CV advice.
The most important thing to remember when preparing your CV is that it is a selling tool! Whether you think you are the worst salesperson in the world or the best you had better be aware that when you are looking for a job it is the most important salesmanship that you will ever have to do, from the initial outset to the final stages of your first interview, you have to "sell yourself" throughout and this means being thorough and professional.
When selling anything the most important aspect is first impressions and in the case of selling yourself (unless you are visiting an agency first) this is the CV.
This starts with the envelope itself, if you are able financially, always use a first class stamp and write "FIRST CLASS" on the envelope to draw their attention to the fact that this makes it look like this job is important to you. This will also make them think that you are not sending hundreds of letters out at the same time.Always use a good quality envelope and good quality paper. Where possible try and type the envelope as well as the letter, this makes the envelope look neat and professional (gone are the days where company's prefer a written letter, they much prefer to be able to read something easily and are more interested in the presentation showing your computer skills than whether your handwriting is scruffy or not). Ensure that you spell check your covering letter and your CV over and over again, ensure that you get a couple of other people to check it for you as you will usually miss the same mistake over and over again. Some companies will bin a letter/CV for just one spelling mistake as they have hundreds of applications to sift through and are looking for any excuse to discard as many as possible.
Start your CV with your name but DO NOT start your CV with your contact details, age, driving licence, education etc…, remember you are selling yourself - "first impressions". The next part should be a personal profile on yourself briefly highlighting what you strengths are and what type of skills you have and your character. "selling yourself" Try and include the length of time you have spent in any relevant roles and the level of positions you have held. Follow this with your career history, starting with your most recent and including the length of time in the role, Company name and your job title, follow this with a brief description of your duties and then the key part should be you key achievements. This is the area they will be interested in, what you have actually achieved. As much as possible try and quantify your successes i.e. what percentage increase you are on sales LFL or what percentage increases you have against your sales targets, the same applies for cost targets and for shrinkage targets, what are your mystery shopper results, what number do you sit in the company compared to your peers, if 3rd in the company or on your area or region, state 3rd out of how many, as 3rd out 10 may be good, but your potential employer might think it is 3rd out of 4!! Don't forget to include your success in people development, many people forget about this and concentrate more on sales achievements or costs, shrinkage, but remember retail is a people industry and this is an extremely important part of your role i.e. how many Managers have you developed to the next stage, how many people have you developed to managers and so on, also what percentage have you decreased staff turnover no your region . Just as importantly don't forget to include any project work as achievements and not just another role you've done, quite often you will have been chosen for these projects in training/HR/merchandising/new store openings etc….because of your success in your current role and your general ability to adapt, gaining experience in areas other than pure operations will be imperative if you want to reach the top of your chosen career in the Retail Industry and potential employers are always looking for "all rounders".
Try and use dynamic selling words such as superb, tremendous, excellent and not words such as good, OK. Use bullet points to highlight your achievements
Do not elaborate too much on any past positions that are not relevant to the retail industry or the job you are applying too, especially jobs when you first started out in your career like administrative or clerical jobs, estate agents, armed forces, I'm sure you can see what I mean. This is a waste of valuables space as your CV should not really be any more than 2 pages long or at least the third page should only contain the basic information and not the information that is selling you as a potential employee. It is a well known fact that readers will only absorb 60% in the first page and 40% on the second and that is why those important first impressions are so vital
Tailor your CV for each position, this may be time consuming if you are applying for lots of different jobs, but wherever possible try and think what the company are looking for and the key skills they will require and tweak your CV so that these stand out. Wherever possible in your Profile at the beginning try and mention the company that you are sending your CV to so that it comes across as you are really interested in their organisation and brand.
After your career history include qualifications, educational and professional and any membership bodies you are part of, do not mention first aid certificates and any other ancillaries unless you believe they are extremely relevant, remember space is paramount. There is also no need to mention hobbies or interests as this will not be a deciding factor as to whether you get an interview or not. Only mention driving licence if you are asked to and don't list referees at this stage "superb references available on request". Insufficient or mention salary requirements, again unless asked to.
Once you have sent your CV, after a few days follow it up with a courtesy call to the person or department that you have sent it to, this is done for four reasons, firstly to ensure that it has actually arrived, it could have either got lost in the post, which happens more often than you think (especially cheques!!), or it may even have been misplaced within internal mail and ended up in somebody else's bin, because they could not be bothered to pass it on to the correct department. It also shows the company from early on that you are a professional individual who pays attention to detail, and it also speaks volumes for how interested you are in their organisation and finally it gives you the opportunity to sell yourself again to get that all important interview, by asking them if they have had time to read it and if they have ask if you have been given an interview and if they have not decided as yet, which is more likely to be the standard answer, to ask them if their was any particular part of your experience or achievements that they were unsure about, that you could elaborate on now. This may give you the chance to overcome a small objection that they had to giving you an interview that you would otherwise not have had. Always apologies for troubling them and say you look forward to hearing from them in due courseand then sit back and wait for that all important letter to land on your mat with your interview date. Good Luck
Click here to see an example CV.