How To Write A CV Your Hiring Manager Will Want to Read

Job Advert Specific Keywords, are keywords that are specific to each job advert that you apply to. Hiring Managers write Job Adverts to find candidates that have a set skill, knowledge and experience.

When you're applying to a job, you already have the job advert and can take the keywords and place them into your CV. To give you an example, I have taken the job advert from a role that I recently Head-Hunted for. The actual Job Advert was both longer and had more detail, but for this example, I have used the bare minimum to save space. With this Job Advert, I am looking for an Operations Manager for a Food Distribution company with distribution centers throughout the USA.

Job Description

The Division Operations Manager will be responsible for managing a network of distribution centers throughout the US. This individual will be responsible for managing both strategic and tactical pieces of the business and will need to be comfortable conducting business with all levels of employees.

Responsibilities:

• Manage multiple Distribution Centers throughout US and monitor daily operations, quality and safety standards.
• Proactively initiate polices and procedures to enhance performance and KPIs.
• Improve supply chain capabilities while maintaining service levels
• Manage all P&L for Business Units

Experience Required:

• Bachelor's degree, degree required, MBA preferred.
• Minimum of 10 year’s experience; preferably in food distribution with a CGMP Environment.
• Demonstrated ability to manage diverse relationships and lead a diverse team.
• Ability to travel at 75% regularly
• Proven performance track record

As with most Head Hunters, we all use screening software to limit the CV's that are read. In this case, I received over four thousand resumes. There was no way that I was looking through four thousand resumes, and thus I used our internal screening software to screen the for Resume containing certain words.

Screening software works by the user imputing keywords that they want to search for on a Resume. In this case, I imputed the words that were relevant to my position, in this case, those words are in BOLD. If your CV contained these words, it would have been shown to the hiring manager.

Your CV needs to look professional, while there are exceptions to the rule, stay well away from creative CV's using pictures and info-graphics. For me the only exception to this rule could if you're applying to a creative design role, then potentially an employer might be impressed with your Creative CV. For any other jobs, your CV should have a professional layout. Other points should focus on include;

Achievement-Oriented, not Responsibility-Driven

Sadly 99% of candidates simply list out their responsibilities associated with their role. You need to remember; an experienced hiring manager has probably already done your job in the past and will be able to guess 99% of your responsibilities.
To stand out, you need to turn your responsibilities into achievements. Below we’ve tried to show this with a few written examples;

Example One:

•Responsibility – Developed new business markets

•Turning your responsibility into an achievement – Developed a new business plan to increase sales by focusing on new markets. In 18 months, we’ve managed to increase sales 55%.

Example Two:

•Responsibility – Developed a plan to restructure the business in order to save money.
•Turning your responsibility into an achievement – Implemented a new debt collection plan that has sped up debt collection by 28%, while saving over $800,000

I hope it's evident that you need to include the company name. What's probably not obvious is that you also need to include a company description. If you have worked for Google or Facebook, then this is not so important as everyone will know who they are and what they do. In this case, it's important that you focus on the division within Facebook.

The problem comes when a candidate has worked for Joe's Media. Who is Joe's Media? How big are they? To make it easier for the hiring manager, my advice is to write a short two-line company description for every place you've worked. You should include the business name, its size by turn over, the number of employees and what business the company is involved in.

Ideally, you should put both the month and the year that you started, followed by both the month and the year that you finished (something like June 2011 –January 2014). However, the dates are one area that you can use to make your CV better than it is.

Hiring Managers generally don't like candidates that have jumped around having different jobs every year. It shows that you lack commitment to a company and the hiring manager should not invest any time or money into you, as there is a good chance that you will not be there in a years time.

The problem is that some candidates have been unlucky over the years and have had a few different jobs. In this case, it's much easier to explain why you have left a job in a face-to-face meeting than on your CV. If this is you, I would recommend that you use just the years that you worked.

Ideally, your job titles should start with junior roles and increase in seniority as your experience increases. Often candidates think it looks great to have a fancy job title in their CV.

While this is not a problem, you need to understand that you're then limited to only applying to roles with similar seniority. Telling me your last job title was Head of Sales, but you're applying for Sales Manager, or Account Manager role tells me that you're desperate and will take any job until a better one comes along.

For each company that you have worked at, you need to make sure that you describe your responsibilities and achievements. For your responsibilities, you need to make sure that you show what you've actually done and not just keywords that may sound great, but don't say anything about what you can and cannot do.

You also need to make sure that you include your achievements and successes for each position. Hiring Managers and recruiters love achievements.