You’ve written your basic CV.  Now you need to fine-tune it to ensure it’s got the edge and stands out from the crowd.

Understanding your audience

As your personal record of achievement, your CV must make the reader believe you’re an interesting employee, and encourage them to meet with you.

Senior managers generally have the same objectives: profit, growth, developing their business and increasing their offerings.  They will look for candidates who will help them to achieve these objectives.

Identify your achievements and provide evidence

Make sure that for all of your achievements listed you provide evidence and explain how this achievement made an impact for your current/old employer.

Did you save the company money? Earn them more?  These points make you interesting and engage the reader to learn more at interview stage.

Personal achievements are valuable

Many employers look for candidates with both professional and personal achievements. If you’ve been a sporting captain, won awards for public speaking, helped the local community, been a school prefect, or won a Duke of Edinburgh Award, make sure it’s in your CV.

It tells the reader that you seek to excel in all parts of your life and helps the reader see the character behind the professional.