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View the CV template from Arras People Arras People has been running its Project Management Careers Clinics for over three years now and talking to hundreds of candidates and clients for our project management recruitment services. Over that time we've seen thousands of CVs – some good, some bad and to be honest only a marginal majority that are really excellent. There's plenty of guidance on CV writing on the internet and there's no definitive answer to writing the perfect CV but there are definite pitfalls to avoid – and certainly big no-no's! As you may have already discovered everyone will give you different advice on your CV as ultimately it is an art not a science! Arras People has put together some of its recommendations based on years of recruiting successful project management roles and guidelines from clients requesting what they like to see on candidates' CVs. Before we start working through the CV structure a few general pointers and thoughts on the CV itself: 1, 2, 3 or beyond CV length advice varies from a one pager profile to most stating that they should be two pages max and if you find your CV reading like War and Peace with four or more pages – forget it, no one will be interested. Generally speaking we like to see candidates CVs no longer than three pages as long as the CV hasn't become a waffling diatribe. If its two pages and it does everything you want it to do – great! If not, going to three pages is fine. Tell the Truth You will get found out eventually – if not at the first hurdle when being interviewed by a recruiter. More and more employers are using competency based interviews as the first hurdle which makes lying on your CV very difficult indeed. Lying in areas such as education, training courses attended, job titles and when you actually worked somewhere are much easier to find out about than you probably think. Spell checker An obvious one eh? Just make sure you also use the grammar checker to effective use too and avoid American spellings such as organization for organisation. MS Word has a nasty habit of changing these frequently. As a side note I think the most mis-spelt word in some of the CV's we've seen is "liaising". Do not rely solely on the spell checker make sure you read it through to ensure auto correct has not put the wrong word in. |
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It's all about marketing and sales Your CV is purely and simply a document that sells you, just like sales and marketing literature tells a potential customer about a product or service, its benefits, its features etc. Keep this in mind as you put together your CV as everything you write should be achieving this objective. The CV We're going to run through the CV very simply – the top, middle and bottom – or the beginning middle and end - your CV is telling the reader the story of your working career and education to date! | Top |
Personal Details The CV doesn't necessarily have to carry all your personal details here at the top; it works equally well at the bottom (At the end of the CV). You must of course have your name displayed prominently at the top of the CV and there is no need for the words "Curriculum Vitae – CV" it's pretty obvious what it is!! Make sure you use your full legal name. Some candidates may have long and pretty unpronounceable names but many people get around this by providing a shortened name in brackets for example. A personal no-no of ours – no pictures please (Especially the one of you on holiday last year – yes! we really have received informal snaps on CV's before!). The Objective The "Objective" or "Purpose" statement is often a missed part of the CV and we think it's crucial and works very well for people who use it. The rules of using the objective are to be very clear and concise. We've written an article on it already, but in summary: Remember the objective for a CV is to get you the opportunity of a face to face interview with the prospective employer – which also means you must know your CV inside out like the back of your hand as they are likely to have used the CV as the basis for some of their one to one questions. The objective is "a statement of what you want to do for an employer", for example: "Objective: To obtain a challenging project co-ordination position within a public sector organisation which will allow me to continue developing my project management skills, with a long-term aim to progress to the role of Programme or Project Office Manager." Anything written in the objective must also be clearly backed up in the rest of your CV and this can take the form of a personal profile and then the normal chronological layout of your works experience. So why do we encourage people to spend time writing their objectives? For a number of reasons; it makes your application stand out from the 100's of others the client may be reviewing, it shows the employer you've taken the time to think about your application and above all else it makes you the most ideal employee on paper! So what do you need to think about when putting together an objective? Here's a list of some of the do's and don'ts:
The Personal Statement You can still write a personal statement below your Objective but the statement should avoid the bland statements of "excellent team player" or "committed, motivated and proactive project manager", these are considered to be vague statements that don't really add anything to the CV – in fact there are probably hundreds of other people with exactly the same statement. The personal statement should also set the scene for the CV and ultimately whatever you put into the statement should be backed up by the rest of the content of the CV. So what kind of things should you be putting into the statement? Look at the project management role descriptions out there and concentrate on the key capabilities and skills that are needed. For example; for a project co-ordinator role there is a lot of emphasis on planning, monitoring, control etc. It is these core skills that should be incorporated into the statement e.g., A professionally trained (PRINCE2™) project co-ordinator with experience of in-depth planning, reporting and project communications to provide a flexible, pragmatic and proactive project support service to programmes and projects. In this kind of statement, coupled with a highly targeted objective, you are stating all the attractive keywords i.e., project co-ordinator, PRINCE2™, planning etc that the reader is looking for. Remember, unfortunately a lot of readers of your CV may be unclear about what a project manager does or what a project co-ordinator does, and they are only relying on keyword searches to pick your CV out in an initial sift so your CV should include good keywords and also be written as simply as possible, too. Good news for you though that at Arras People we are skilled project management professionals who understand a thing or two about project management and your job. Key achievements Key achievements or straight onto your works experience? It's often good practice to include 5 or 6 concise bullet points highlighting your key achievements to date – especially if there are areas which you think relate very well to the role you're applying for. Here is an example;
By the way ensure you mention what you did, in terms of I not we. Employers want to know what difference you made - they are hiring you not the team you worked with. So ensure you can tell the story around your experience – what you actually achieved. Education and Qualifications We recommend that recent graduates include their Education and Qualifications pretty high up in their CV, after all this is where your recent time has been spent. List all your University, College and Secondary School education together making sure the dates are clear. Make sure you include grades or predicted grades. Also include details of any modules or dissertations too, especially if they are related to project management. For other candidates it's down to your personal preferences, in our opinion your education and qualifications straight after the achievements/statement works just as well as placing it near the end of the CV. The Middle Most people tend to read CVs in a very similar way, you look at the objective first to see if the applicant for a role is actually looking for something similar to the role they've applied for. Then you tend to glance at the personal statement at this stage and then quickly sweep down to the Employment History i.e., is their objective / statement backed up by practical experience. If everything at first glance looks in order it's back to the top for a closer inspection. So the practical experience or work history is ultimately the most important area of your CV and this is the area that requires the most sweating over and agonising about how to write about the job you perform in a clear, concise, easy for an outsider to understand and ultimately to sell you effectively. Not only will the reader be looking to understand the who, where, what, when and how but also they way you write about your experience – the language you use and importantly what you don't say. Dates Make sure the dates are clear, when you started and finished the role – make sure you include the Month and Year. Gaps Explain any gaps in the dates, for example if you completed your last role in March 2006 and went travelling for a year, the most recent entry in your works history would looking like: March 2006 – Present Travelled to Australia and xxxxxxxx Where You Worked Introduce the company you have worked for instead of just listing the company name for example; This allows the reader of the CV to be informed immediately about the type of organisation it is and give your experience and skills that follow it some context. When working for smaller, less known organisations it also saves the reader time in researching it too. Job Title Make your job title very clear; it's remarkable how often we see CV's where this is not very clear. Don't let the reader have any cause for concern or suspicion, list your job title exactly as it was in the organisation you worked for, there will be plenty of opportunity when listing your skills and experience to really convey what this job title and job entailed. Introduction and Bullet Points Introduce the role you preformed by concentrating on what constituted the majority of the tasks you performed – what was the main function of your role. By introducing the main function you can then provide, by a bullet pointed list, what the actual tasks were that enabled you to carry out the function successfully. Ideally write in the tasks and the objectives you were set – add to that what you achieved against those objectives and the resulting benefits to the employer. This makes a very powerful achievement statement and will form the basis of conversation in a competency based interview as you relate your experience to the role's requirements. Research on the web other CV writing sites or other people's CVs to get a better idea about the type of language to use to convey your tasks, activities, skills and experience clearly and professionally. Here are some examples:
When writing about your main duties vary the language you use at the beginning of the sentence. Too many CV's don't use a mix of adjectives which can lead the reader of the CV to get bored and give up reading on. Some excellent adjectives to use include: Supported the … Remember that the CV is a multifaceted document, it not only lets the reader get a good understanding of what you have done and where you were educated etc but it's also an opportunity to really blow your own trumpet. This is something that many people feel uncomfortable with and as a result produce a lacklustre CV which doesn't do anyone any justice. Think about the role you have been performing and really start to think about what you have done that was successful. Was there a special project you were asked to undertake due to the trust and respect you had built up performing your day job? Was there a particularly hard task or new task you were asked to take on? How did you go about doing that? Think about the successes you have had in your role and make sure they figure prominently on your CV. Remember to concentrate on yourself more than the team, for example, many project co-ordinators fall into the trap of describing successes that were really the project and team's successes because the co-ordinator spends a large majority of their time supporting others, i.e.: "Successful delivery of a XXXXX system for XXXXXX." Make sure the successes you are describing are supported by your own individual contribution or effort, i.e.: "Contributed to the successful delivery of a XXXXX system for XXXXXX by providing a robust quality assurance and benefits realisation process resulting in XXXXXXX." Once you have nailed a consistent, interesting and flowing current work history ensure that the same style is applied to all your other jobs in your employment history. Just a quick word on terminology, make sure you are not using too many acronyms – especially if these are very specific to the organisation or project you are working on. Many people will not have a clue what you're talking about and will be inclined to leave your CV at the bottom of the pile. The End If you've decided to move personal details and education and training to the bottom of the CV, now's the time to complete all the other bits about you that haven't been covered. Education and Training As the advice for graduates above, List all your University, College and Secondary School education together making sure the dates are clear. Make sure you include grades, especially for degrees. People with extensive works experience will also have picked up internal and external training courses along the way – make sure you include details in this section but only if they are relevant to the job or career you have now. For training courses and accreditations like PRINCE2™ – make sure it's clear which you have passed – Foundation or Practitioner or both. Also include your candidate number – which can be checked online by recruiters. Include information about any memberships you have for organisations, specific IT skills (and IT training courses you've attended and passed) you think are relevant for your CV. Personal details Personal details at the end of the CV – like driving licence are good to see but keep any other information to a minimum for example I'm not sure when the trend started for informing readers about marital status and family members but its really not necessary in a CV. Details like hobbies are good – especially if written in your personality style – it's a chance to put a human angle to the CV and inform the reader that you're not a robot and actually you do have a life as well. If your hobbies and interests are not going to be a major topical piece i.e., enjoys reading, trips to the cinema, socialising etc make sure you give a little more detail i.e., what books do you like reading, what kind of films, where have you travelled recently etc. Remove your date of birth from your CV, after the 1st October 2006, the Age Discrimination Regulations came into effect. Don't include reference details at this point – "References available on request" is the norm for CV's – you don't want your referees being hounded by unscrupulous recruitment agents looking for their next lead. When you've completed your 1st draft use trusted friends and family members to take a look at your CV and give you an honest opinion. Ask them the questions – do you understand what I mean when I say this? Chances are if your friends and family don't understand something then the recruitment agency or potential employer won't either. Go back and make changes – don't be tempted to put it to one side and say it'll do! Remember there is a lot of competition in the job market and it's the people who make the effort and go the extra mile who get the job they want. You have the CV - now what?
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