The start of a new year ushers in the need to align career aspirations with New Year’s resolutions.
For many people this means looking at their current roles and responsibilities and making decisions on the type of growth they seek in the future, which, in turn, may lead to changes in jobs, promotions and registering for new courses to assist in career advancement.
Many will scour the internet in search of tips on how to ace interviews and how to ensure that their CVs sell them as best as possible. It is critical to articulate your responsibilities on paper as this will likely be the first contact you will have with a prospective employer.
Supply chain recruiter Tech-Pro has put together some pointers on compiling a CV, in this month’s SmartProcurement.
A comprehensive (but short) CV should contain the following:
Qualifications should be written out in full, indicating the year started and completed. At undergraduate level list only completed qualifications. At post-graduate level it is acceptable to include in-progress qualifications. List any memberships to any relevant professional bodies.
Employment history, starting with the most recent role with clear job titles and the periods spent in each role. List responsibilities in point form without being overly wordy and include at least one project or achievement in each role.
Achievements should demonstrate your ability to save costs, improve efficiencies and/or make money. This is the ideal opportunity to highlight what differentiates you from others.
When listing multiple roles in the same organisation, make the timelines clear with a distinct separation of roles, responsibilities and job titles. It is not necessary to list all responsibilities, especially those which might be considered mundane tasks.
Reasons for leaving at the end of each role should be clear, concise and avoid ambiguity.
Provide names, contact details and job titles of at least three referees. Referees should be people you directly reported to and not colleagues or character references.
Avoid abbreviations and/or in-house jargon.
Remember that your CV is inevitably the first contact a potential employer will have with you and will hopefully open the door to a further conversation, possibly an interview and ultimately a road to a new future. It should always reflect the best you can be and extra effort must be put in at all times to give glimpses of excellence.
In February Tech-Pro will present the next topic in this two-part series: “Things to prepare for your interview”.
