpose of writing your CV is to get you an interview for the job you want. Doing the job right will take far more research, hard thinking and care with your wording than most candidates put into writing their CVs. This CV writing guide argues it's far better to put your all into developing a truly effective CV at the very beginning of your job search than to suffer the miseries of watching other people snap up the very few good job opportunities now available.

Linda Whittern is Director of Careers Partnership (UK), a consultancy providing one to one career planning and advice for people at all stages of their careers. If your career is stuck, see what we can do to help.