Tips for a Business Owner's CV?

Q.

Can you make any recommendations for completing a CV for a business owner/director who has had a single position for the last 20 years?

A.

There are both positive and negative ways in which a recruiter will view someone who has worked in the same organisation for the majority of their career. While some people may consider this to be a reflection of commitment and loyalty, others may see it as a sign that you are not keen on change.

Despite all your recent experience being with the same one organisation, you will no doubt possess a wealth of transferable skills – you are, after all, a highly experienced individual.

It is important to demonstrate clearly within your CV what those transferable skills are and how they are of value to a prospective employer – and the best way to communicate this is to use the functional type of CV.

Implement a Key Skills section highlighting the transferable skills you have developed during the course of your career – administrative, organisational, interpersonal, etc. skills

You should then proceed to a Key Experience section, citing specific examples to support what you have said in the Key Skills section. Examples add credibility to your words.

And you should conclude with a Career Summary rather than a full Career History.

If you can also include an Achievements section then it can make an instant and dramatic difference to the power of your CV, enabling you to distinguish yourself from other candidates. It’s probably best to place this immediately after the Key Experience section.

Your CV should be informative – but also concise. In general, 2 A4 pages is a maximum, regardless of how much experience you have. Too many CVs are quite simply too long. Only include information which will actually help to sell you. Recruiters don’t want to waste time reading details irrelevant to your ability to fulfil the job role.

There are a number of common mistakes which more mature applicants are likely to make. One of the most common is to head your CV ‘Curriculum Vitae’. Your CV should be headed with your name - and just your name - boldly and clearly - before any other details - contact details, etc. It is true that, traditionally, CVs were headed with ‘Curriculum Vitae’, or suchlike, but this convention is very much on the way out now.

You should also steer clear of including superfluous detail such as date of birth, marital status, number of children, etc. None of this sort of information should be included on CVs these days.

About James Innes

James Innes is the Founder and Managing Director of The CV Centre and is widely considered to be one of the UK's leading careers experts.

He is regularly featured as a guest speaker at conferences and on TV and radio. He was commissioned by Pearson to write a trilogy of careers-related books that were released in 2009.

If you are interested in having your CV Professionally Written Contact James at The CV Centre .