My New Curriculum Vitae May 21, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , trackbackI’ve always enjoyed writing C.V.’s. After 2 years of having no need whatsoever for one, I decided to update mine. It brought back fond memories of some old business classes I taught when we would spend a couple of hours ‘interpreting’ the dumb things that people have a habit of including.
The thing I love most about writing a C.V. though is that it really puts life in perspective. There are only 2 A4 pages to use in order to create the best possible impression one can. Two years after I last updated my C.V. I inspected it and find that I want to remove about half of the experiences I used to be quite proud of. I ‘d be suprised if anybody who cannot update at least a few lines on their C.V. every few months can attract good quality employers.
I think many people are so desperate to cling onto accomplishments from their school days that they do all they can to keep the memory alive in their writings. I have friends still advertising being a school prefect 11+ years after they should really have done better things with their life. I was pretty ruthless with this update, eliminating my secondary school, and taking out all but one line mentioning 2 years of teaching experience.
Another thing I used to drum into students all the time is the notion that if you ‘tell’ on your CV, then you need to ’show’ it as well. I’ve seen so many C.V.’s written where the writer has brainstormed a load of fancy-sounding keywords and sprinkled them into their writing, often with no details or sometimes with statements so desperately trying to prove themselves that they end up absolutely ridiculous . Walking to work does not prove athletic prowess, calling a client on the phone does not evidence good inter-personal skills, filing away paper is not a display of data-management ability and I’m certain any quality employer can see immediately through this type of fluff.
Decent internet marketing is all about “selling the sizzle, not the steak”. A C.V. is the most perfect opportunity to sizzle. Listing jobs are not important, it’s the skills acquired in those jobs that are. C.V.’s are often so intent on giving the correct dates and addresses in a nicely presented way, that they end up being extremely dull.
I also believe modesty is not the best policy. People don’t often consider a C.V. as a transcript of a sales script but they SHOULD do. The whole point is to make the reader drool. I’ve spent all week writing sales copy for my upcoming United World Telecom site and every line in selling a phone service is designed to be enticing. Marketing is all about showing the reader / client / consumer what’s in it for THEM. A C.V. should be engineered to do that.
Anyway, I hope I’ve incorporated these ideas into my own writing.
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