The Importance of CV Writing

Your CV is your product brochure and serves to open the door for an interview. It is vital therefore that you invest time constructing your CV. We recommend following our tips, using a friend who’s CV generated an interview and purchasing Perfect CV from our bookshop.

I guess we all know that the CV is the passport to a job interview or a business meeting – well it should be! Sadly, so many that come through Cardinal’s email inbox are a passport to nowhere. Here are a few top tips for creating a document that is likely to inspire a conversation between you and the recipient leading to future opportunities.

Create your CV so that it’s:

  • Business-like – create the perfect CV using Max Eggert’s book of the same title
  • Designer – craft your Career Profile capturing your expertise, competencies and skills to match the role you are aiming for.
  • Achievement-benefit focused – state the action, analyse, & explain the benefit e.g. reduced stock, by 20%, releasing £50,000 for re-investment.
  • Current – Focus on the last 3 years. Headline only anything older than 10 years.
  • Brief – 2 pages is more than enough to tell whether someone can do the job
  • Ready for action so you can produce on demand
  • Eye-catching – draft & ask someone who’s own CV is successful to check it.
  • Spell & grammar perfect – if in doubt read Lynne Truss’s “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”


Then follow this order of play for maximum impact…

  1. Name, address, telephone numbers, email address centred at the top of the page 1.
  2. Career Profile
  3. Summary of Achievements followed by employment history, or
  4. Most recent career experience, starting with your most recent role and underpinned by achievements
  5. Professional qualifications, training and education
  6. Personal details.

And do…

  • Use bullet points, keep to third party avoiding the use of “I”
  • Use a clear, modern font, size 11 or 12
  • Avoid including your salary or references

 

Mel Armstrong is founder and….

The Perfect CV – Max Eggert

You are the product and your CV is the product brochure so it’s vital to create the right first impression! The Perfect CV is the best publication of it’s kind we’ve come across – concise, slim, to the point, this handy volume has guided scores of Cardinal’s candidates to reconstruct their CVs effectively.

From Chief Executives to Project Engineers, PhDs to Manufacturing Managers, Max Eggert’s memorable, and often amusingly put, tips have proved to the ideal way to make the CV say “see me”. With practical exercises to complete, recording and ranking achievements and what to leave out, The Perfect CV is the perfect companion on the career development journey.

The Perfect Interview – Max Eggert

Once you’ve mastered the tips and skills in The Perfect CV, you’ll need to brush up on your interview techniques. In the companion volume, The Perfect Interview, Max Eggert succinctly describes how to prepare for an interview, how to present oneself and one’s skills and how to manage the process effectively for the result you want.

Packed with practical tips, success strategies and comprehensive checklists, The Perfect Interview is fun to work through and slim enough to be slipped in a pocket. Containing strategies as to how to manage the 100 favourite interview questions, how to deal with negative information and how to explain the gaps, this book is a star purchase.

Together, The Perfect Interview & The Perfect CV form a formidable brace of career guidance books and are frequently recommended to Cardinal candidates as part of a life-skills pack.