Simply copying someone else’s format or example and filling in the blanks DOES NOT WORK unless you understand some fundamental differences between a good CV and a bad one.
What does an excellent CV look like?
Here are some poor ones
What sort of CV do you have at the moment? If it isn’t getting the results you want, it may be one of the following ‘excuses for a CV’.
The Traditional CV
Outdated and no doubt out of luck!
A rambling and irrelevant old fashioned CV with poor formatting will tell a recruiter that you are dull, inflexible, of low ability and have a frozen mind set. Why sell yourself short?
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- traditional CV page 1
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- traditional CV page 2
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- traditional CV page 3
The Table Template CV
Following some restrictive template strategy
Recruiters see thousands of almost identical template CVs with headings that make you squirm and the text shoe-horned into a tight space, totally failing to capture the candidate’s individuality.
This type of CV tells people that you are lazy and that you think appearance is more important than substance. It is also trouble for recruiters to edit and manipulate for sending to employers.
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- Template CV page 1
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- Template CV page 2
The Aggressive Modernisation CV
The so-called 'functional' CV packed with stupid action words
Readers simply cannot relate to unsubstantiated claims, so telling them how great you are without justifying all your skills, results, and achievements is, quite simply, counterproductive. Yes, every CV needs some kind of functional introduction of your headline professional assets, but trying to do that in crass lists of one line bullet points, all starting with ugly action words, simply alienates the reader.
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- Aggressively Modern CV page 1
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- Aggressively Modern CV page 2
The Functional Overkill CV
The curse of 'professional CV' writing style
This more talkative CV style is a shallow illusion of communication that fools no one. It invariably contains horrific headings like PROFILE and OBJECTIVE, ACHIEVEMENTS and KEY SKILLS, naïve attempts to say something that end up looking childish.
The CV we use in this example is based on one that cost the client over £300 from a very well-known online CV writing agency. It has been created without due thought and it totally fails to do justice to life’s subtle complexities and the real professional values this candidate has to offer. Any recruiter would spot it for a put-up job.
A decent DIY would have been a thousand times better, had they known how to do it properly. This is the first website in the world that is dedicated to showing you how.
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- Functional Overkill CV page 1
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- Functional Overkill CV page 2