Why am I finding it so hard to write a shit hot CV?

[RooDaisy]

I posted this in Chat and thought I'd try here too....

Just that really, due to redundancy and bereavement last year, I'm in a stop gap job that is truly awful. Think David Brent x 17 and I really, really need to get out.

I've had a chat with a recruitment consultant who said overall my CV is good but I need to add some context around key achievements etc but I am finding it so hard to know what to write.

I am an intelligent, successful woman who is actually good at what she does but this has me stumped. I don't know whether it's because I've over thought it or what but again tonight, I've sat down made some amendments but haven't been able to finish it what I think is good enough.
I can't seem to get into the flow or the zone...

Does anyone have any tips? Is it worth paying someone to do it for me?

I'd appreciate any advice.

[RedMetamorphosis]

What sort of jobs are you applying for?

I think I have a fairly good CV. For each job, I give a v brief 1 line overview of the job ie 360 degree recruitment role, covering mid-senior level placements across XYZ industries.

I then go on to give my "achievements" in each role ie consistently billed $X amount or grew sales X% in X period of time through developing and implementing ABC project.

What were you involved in? What were you most proud of?

I have about 7 years working experience across 3 jobs and, including my education & skills, my CV is about 1 and a half pages.

[Ditsy1980]

It's always so hard to write about yourself and to sell yourself.
Is there anyone in your industry who you trust to look at your CV and give pointers? Or anyone you could ask to proof-read / re-write for you?

[Intransige]

Context around achievements usually means things that help an employer understand whether your achievements are relevant to their requirements. In other words - could you repeat those achievements for them, or was the environment in which you worked too different to be sure that your skills will transfer.

It usually means things like scale (size of team, size of market, benefits of project etc), budget, market niche eg specific technologies, nature of the work e.g. distributed team, and so on.

[RooDaisy]

My career was spread over 11 years with maybe 5 different roles within that. I was in the telecoms sector but more involved in the customer service management side. I think that what's making it hard is career wise with the job I'm now doing, I've gone back about 11 years and moved from a global company to one with less than 40 employees.

Good point on someone in my industry, I'm going to message my old boss and see if she'd mind having a look at it.

I think once I get something down that I think is okay, I'll be good to go when it comes to tailoring my CV for each application.

I've absolutely got transferable skills, it's about getting them into the right context and highlighting what I did actually do rather than seeing it as my day to day job.

Thanks for your pointers and tips above, I'm going to sign off now but will be back tomorrow and will defo make notes and take on board what you've all said

[MikeUniformMike]

Don't pay someone to do it for you.
Employment agents vary but many are pimply youths and clueless.
For example, one sent me for an interview to the wrong address. Fortunately, when I checked out the company web site, it had a different address, so 2 hrs before interview, I rang agent and said are you sure it's not at the address on the website.
Anyway, there are good books/web pages on writing CVs.

My tip is to try and picture yourself as someone you work with and think what you would write if you were trying to write her cv.