I think it makes sense at this stage to give you a brief history of
who I am and what qualifies me to blog about this topic, one which
I am very passionate about.
I am in my 40's, married to a beautiful wife and we have three
amazing kids, along with a dog, horse, 2 cats, a rabbit and 3 fish.
There's always noise, dirty football boots, ballet, Xbox, iPad, tears
and laughter and that’s what we do to unwind! My professional
career started in business over 16 years ago. During this time I have
completed a Master’s Degree, worked as a direct employee at group
level, been a management consultant internationally, professional
profiler and most recently a business owner of a recruitment firm
that operates globally. I love what I do and really enjoy working with
people and sharing the knowledge I have gained to date in the hope that it helps somewhat.
Over the past 2 years I have created many CV’s for family and friends
and friends of friends and eventually as word got out, I was being
asked by professionals across multiple industries such as Hair &
Beauty, Arts, Golfing, Construction, Armed forces, Manufacturing, Senior
Management, Electrical etc. to assist them in creating a professional,
legible and promoting CV that would get them noticed, and to date the
results and feedback from employers and candidates has been excellent.
So why the Blog? During these past 16 years and despite the plethora
of free information available, 1000’s of CV’s have passed my desk for
junior and senior candidates and most of which are simply terrible! -
in layout and content. To this day, it still baffles me as to why a candidate
would expect to get to an interview when it is quite clear to the reader
that they have put little or no effort into the presentation/content of their
CV knowing that this document will unfortunately determine whether they
get called for that interview or not.
I think the reason for this is twofold,
1. We don't weight the importance of our CV or take it serious!
2. We don't understand that layout and content is a game changer!
Your CV is your professional passport, your representative voice pre
interview and this document will largely determine your fate.
Over the next couple of articles which I hope you find both useful and
interesting, I would like to cover some CV basics with you, such as
Layout, Colour, Headings, Tone, Career History, Achievements, Social
Media, References and Hobbies and getting to know your CV.
So do your career a favour, blow the dust of your CV and ask yourself,
Does your CV impress or depress a reader?
Does your CV represent your current skill set?
Are you excited and proud of yourself when you read your CV?
As a document does its professionalism represent your professionalism?
Does it match the Job I am applying for?
Would I hire me based on this CV?
Thank you for reading and I hope you will find the coming articles helpful,
Clive A, Dunne MSc