Discussion on CV: do you need one?

Your Curriculum Vitae (yes that is what the credentials CV stand for!), is the “judge from the cover”, the first impression, at your effort to make yourself known-in-the room, and chance to impress at this first contact a recruiter/firm/academic supervisor etc., to give you the interview! How should it be “dressed” to impress?

Well, I always loved the “hourglass figure” approach to everything that I am trying to describe, teach and use as a paradigm in all my Academic life! I must pass the credits for that to my Ph.D. supervisor who introduced me to this concept! Trust me, it does apply to almost everything, I give you the right to copyright it 😉! 

An outstanding CV, for example, should start quite wide on top (providing all your contact details and your short overall description of yourself and accomplishments), then should be narrowed down all your skills and experience in bullet points, and should be widening things up again, stating your interests and seminars you participated at. Shall the latter be written in a smart way, then you have the result of secretly showing off your personal wide range of abilities. Your “CAN DOs”, your “WILLING TO DO”, etc. 

Thus, try to thing your CV as your career (academic, industry etc.) identity! 

As in all things in life, you have the power to pick the most suited choice for you. Who wouldn’t want the CV for the win? Don’t you want it to stand out? 

Practically, you have two options. 

A. Doing all the preparation by yourself seeking advice by the so-called word of mouth or

B. recruit your personal Professional CV writing Consultant.

A CV writing Consultant is basically an experienced Career Consultant, a multi-role professional, performing the role of the Employer/Interviewer/Recruiter, the one of the Interview Coach, but before anything else, a Career Consult has performed for several years in a row…your role! It takes years of effort to build a career that will entitle you becoming an Advisor/Mentor/Consultant of someone else’s future. At My Next Job, we take this seriously and treat each case with respect and professionalism!

The Reality…

For most of us, when comes the time when we need to “sell ourselves” and give a cracking first impression, verbal and/or written, we completely fall into dozens of traps out there! It is not the easiest job to do you know, especially after you have accomplished a couple of things, is in human’s nature to minimise the significance, thinking,

“Well, come on, someone else have also done this, and perhaps better than I did…why should I even mention it…” 

while some others will be simultaneously be thinking,

“Well, really now, I am the best of the best out there and no one has done it better than I ever did…to be frankly honest, I am the God of this and all industries that exist…”

There comes the subjective voice of an expert, for the shake of this read, a Career Consultant, who would just advise you to be…both these humans!

Yes, you need to be confident when putting down your achievements, skills and experiences on a piece of paper, but not overconfident.

Yes, you need to be excited and pay your respects to your accomplishments, in order to make them stand out, but hamble and honest at the same time.

A friend or family, could definitely advise you as such, however, will they be able to provide you with all DOs and Don’ts when writing your CV? If they have some experience in consulting, then definitely yes! Regardless, will someone you know, be in place to provide you with constructive and subjective criticism? Well, this is what you need to think about before taking the decision to go by yourself.

The way things work and we work is changing…

In the past decade, things have and continue to change in the whole “working” spectrum. We have massive changes even in the typical working routine of the Mon-Fri and the 9 to 5 scheme. Remote workers, digital nomads, and Artificial Intelligence are on our doorstep and not just in the movies. Aliens and UFOs attacking Earth (oops, went too far 😛). All these changed completely the way people are being hired! From the application to the interview process. Some recruiters wish to evaluate a candidate by their LinkedIn profiles, some others by a one-page CV, some by an extended resume along with a cover letter, and some of them combine all the above!

Let’s face it, the difficult parts of the CV are our Skills, Soft Skills and Experience parts (Working and/or Academia. Let’s see a few things that we make your CV stand out getting the best advice in the market!

The benefits hiring a CV writing expert…

Hiring a CV writing expert to help you face and overcome all traps and difficulties when writing your CV, will definitely save you lots of valuable time. And time is money, which in this case should feel like purchasing convenience and learning efficiency.

A CV writing expert in your field, allocated by our MeNextJob team wide list of consultants around the globe, will be speaking your language! This way you will never be lost in the Bermuda tringle of Translation, trying to localize each part of your CV in the language that was requested from the employer, shall we say that you are applying for a job in a different country.

As things are involving and hiring a professional CV writer might be a great idea especially for those seeking for a job that pays a lot, when applying for a role of great responsibilities and in general for a higher title. Since there’s a lot of competition out there, you’ll want your resume to stand out and use all the help you can get!

The things to think before hiring a CV writing expert…

Good things, take time! Same thing applies when you hire a CV writing expert to help you with your CV. It’s again quite of our nature to think that since you are paying someone to do the job, they will do all the heavy lifting and things will be done before you know it. Well, to be honest, a high-quality CV takes time, especially with so many people on the job hunt today. It is also a creation of team work. You work along with your advisor to produce this wining masterpiece 🙂
Expect the job done in a week or so, depending on factors like how much revision is needed, your job experience level, and of course the time you are willing to spend to work on it. Generally, keep this in mind if application deadlines are on the horizon.

If you are going to hire a CV writing expert, it is important to find or choose the right one. While many Interview Coaches are great to work with, there are also many that aren’t. Some of them sign up to do the job because they see it as an easy way to make money. Because of this, they are not very invested in your development and success! Aka, they do not take it personally. When applicable, make sure to read all the reviews of the agency, and perhaps your expert’s CV and accomplishments, before purchasing any of their services. Note that some agencies offer unbelievably low rates — but only because they need to in order to sustain a profitable business model. This is usually a red flag. CV writing services typically charge anywhere from £100 to £400, depending on the clients’ needs. 

If you hear things like, £25 CV creation ready in 24hours”, just leave! Quality work, can never be produced in such a rush!

Hiring a CV writing expert does not mean that you should trust the process being blindfolded! You should always express your opinion, and your ideas of what to include or exclude during the drafting process, and then the expert can provide you with experienced advice and insight. Never go with, hiring, providing data, receiving e CV document from the agency, and sending it sraight at a posting of interest (YES, many people follow these exact steps!). Also, ask for guarantees! Some agencies, provide an X, Y, or Z number of revisions pro-bono, especially if you purchase a package of services (CV, cover letter & interview preparation).

Note that, at a follow-up article in our blog you can get an idea of what should be IN and what should be OUT of your Wining CV… Stay tuned!

And last, but not least, are you sure you need an expert to write your CV? As mentioned above, it is a process in which you will be required to be part of the writing process, therefore apart from some money (well) spent, you will spend a significant amount of time, which makes me think that I should ask you a few questions myself now!

1. Are you qualified for the position you want next? We aren’t Houdini here, we cannot miraculously create skills that you do not have dear, sorry! Rule Num.1 – Never lie on your CV, truth always miraculously reveals itself!
2. Are you looking at a Big posting? As mentioned above, you should hire a professional if you “go for the many” or if you are a newbie, or maybe need a Career swift! We are talking drastic changes! 
3. Are you good at writing? Resume writing is, in its purest form, a lot of writing. You don’t have to be an incredibly talented writer, but if you have low confidence in your skills, especially when it comes to elaborating on your skills, it’s best to have someone else do the work for you.

If your answer to all the above, is YES, I NEED your expertise, then feel free to contact us at any time, and we will make sure to craft with you and for you, The CV for the win!