SELL YOURSELF WELL

It cannot be stressed enough that your CV is a sales letter. While it does contain the details of your education and experience, along with your personal details, the main purpose of your CV is to convince a prospective employer that you are the “product” which will fulfill their immediate need.

Whether you have a list of degrees as long as your arm and years of work experience at the highest level, or no experience and very little education, unless the employer believes that what you offer fits the gap they need to fill, you won’t get to the interview room never mind get the job.

The most difficult CV’s to put together are those of people who have just left school, who perhaps didn’t complete school, have no tertiary education and little or no work experience. It might seem that they have very little to work from. But everyone has something about themselves which they can sell. Admittedly your CV might not get you into the top job, but it should be able to get you onto the bottom rung of the ladder, the place where you can gain that all important concept called “work experience” and from where you can climb higher.

To write this kind of CV you need to be aware of what the employer is looking for (read the job ad carefully). You need to write your CV specifically for that position so that you can effectively use the little you have to work with to highlight the qualities you have which match the job. Never lie in your CV, but help the reader find what they are looking for easily by making sure those attributes stand out. So don’t write one CV and farm it around for everyone. Rewrite it with different emphasis for each position you are applying for. The golden rule is that your CV has to show clearly to the prospective employee why you align with their requirements – not how you almost qualify for all the jobs on offer.

Everyone has something to sell. Ask yourself why you want to apply for that job. What is it that you have that makes you think you are the right fit? Tell them that. You might not have work experience but at school you showed yourself to be a diligent worker, willing to take on challenges and always punctual. Perhaps you are a popular person. In you CV translate that into “gets on well with people, is comfortable under pressure and is ideally suited to work with customers”. In other words, look at what you have and the kind of person you are and translate that into words which match what the employer is looking for.

Not having experience is of course a disadvantage, but it is not the end of the road. Your lack of experience can be overcome if you are strong in other areas. Bear in mind that just as some people write bad CV’s, some prospective employers write bad job adverts because they aren’t careful in defining what they want. Often they will ask that the applicant have experience because that’s what everyone else writes in their adverts, not because it is really essential for the job. So don’t let the experience requirement put you off unless it is really obvious that no-one without experience could do the work. Highlight your strong points, acknowledge that you have no experience but then show them how your willingness to learn, your proven track record of working hard and so on can counteract that shortfall. Then submit your CV anyway. The worst the employer can do is not call you in for the interview. If you don’t give it a try, you definitely won’t be called in. But most importantly, hold onto the golden rule, show clearly how you do meet most of the other requirements. If you don’t do that you will be dismissed as a chancer.



SELL YOURSELF WELL - To learn more about this author, visit Jonathan Payne's Website.

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