Write for the Job, Not the CV

A good CV is not a record of everything you have achieved since you left school. Its purpose is much simpler: to show that you are the right person for the job you are applying for.

That means deciding what matters to the person reading it. An achievement may have been extremely important to you, but if it has little relevance to the position, it does not necessarily deserve half a page of your CV.

Start with the Job

Before deciding what to put in your CV, look carefully at the position itself. What experience are they asking for? Which skills matter? What sort of responsibility does the job involve?

Then look at your own experience from that point of view.

If you have twenty years of working history, the reader probably does not need the same amount of information about every job. Your most recent and relevant experience can usually say far more about your suitability than a detailed account of something you did fifteen years ago.

Evidence Is Better Than a List

Saying that you are organised, adaptable or good at managing people is easy. Showing where you have actually done those things is considerably more useful.

Responsibilities, projects and results give the reader something concrete to work with. They show what you have done rather than simply providing a list of qualities you believe you have.

Be selective, though. You do not need to prove every skill with three examples. Choose the experience that makes the strongest case for this particular position.

English Is More Than Translation

If you are writing your CV in English from a Dutch original, a direct translation may not always give the best result.

Job titles, qualifications and responsibilities do not always have an exact equivalent, and a phrase that sounds perfectly natural in Dutch may sound awkward or overly literal in English.

The aim is not to make the CV sound more impressive than it is. It is to make sure an English-speaking employer understands your experience in the way you intended.

Older Doesn't Always Mean Irrelevant

Cutting unnecessary information does not mean automatically removing everything because it happened a long time ago.

An earlier job may contain exactly the experience an employer is looking for. A qualification gained years ago may still be important. Relevance matters more than age.

On the other hand, an achievement that was impressive at twenty may not need quite the same prominence when you are applying for a senior position at forty-five.

Leave Something for the Interview

Your CV does not have to answer every possible question about you. It has to give someone enough reason to want to ask the next one.

Too much information can make the important parts harder to find. If the reader has to work through pages of courses, responsibilities and old achievements before reaching the experience that makes you right for the job, you have made their job unnecessarily difficult.

A strong CV is not the one with the most information. It is the one that makes the relevant information difficult to miss.