Writing a CV - Sell Yourself!

Your CV is effectively your opportunity to sell yourself to an employer. The same rules apply to selling yourself in your CV as apply elsewhere in life.

Question: What makes us buy one roughly similar product over another ?

Answer: How effectively that product has been sold to us.

Question: Do the best candidates always get called to interview or get offered jobs?

Answer: No - those most effective at selling themselves succeed.

So what constitutes effective selling in your CV?

The first step in selling yourself involves eliminating all negative words or content from your CV. Whilst the truth may be that you left your last job because you became frustrated with your pay or the office politics or your boss’s attitude, your new employer does not want to know about this. Learn to focus only on the positive aspects of your experience and the achievements you accomplished. Never make criticisms of your former employers. Once you are well established in a job you can choose to reveal the bigger picture of your previous jobs should you have colleagues you can trust. Whilst you are writing your CV, however, you must come across as universally positive about your past work.

Be careful not to let your positivity turn into boasting. If you are too boastful or exaggerated, people will find your CV irritating and unconvincing. On the other hand if you are too self-effacing and timid, you will make no impact or provoke a negative, critical response. You must learn to strike a balance between under-selling and over-selling yourself.

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