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A CV is your ticket to a face-to-face interview. Have you heard the saying ‘first impressions count’? Well, having a CV that represents you and your skills is the first step in presenting the best version of you, to your prospective employer. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how good a fit you are for the role; if your CV doesn’t impress you are unlikely to get an opportunity to shine in a face-to-face interview. 

The aim is to produce a CV that sets out your education, experience and skills in a way that is clear, simple, easy to understand but interesting all at the same time. The format of your CV is key to communicating this and presenting the best version of yourself.  

Tradtional vs. Creative

With a rise in digital and tech industries we have seen an increasing demand for a CV format that is a little “outside of the box”. These CVs, with original and imaginative designs, are a great way to stand out from the crowd and demonstrate your capabilities, but only work in relevant sectors such as marketing, graphic design or media. A creative CV is colourful, include drawings and may even have its own website. Infographics are also a great way to present information in an innovative way. If you use a creative CV in the wrong sector or industry (e.g. Financial Services or Law), you will hinder your chances in advancing to an interview. 

All this said, traditional CVs would be recommended for the vast majority of sectors, particularly financial services, professional services, STEM or academic positions. A traditional format is a CV that is in chronological order, with clean and simple text that is easy to read and conveys your content in a professional manner.

What do I need to include?

A traditional CV is formatted in the following order: 

1. First Name and Surname  
2. Address
3. Personal Statement 
4. Education 
5. Additional Knowledge/Skills/Strengths 
6. Employment History
7. Volunteering Experience 
8. Hobbies and Interests 
9. References 

If a creative CV is the best format for your selected career path, then try to ensure that you still capture all of the content noted above. Whilst it is super impressive to show off your design capabilities, remember that prospective employers still need to get to know you through a piece of paper. 

How do I write a Personal Statement?

A personal statement demonstrates your talent, your passion and your brand. An ideal length is between 50 and 200 words so it doesn’t have to be the length of your coursework. 
I have a very easy formula that will help you build a strong personal statement: 

Introduce YOU

What are you passionate about? Make sure you link this to the opportunity you are seeking. Speak about your educational background and/or what previous work experience you have. it’s really important to focus on your transferrable skills, achievements and strengths. 

What do you bring to the table?

Let them know what you can offer them. Again, transferrable skills are key, so focus on particular elements of knowledge or previous experience that would be relevant to this particular role. 

Where do you want to be in 10 years? 

Discuss your long-term career goals; companies want to know that you are taking this seriously and see a future with them.  

But I don’t have any work experience! What do I write about?

If you haven’t had any jobs in the past or any volunteering experience, then DON’T PANIC! Whilst previous experience is a good way of proving certain capabilities and gaining relevant skills, it’s not the be all and end all. 

With ANY CV it’s important that you tailor it to represent your suitability for each individual role, and the same applies without experience. A really good way of doing this is to focus on achievements and how this would help you in your role. This can be advantageous as it tends to provide a better insight into your character. 

Joel Westley
joel@honestvoice.co.uk

Want more practical tips? Download our free Careers Starter Pack by signing up on our website www.honestvoice.co.uk

What can festivals teach companies about Inclusion and Equality?

For the last few years, the UK Festival scene has grown from strength to strength. Every summer hundreds of thousands of people travel across the UK and internationally, to dance and enjoy music. But what is it about festivals that attract people to travel the distance, spend a lot of money and stand up for 12 hours in rain, sun or mud?

Festivals have a purpose, a mission and a shared vision with its followers. These values are centered around inspiration, music and celebration. They invite followers to collectively embrace these values as equals irrespective of any differences. Inclusion is at a Festival’s core, it builds a connection with its followers and brings people together across all demographics. A Festival is a celebration where age, ethnicity, gender, disability, religion and sexual orientation are irrelevant and do not define any one person. Bias has no meaning or presence in a festival.

We are in a time of unprecedented change, where technology and ambition have no limits but where inequality still thrives and is often a barrier to achieving success. Companies need to be acutely aware that innovation and evolution are inevitable but strengthening a culture of equality is fundamental to ensure an engaged and healthy workforce. So what can companies learn from Festivals?

We are all Equals

Companies must treat all employees as equals regardless of level or standing within the organisation. Seek the opinions of employees and encourage challenge. Allow for a more agile working structure that supports employee growth. Remember, companies want employees who are willing to go the distance and stand up for 12 hours in the rain, sun or mud; employees must believe and feel that the company cares about their thoughts and opinions. Companies should promote such an environment throughout every level of the company and positively challenge any behavior that does not support this culture.  Actions speak louder than words.

An Authentic Purpose

People will want to work for a company if they believe in its purpose. A company must connect with its employees through that purpose as equals, irrespective of any employee’s role within an organisation. It is important to ensure that your company has an unwavering purpose and that correlates with its mission and vision and the company is adaptable to change over time.

Find the Right Talent

Find a candidate with the right attitude that is passionate enough about your company’s purpose that he or she would travel the distance and stand for 12 hours to achieve success (like at a festival). Passion, ambition and Grit should therefore place higher on a competency scorecard than technical ability. More often than not a company can teach a technical skill. It cannot however, teach people to be a team player and have the drive and passion to achieve. Companies must broaden its definition of talent and eradicate bias from its recruitment process.

Unlike the inclusive environment of a festival, the Adam and Mohammed case study from Inside Out London demonstrates that inequality still exists and that equally or more talented people are overlooked for roles because of a characteristic that is part of their identity. Companies loose out on greater success, a better engaged and diverse workforce if they do not proactively take steps to eradicate bias and see the value in passion and potential over any other competency such as a preferred school, academic or institutional achievement. I absolutely acknowledge the importance of strong academics but it should not be the main or most important determining factor.  The right talent should be based on their value and possible contribution to the company. Allowing bias to thrive dilutes a company’s authentic purpose and allows characteristics such as nationality, race, gender and disability to play a role in who gets through the company doors.  Employees are the brand of the company and will determine its future stability and success, so hiring managers should decide wisely.

Twitter: @CharleneLBrown

 

Have Your Voice Heard – Speak Up!

“Confidence is a skill that underpins everything that you do in work, education and life.

It can be the reason you achieved your goals or the reason you haven’t yet made it.

Honest Voice is about building a limitless YOU.

Cheesy I know, but this blog and the tools to follow will show you that confidence isn’t genetics it’s a mind-set, a skill that we work on and an important emotional muscle that we should all build.“

• Honest Voice, Careers Starter Pack

Even if you possess all the confidence in the world, if you don’t speak up and communicate effectively how will anyone know? How you communicate directly impacts how you feel and how others see you. More importantly, not speaking up or finding your confidence can have a direct impact on the opportunities that present themselves.

As a society I think we need to do a better job in building an inclusive environment and developing our own confidence and voice. It is a big undertaking but there are plenty of small steps you can take to unleashing the best version of YOU and speaking up about what matters.

Say it out loud and be heard

All too often we keep quiet, we supress what we might want to say and we let go of things that may bother us for many different reasons. No one deserves to suffer and everyone has a voice that should be heard. Whatever it is that you or a person you know might be feeling, speak up and call it out. You are helping yourself and so many others by demonstrating that you have a voice.

Fake it until you make it

I’m not a huge fan of the thought of pretending to be something we are not, but I do believe that we all have confident versions of ourselves. Whether that version is limited to the confines of the shower, or only comes to the surface when debating a passionate cause, I believe it is somewhere in us all. 

One of my favourite phrases is “acting as if” - not pretending or becoming anything other than the REAL you. Using your true voice and owning your space, speak your mind - even if you aren’t 100% certain.

It is about having an awareness of how you want to personally see yourself and how you want others to perceive you.

It is easy to spot confidence… If you don’t “back yourself” how do you expect others to do so?

Build your Support Network

A strong support network can be vital when making some changes in your life, and its important that you build a network that will push you in the right direction, even when you’re not feeling like it.

The best networks consist of a truly diverse set of people; they could be friends, colleagues, mentors, family or anyone else that can give you that little extra support when needed and most importantly - celebrate the successes that are to come.

Start to think about who you have around you and whether they are the right people to support you in voicing your thoughts. If that group needs developing then be genuine with people and extend your network, mentors come in all shapes and sizes and they are often able to impart knowledge from their own experiences of speaking out.

Check out our guide to finding a mentor in the Careers Starter Pack, available to download from our website.

Practice

Always keep in the back of your mind – what would a confident and limitless version of me do? What would life be like if I let my voice be heard? What would I say? How would I say it?

Next time you have the opportunity to speak, DON’T MISS IT.

Enjoy the confidence that you will very quickly uncover and ensure you are resilient enough to see it through. Keep practicing, keep growing and watch what happens.

Take note of the differences you notice and the opportunities that now become more achievable because you believe in yourself and you are confident.

Don’t forget to celebrate the small successes!

 

Joel Westley

 

 

Taking back control from the fear

A number of weeks ago now I came into work and found a letter on my desk, a letter that threatened my life.

I don't tell you this for sympathy but to share my story. To share with you just one of my experiences of bullying, with fear and how it took control of my life.

Opening an envelope to find a picture of your face is such a surreal experience. I felt the fear take over my entire body almost instantly. I felt like I couldn’t move except for my hands shaking uncontrollably and after reading just the first line I was overwhelmed.

You really don’t consider all of the things that you take for granted at times like this and how powerful anxiety can be. Every time I walked into the office I felt an air of dread as I approached my desk. I held my breath every time my phone rang. I had a panic attack when someone asked me for directions. Every single person I saw became a suspect, always questioning why someone was looking at me or in my direction. What were they talking about? Have I met them before? I was too scared to use my social media channels and even considered deleting them.

And let me tell you, being scared all the time is exhausting. Quite literally, physically and mentally exhausting. Your brain is working over time to try to understand the situation but also starts to build that wall of anxiety and suspicion.

Bullying takes on any number of guises; it can be mean words, being left out and ignored, or a punch in the stomach, even a nasty letter. But any way you look at it, we are all left feeling the same way. Hurt, lonely, pain, broken. And all this pain changes the way we feel about ourselves; we begin to question who we are, our ability and doubt ourselves. Surely there must be something wrong with who we are?

What hurt me more than the nasty words in that letter was what those words would make people think about me. Will they think I’ve done something wrong? That I’m a bad person? That I deserved it? Every time someone asks me what did I do or who have I hurt, my heart breaks a little more. And those thoughts made it hard for me to talk about. I thought the fewer people that knew, the fewer would judge me.

But as you can probably imagine, this fear and anxiety made me pretty distracted and it was hard to do my job so my performance was noticeably worse. Again, I was worried about talking to people about my experience so it was difficult for me to explain why I was struggling or why I was forgetting things. And arguably, this was more damaging. By not telling people what was going on, I started to lose their trust and they began to doubt my ability.

There will always be that one person who asks an insensitive question or that one who innocently uses the wrong words but most people will be so unbelievably supportive. It took me completely by surprise to find that every time I talked about it, and I mean really talked about it and the way that it made me feel, I actually felt a little bit of pressure release.

Talking about how you feel isn’t a weakness. To me, it is a strength because it takes courage to ask for help and show when you are feeling low or vulnerable. And never be afraid to ask for help. We found ourselves worrying about what others will think but in the end, those that care for you will always support you through. In fact, through this awful experience I became closer to my brother and learnt that I can always count on him no matter what. And if you ever feel like there isn’t anyone to talk to, take a risk and try anyway. Someone may surprise you.

And you know what? It’s OK to cry too, it certainly made me feel better! That and hugging my dog.

It is also important to take action and I went to the police. I really may never know who sent the letter to me. Of course that is always a fear but I am glad regardless, that I took action as hard as it was for me.

This letter could always be something that follows me through life, just a memory in the back of mind resurfacing at any moment, paralysing me with fear all over again.

This person who tried to take control of my life may always be around and may always be a faceless figure, a ghost and that’s a scary thought. Especially to think that I let this bully take control.

Fear affects us all on a daily basis, not only in our personal lives but in our professionals ones too. We all face fears, fear of the unknown, uncertainty, fear of trying new things, fear of our demise, being irrelevant, fear of losing our jobs and being replaced by robots. If we don't take risks maybe we won't make mistakes and will be safe. But we have to face those fears for progress.

After receiving this letter I was scared to leave my house, to go to work, petrified that people may think that I'm a bad person and the anxiety was so close to immobilising me if I only let it. So what did I do? I forced myself to go to work the next day, I forced myself to get on the tube, I forced myself sit at that desk and try my best. And that’s all we can really ask of ourselves, to try our best. Not someone else’s version of best.

I could have turned down any number of opportunities out of fear and decided to hide myself away but only one person wins if I do that. And ultimately, I'd lose. I'm not willing to let the unknown scare me and stop me from becoming the person I want to be, failure aids us on our journey and every failure is a learning curve.

I am not a victim. Something terrible happened to me but it does not define me. I am a strong person, and even stronger now. I have the best family and friends, I have a home, an education and a fantastic job which I excel at, and I will always have bad days when I doubt myself. But I am proud of who I am.

@jm_shell