Chapter 1 | The reality of a CV in today’s job market

Before you begin, you need to understand the purpose of the document, a CV is not your entire life story, a biography, a dumping ground for every task you have ever done, a job description archive, or proof that you have been busy!

A CV is, however, a marketing document, a professional positioning tool, an evidence-based summary of your suitability, and a document designed to secure further conversation.

The aim of a CV is not to get you the job, it is to get you serious consideration, and ideally, an interview. That means your CV must help the reader answer a few questions very quickly:

What level is this person operating at?

Are you junior, established, senior, strategic, specialist, hands-on, leadership-focused, commercially minded, operationally strong?

Is this person relevant to the role?

Can the recruiter immediately connect your background to the vacancy?

Is there enough evidence here to justify speaking to this person?

Have you shown enough scope, value, achievement, progression, and credibility?

If the answer to those questions is unclear, the CV does not work, even if you are highly capable. So, before you write anything, you need to accept that a good CV is not about saying everything, it is about saying the right things, in the right order, with the right emphasis.