Corinne Mills - Youre Hired! CV: How to write a brilliant CV

CORINNE MILLS

Youre Hired! CV

CORINNE MILLS

This first edition is published in 2009 by Trotman Publishing

Crimson Publishing, Westminster House, Kew Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 2ND

Trotman Publishing 2009

Epub edition 2011ISBN: 978-1-84455-321-1

The author has asserted her moral rights to be identified as the the author of this work in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Part 1

Chapter 1

Fact not fiction

Contact details

Career background

Optional information to include on your CV

Information you should definitely leave out of your CV

Chapter 2

Are you competent?

Aptitude testing

Chapter 3

Value added: why employers like achievers

Dutiful or high achiever?

So what have you achieved?

Writing your achievement statements

Chapter 4

What every employer wants?

Personality testing or testing personality?

Part 2

Chapter 5

Reading job advertisements

Job descriptions and person specification forms

Researching the organisation

Researching the employers market

Part 3

Chapter 6

CV headings

Personal information

Examples of layout for personal information

Writing a career profile

Writing a career objective statement

Chapter 7

Speaking volumes

Me, myself and I: using the personal pronoun

The magic of words

Useful action words for your CV

Useful adverbs

Toxic words

Words to avoid

Technical words

Pitch perfect

Chapter 8

Template for a chronological CV

Chapter 9

Template for a functional CV

Chapter 10

Template for a one-page CV

Chapter 11

How to build your own website

What to include on your website

A web designers website

Chapter 12

Making your CV look attractive

Say cheese!

Quality control

Chapter 13

CVs for graduates and school-leavers

CV example

CVs for career changers

CVs for people with career gaps

Technical CVs

Creative CVs

Media CVs

Performer CVs

CV advice for managers and executives

CVs for internal promotions

Part 4

Chapter 14

Format compatibility

Email etiquette

Writing a covering email to accompany your CV

Sending CVs by post

Scannable CVs

Chapter 15

Advertised jobs

The unadvertised market: networking and speculative approaches

Recruitment agencies

Headhunters

Chapter 16

CV compatibility

Keyword search

Faking it?

Publicity shy?

Chapter 17

Building an online CV for a commercial job website

Using keywords to find suitable roles

Chapter 18

Social networking sites

Your web presence is your reputation

Part 5

Chapter 19

Other people

Free career support services

Commercial services

Chapter 20

Information gathering

Identifying your skills

Proving your skills

Identifying your achievements

Writing your achievement statements

Proving you are a model employee

Your personality and preferences

Discovering an organisations personality

Analysing an employers marketplace

Researching the job market

Who is the ideal candidate?

Matching you to the role

Writing a career profile/career objective statement

Checklist for emailing CVs

Keyword selection

Corinne Mills is MD of Personal Career Management, one of the UKs leading and most innovative career-coaching companies, specialising in helping individuals make informed career decisions and obtain the role they want. She also works with organisations on their talent-management programmes and outplacement.

As a qualified career coach, she has worked with thousands of individuals during her 12 years in the career management field, ranging from people on million pound salaries, to those at the start of their career. Previously working in senior HR roles, she is uniquely positioned to understand both from the candidates and the organisations point of view, what makes a good fit.

Corinne appears regularly in the media as a spokesperson and author on career management issues. Appearances include being the career-coaching expert on the Tonight with Trevor MacDonald series, BBC News, the Guardian, Monster and frequent radio appearances. She has also written many articles and columns for newspapers and professional journals and been a guest speaker at many industry events on a range of career-management topics. She is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development with an MA in Human Resources and is a CIPD committee member and external adviser for their courses.

CV writing looks like it should be easy to do. However, anyone who has tried it knows that it is not as straightforward as it seems. This is because the seemingly innocuous CV works on many different levels. On the one hand, it is a straightforward historical record of your skills, qualifications and employment history. While on the other, it is a carefully crafted business proposal that sets out the business case for why you should be invited to interview.

It is deceptively tricky.

The chances are that you are reading this book because you have realised this, either because you are writing your CV for the first time, up-dating your old one or because your existing one isnt getting you shortlisted. Whether you are a first-time job-seeker or a seasoned employee, you are also likely to be aware that the quality of your working life and the career opportunities that you can access are likely to be influenced by the effectiveness of your CV. Your CV can mean the difference between falling at the very first recruitment fence or going on to win the race.

The aim of this book is to help you create a CV that is going to get you to the interview for the job you want and position you as a front-runner for the interview finishing line.

Divided into logical sections, the book helps you gather the information you need and then build a CV which offers a meaningful and highly persuasive portrait of you as an ideal candidate.

All the chapters are clearly signposted in terms of content so that you can either read through the book from start to finish or dip into the sections of most relevance to you. Also included are activities to help you research the information you need in a more fun and accessible way. It is highly recommended that you complete these activities as you will find them invaluable as the main building blocks for your CV and as preparation for interview. You can complete them within the book or copy them onto paper or your computer. Keep them handy because you will need them often.