Project Management CV Advice

Arras People has been running its Project Management Careers Clinics since 2004 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!  

This guide has been specifically put together to assist project management professionals with the development of their own CV and to also give them an insiders guide to making successful applications for project management roles.

As you may have already discovered everyone will give you different advice on your CV! 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 maximum. For a project management CV, it really does depend on the length of your project career.

Ideally between 2 and 4 pages is what you should be aiming for.

If you find your CV is reading like War and Peace, with five or more pages – especially if you have a long career with many contracting roles – you're going to have to take measures to contain it, because no one will be interested in wading through a lengthy CV.

Remember, the CV is there to give just enough information so the reader can make a decision on whether to talk to you further. It is not intended as a document that covers your entire life story.

Tell the Truth

You will get found out eventually – if not at the first hurdle when being interviewed by a recruiter, then certainly further down the line. More and more employers are using competency based interviews which makes it difficult to lie on a CV about an experience, skill or competency which will be tested during the interview process. Lying in areas such as education, training courses attended, job titles, references and when you actually worked somewhere are much easier to find out about than you probably think.

Here's an excerpt from a short article which highlights the issue...

In a small sample of just 5 people who have applied for a project management position, 4 of them are not telling the whole truth. That’s a whopping 80%! It took just five minutes of running a few checks on the internet to establish whether the people were who they say they were.

Interested to know what people were lying about?

The easy one, if you put that you’ve taken any of the Cabinet Office accredited courses like PRINCE2, MSP etc there is an online register that shows exactly when you did it and where. That accounted for the first of our candidates.

The second, states that he's currently working for a company as a project support officer currently supporting a senior project manager. What he omitted to tell me was the company he currently works for is actually his own and its been dissolved for the last 12 months. It’s easy to find out details about companies and directors either from Companies House directly or any of the credit checking facilities.

The third, has been working for the same company for the last 5 years, a company I’ve never heard of. Briefly checking out the company online bought no clues and delving deeper it was easy to find out that actually it hasn’t existed for the last two years.

Finally, and this one is really the best of all. The fourth candidate is someone who has applied for a number of roles at Arras People over the last two years. The systems we use here enable us to keep previous versions of the CV used when applying for jobs, a bit like an archive. When I received the latest application I took a quick look at the previous versions, just to see if they were the same. Unfortunately some editing fairy must have been at work because the latest CV bore no relation to the previous versions; in fact, he had invented an entire works history.

Spell checker

An obvious one! 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, one particularly frequent misspelt word in some of the CVs we've seen is "liaising". This goes to show: 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.

It's also worth asking a friend or member of the family to cast their eye over the CV, too. Also get them to look out for any acronyms you have included that don't mean anything to them or if there are parts of your career that a layman struggles to understand. Remember that the reader of your CV may also not have much understanding about project management.

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 new product or service. Marketing professionals know they have to sell both the features, benefits and unique-selling points.

Keep this in mind as you put together your CV as everything you write should be achieving this objective. Have a think about what your features are (your skills, experience, capabilities), how you could benefit the organisation in the role you are applying for and what puts you ahead of the other competition in the marketplace?

Self-Analysis

The starting point for the CV is to ask yourself what you are trying to do.

Knowing who you are and what you are actually looking for is a vital first step. Often project management professionals think they know exactly what they have to offer, can clearly articulate this and know which opportunities are the right ones for their career.

Do you know?

Performing self evaluation exercises such as Gap Analysis and SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threats) analysis' before creating your CV will give you a greater sense not only of what your skills are and what you have to offer, but also where you fit into the market and the type of roles you can realistically apply for.

There are a couple of SWOT resources that may be of interest and help prepare your own:

Having established the objective, research is then essential to understand not only your target market but more importantly yourself.

Remember, the purpose of a CV is not to get a job but rather to obtain an interview or meeting.

The most common mistake we see on a project management CV is the inability to clearly and concisely convey the competencies, skills and knowledge utilised by the individual in the successful delivery of the project, programme or portfolio.

Maximising your potential through a carefully created CV does take some effort and may appear to some to be a semantic exercise. Competencies, skills, experience, knowledge, practical application, success stories, objective, education, qualifications, personal interests and the list goes on – are all core components of the selling tool you are going to utilise to find that perfect job.

The winners are crafting these into a succinct document that catches the attention of the reader and encourages them to take the next step.

The CV as a Shop Window

If you are like most, when I open a Word document I tend to view it at 100% or even full-page width (129%). This means that my first view is of the top half of your document. Only if I like what I see will I bother to read any further. This is something that many of our colleagues also do. First impressions really do count, and if you do not grab our attention at the beginning we are unlikely to read very far.

I have started using the analogy of a shop window to help candidates make that important first impression. If you see a nicely presented and appropriate shop window, then you are more likely to go into the shop – even if you did not intend to in the first place. Think of the top half page of your CV as a shop window. Only if you grab the attention of the reader will they be enticed to 'enter' the rest of your CV.

Continuing the theme you want to maximise your shop window. Would you store empty boxes in a shop window, or unwrapped supplies? In the same way is there anything in the top half of your CV that does not add significant value?

Filling your ‘shop window’ with contact details or education, is a common approach, and in my opinion wastes an opportunity to market yourself.

These details are important if someone wishes to contact you or confirm your education but are unlikely to be the things that grab people's attention. Put these to the back and use the space provided to show the reader what you are capable of.

The final message regarding your ‘shop window’ involves appropriateness. Just because something is eye catching does not mean it is necessarily good. Again going back to the high street think about how shops are able to present their brand through the shop front. The same applies to your CV. You want to create the impression of a professional who a future employer can have complete confidence in. This is perhaps not the place for exotic fonts and bright colours!

Social Media and Professional Profiling

Studies reveal that applicants are not taking advantage of social media, putting them at a disadvantage with employers that use them exclusively as screening tools. You shouldn't miss out on social media tools which can be used for self promotion like Twitter and Facebook. Keep your accounts professional and they'll work in your favour.

LinkedIn is the preferred tool for professionals and it is a great tool that can be used to accompany your CV. Learn how to use these tools to interact with likeminded professionals, sharing ideas, thoughts, skills and practices for the betterment of the profession. When recruiters and employers check your CV against your profile, your display of solid professional activity can do wonders for your prospects.

Use your LinkedIn account to share additional details about yourself - details which were not necessarily mentioned in your CV due to space issues. LinkedIn allows you to connect a blog and upload presentation slides which are useful functions for any job seeker wanting to go the extra mile.

Using social media tools is in keeping with the 'shop window' mentality - if it’s nicely presented, the reader will read on. By the same token, privatise any accounts you don’t want employers to see.

Read on to the next few page where we look at the beginning of the CV and how you maximise your shop window.