Constructing a great CV/Resume: Part I – the ‘Profile’

It’s 2015 yet still a printable CV remains the king of recruitment. Although in many cases you never have to print it, it still needs to be in a format from where you can. More useful is the need to plagiarise portions of your CV to input into online recruitment portals, to make this easy the content and layout/formatting of your CV becomes critical.

We’ll come onto all that in future posts. Today we’ll start with the all important Profile or Personal Statement part of the CV. In my opinion this should always come first. It should be a clean, concise and punchy statement. It should encapsulate who you are, what you are great at and what your ambitions are in one short paragraph. It is your shop window and most people recruiting only spend a few seconds scanning your whole CV, this is one of few sections they usually read 100%. Do you want a messy shop window, or a classy one? Read on.

Let’s start with a simple statement and work from there, I’m going to base this loosely on my own CV so I’m abusing my blogging time by improving my own CV at the same time…

“I am a IT guy. I like to work with computers and have good qualifications. I am good with other people and can work by myself. People say that I am good at my job and in the future I wish to be a better IT guy. Hopefully with more responsibility and more pay.”

Reading that you might think it’s awful. Well it sure does read pretty bad, however in some ways it covers some of the basics quite well. Here they are:

• Explains what you are currently doing and that you like it;
• Clearly states some positive personal qualities;
• Points at motivation to improve oneself;
• States your future aims even though it does it poorly;
• Not too long, perhaps a little too short.

What it fails to do:

• It does not read well, abrupt sentences and wording;
• Repeats the same word too many times (Q. Which word?);
• Does a poor job of selling you, lots of ‘I’ statements;
• Doesn’t use any of the buzzwords a great CV should have

So let’s try re-writing it sentence by sentence.

“I am an IT guy.” becomes “I am a professional ‘Customer Support/Solution Architect/aka Insert your own job title here’ employed by ‘Fujitsu Services/Your Employer’ in the UK”

“I like to work with computers and have good qualifications” becomes “I have a great passion for and hugely enjoy working within ICT and I have achieved industry standard certification/s in ‘Microsoft/Cisco/Accounting/Project Mgmt/aka insert professional certification here’ [if you have no professional certification, insert an educational element instead e.g. BSc, MSc, MBA, PostGrad etc. etc.]”

“I am good with other people and can work by myself.” The classic line found just about everywhere, our approach will be to give practical examples rather than generic huff & puff “I recently completed a successful upgrade/replacement project working well within a large team and currently/previously I was placed on assignment individually to complete pre-sale negotiations with a potential customer which I closed positively working on my own”

Hmmmm, it seems as if we’re doubling or even tripling the size of our profile paragraph. Our initial profile has 5 sentences in total, we have tackled 3 so let’s join them up before we tackle the final 2.

“I am a professional ‘Customer Support/Solution Architect/aka Insert your own job title here’ employed by ‘Fujitsu Services/Your Employer’ in the UK. I have a great passion for and hugely enjoy working within ICT and I have achieved industry standard certification/s in ‘Microsoft. I recently completed a successful upgrade/replacement project working well within a large team and currently/previously I was placed on assignment individually to complete pre-sale negotiations with a potential customer which I closed positively working on my own”

So a little bit of rewriting, move some words around and delete others, add some BUZZWORDS, a dash of garlic and you get this:

“I am a Microsoft certified professional Solution Architect into my 5th year at Fujitsu Services in the UK. I have a great passion for and hugely enjoy working within ICT. I recently completed a large transition project ON TIME working BRILLIANTLY within a larger team, previously I SUCCESSFULLY closed a pre-sales negotiations with a new customer working on my own.”

Better? No? OK, still a ways to go and plenty of re-writing to do. Do keep in mind that this section can always be deployed on professional networking sites as your lead-in (think LinkedIN) as well as online application forms in the ‘summarise yourself’ type of questions.

Let’s tackle those last 2 before we join the whole piece together.

“People say that I am good at my job and in the future I wish to be a better IT guy.” > People say? Hallelujah, that’s high praise indeed. Let’s make it fact. “Feedback from peers year on year demonstrates my high capability and I always seek to improve my technical skills by reading, writing and supporting colleagues” See…you’re a true shining star AND a team player!

“Hopefully with more responsibility and more pay.” > “My motivation is to improve myself by seeking a more responsible position as a ‘Senior position to what you currently are’ [ideally push yourself up 2 level, that way you’re aiming high but not too high] and I see myself as a capable CIO/CTO in the future”

So let’s add these last 2 together and rewrite.

“Excellent feedback from peers year on year demonstrates my high capability and I always seek to improve my technical skills by reading, writing and supporting colleagues. My motivation is to improve myself by seeking a more responsible position as a Lead Architect and I see myself as a capable CIO/CTO in the future”

Reaching for the stars indeed, but that’s what you should be doing right?

Right, time to stitch it all together. Look for repetition, overlaps and statements that could be made more concise.

“I am a Microsoft certified professional Solution Architect into my 5th year at Fujitsu Services in the UK. I have a great passion for and hugely enjoy working within ICT. I recently completed a large transition project on time working brilliantly within a larger team, previously I successfully closed a pre-sales negotiations with a new customer working on my own. Excellent feedback from peers year on year demonstrates my high capability and I always seek to improve my technical skills by reading, writing and supporting colleagues. My motivation is to improve myself by seeking a more responsible position as a Lead Architect and I see myself as a capable CIO/CTO in the future”

So our initial poor attempt 54 words and the new super duper version is now 113 words. More refinement ahead…remember you are always improving.

“I am a Microsoft certified Solution Architect into my 5th year at Fujitsu Services UK, with a boundless passion for ICT. I recently completed a large transition project on time working brilliantly within a larger team, having previously closed a sale with a new-name customer working on my own. Recent feedback from peers demonstrates my excellent aptitude while I continuously improve my technical skills by reading, writing, blogging and supporting colleagues. I am motivated to seek a position with greater responsibility and I see myself as a capable CIO/CTO in the future”

See how the process of reading/re-writing and repeat works. At some point you have to stop and look at it and think “IS this my best effort?” if so then stick to it! We are now down to 92 words. Pretty darn good. Reads well too! Pat yourself on the back and pour yourself a cold one.

Part II will be the Career/Job/Work History section. A biggie, but we like it! A look at buzzwords too.

Part III will cover Educational History, Interests/Hobbies, Professional Certifications, and more generally the Layout and Contact information (taking into account security of your identity).