In order to help you access the validity of the guidance offered below I thought I would share a little of my background. Early in my career I was as Organisational Psychologist (as it’s called these days) but then completed a master’s degree in business administration and began climbing the corporate ladder. I am currently the CEO of a large Australian company with a Division that specialises in executive management recruitment. While some specialist roles require specialised CV’s the following generic information is provided in the hope it will assist some people who are unsure of how to prepare a CV that is competitive in the Australian market. The guidance is not meant to be all encompassing and will not suit all circumstances or roles. It is inappropriate for senior executives. You might agree with some of it, all of it or none of it. I hope it is useful to some of you.
General You should tailor your CV for each application you submit as every role is unique and requires a different mix of your capabilities, qualifications and experience. When responding to advertisements pay close attention to the role description and ensure you focus on the capabilities required by the employer. Acknowledge the breadth of your experience but highlight the capabilities which align most closely with the stated requirements. Be careful to match the pitch of your application to the level of the role unless you want to be assessed as under or over qualified. Also be mindful of the tone of your application. Aggressively selling yourself will suit sales roles but is unlikely to be useful if you are applying for a role that requires a softer touch. Ensure you follow any instructions regarding formatting, word limits and submission requirements. If there is a contact officer listed in an advertisement, call them. They will invariably provide additional information and insight into the person the company is hoping to employ. The information they give you will assist in further refining the information you provide in your CV. As a general rule your CV should not exceed 4 pages. Perspective employers and recruiters will spend approximately 1 to 2 minutes reading your CV to determine if you will be culled or if the CV will be read in greater detail. For this reason you need to ensure your writing style is concise but informative. Keep the layout of your CV simple and do not use colour. It needs to look good in black and white as it will probably be photocopied and distributed to more than one reviewer. Avoid the use of cover pages – we discard them. However you can and should include your full name in either the header or footer of each page in case a page becomes orphaned during photocopying. Do not include your gender, age, marital status, ethnicity or religion unless specifically asked to do so.
Do not include information about your children and pets (yes some people actually do that). Use spell check. Realise spell check will not pick up the misuse of some words (such as there / their). If you are not a good speller – have someone else read over your work. Unless specifically asked to provide a career objective I would avoid doing so. If your objective is at odds with the strategic direction of the company or does not quite align with where the company hopes you will wish to develop you could be ruled out of contention based on your stated objectives.
Education/Qualifications (include this either just before or just after Professional Experience) Focus on those qualifications that are relevant to the position applied for. Include Bachelor Degrees and above in unrelated fields but be careful about looking over qualified. Do not include every qualification or course you have ever undertaken unless they are all relevant to the role. Do not include school leaving qualifications if you have a Bachelor Degree as the information is redundant.
Professional Experience This area of your CV is critical. You need to make the link between your experience and what the employer is looking for. Don’t rely on them making the link between your experience and the role on offer. While duties/responsibilities lists are suitable for lower level positions they become significantly less effective as you begin to climb the corporate ladder. Instead of lists consider providing Role Overviews backed up by examples of your achievements. This gives the reader a much better understanding of your capabilities. I have prepared a CV template so you can see what it looks like when you do it this way. I’ll try to load it after I do this post (am not great at loading attachments though). Role Overviews do not need to be long winded when written in a narrative style. For example the role overview for a lower level Business Manager might read something like this:
Drive the development and delivery of initiatives to address deficiencies in XYZ’s approach to Resource Management. Facilitate and support the successful delivery of related projects including the company’s new Website. Oversee a $5.4M budget and 40-member team. A selected achievement might read something like:
- Developed and leveraged relationships with key stakeholders to re-align the scope of the Website project to achieve increased cohesiveness with other key projects such as the Information Management System. Influenced the correction of flawed assumptions regarding the architecture of the website and reduced the overall risk to the project. Saved 32% in development costs and shaved five months off the project schedule.
If you have managed a difficult team it is worth talking about. It might read something like:
- Achieved positive behavioural change in a team identified as ‘challenging’ by fostering an environment where team members understood the value of their work and its links to wider Company objectives. Empowered team members to apply their experience and intelligence to roles within a team structure aligned to leverage their strengths achieving superior levels of engagement, innovation and productivity in a previously disenfranchised team.
As a general rule of thumb restrict each role to around half of one A4 size page. Any more is probably too much which is just as bad as not enough. You are not obliged to include every role you have ever held. If you have been in the workforce for a long time consider only including roles over the last 10 years unless your best experience pre-dates that time frame. If possible demonstrate career development in your CV. If you have ‘downsized’ your career or moved sideways, you might consider a brief reference to the circumstances that motived your move. For example –
By accepting a less senior role, I was able to accommodate part-time graduate study. Australia operates in the Asia/Pacific region so do not harp on about your European experience to the exclusion of everything else in the belief employers will be dazzled by your worldly experience. Research the company you are applying to – if they do a lot of business in the European market then by all means draw attention to your experience there. If the business operates more in the Asia/Pacific you need to explain how your European experience can still benefit a company working predominantly in the Asia/Pacific market. Identify how your experience will translate well to a new market.
References and referees Do not include written references. It is unlikely they will be read and is considered very old fashioned. You are not obliged to provide referees or their contact details in your CV unless specifically asked to do so. It is acceptable to indicate –
Referees will be provided on request.
Optional Extras If one of the following will strengthen your application include them – but otherwise don’t as they will likely weaken your position. Providing redundant or irrelevant information will raise questions about your ability to exercise sound judgement.
- Professional affiliations and memberships
- Licences and accreditations
- Awards
- Publications (where you have authored the article)
- Foreign Languages spoken or written
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