Write the Perfect CV – Part 2 of 3 – YOUR WORK HISTORY

WORK HISTORY

Outline your career history in reverse chronological order.
The structure to follow for each role is: Job title, employer, date for each role.

Description of employer
This is appropriate for those coming from overseas or in cases where the company might be largely unknown. Organisations like IBM, News Limited, Suncorp or the big banks, to name a few examples, will need no explanation.

Job Responsibilities
People make the mistake of believing the more responsibilities listed the better. Include only the key things you were “responsible” (accountable) for. Don’t list every single thing you did. Don’t include: “Attended a weekly team meeting” So what?

Role Achievements
Up to three per job is good and are specific. List the things that you did that you were not paid to do. Items would include staff awards and special commendations. Also ideas you put forward, scoped out or helped to implement that led to a cost saving or an increase in revenue or delivered new clients or resulted in higher levels of customer service or time efficiency. THE KEY HERE IS RESULTS.

EXAMPLE

OFFICE MANAGER

ABC Foundation Feb 2015 – Present

Responsibilities

• Accountable for the operations, finance administration, event management and Board reporting for this organisation. Controlling costs against targets to ensure a viable non for profit result. I managed the on-boarding process and conducted team building workshops.

Key Achievements

• Collaborated with, and supported the CEO to reach outstanding organisational results.
• Ensured all operational tasks were completed according to procedural standards; reducing company exposures by 45%.
• Managed the submission of all Board reports and content on behalf of the CEO – reaping increased donations in 2015.
• Successfully managed four national fundraising events to raise over $500K in one year.

About Pam

Pam Dell is a founding member of the FlexCoach panel of career and executive coaches. She has been on a 30 year journey that encompassed a constant juggle between corporate life and raising 3 children. Her background covers HR, Business, IT, Mentoring, Career coaching, Outplacement consulting, Learning and Development. She coaches people every day to help them be better at what they do, land their dream role, crystalise their goals and achieve their potential. Her passion is seeing people gain confidence to do what they were meant to do (and more!)

You can connect with Pam through her FlexCoach profile here