Writing a CV Headline | Writing a CV Profile

Who does your CV say you are?

Does it reflect who you want to be?

Print a copy of your CV. Now turn your printed version over, so the text faces down onto your desk or table. Now think about what your CV should be saying about you. Turn your CV over and imagine you are a recruiter, giving your CV a cursory once-over to decide whether you are a good match for their recruitment requirements.

Are you making it easy for them? In the space of a few seconds, can you pull out the keywords from your CV that will signify a strong match to your target job?

If not, then here are a few strategies which can make all the difference.

Headline and Profile

Your headline and profile are of key importance to position yourself in the reader’s mind.

Using a headline at the top of your CV is a good tactic to say confidently who you are. Before the profile, state clearly your professional moniker; an overarching description that confirms to the reader from the outset that it is worth their while to continue reading your CV.

The headline is becoming a more popular feature on CVs, both on and off-line. LinkedIn, for example, asks its users to add a headline to their online profile, giving examples such as: Experienced Transportation Executive, Web Designer and Information Architect and Visionary Entrepreneur and Investor.

Don’t feel compelled to define yourself by your current job title, especially if it is too specific, simply bizarre or may even be unrecognisable to the recruiter.

One approach to writing a headline is to take an objective look at what you have achieved over your career to date and use this insight to define yourself. If you’ve worked in roles as a receptionist, office administrator and clerical officer (in the days when that was a popular job title,) you could consider describing yourself as an Office Support Professional, for example.

Avoid tongue-in-cheek descriptions like ‘Technical Evangelist’ or ‘Director of First Impressions’– the reader may not take them in the spirit intended and just think you have an overinflated ego.

One simple way to position yourself as a ‘fit’ for the role is to describe yourself in the terms used by your target employer. If they are seeking a Business Development Manager, but your current role is actually Head of New Sales, I don’t see it as a problem to describe your role using their language. You can reflect their terminology in your headline and profile and reference your actual job title in your Experience section.

Key Skills

I recommend using a Key Skills section immediately after the Profile, incorporating snappy two to three word bullets which describe the transferable business skills (New Business Development, for example), rather than soft skills (Communication Skills), you can bring to your target employer.

Ideally these should reflect the skills outlined in the target job advert, description and person specification.

This section which can be skim-read very easily is a godsend to the recruiter who needs to quickly locate the words that enable them to tick, tick, tick the boxes.

Experience/Employment Sections

Highlight your relevant experience, the experience that best matches the requirements of the target job, on page one of your CV. You can call it out in a Relevant Experience section, with Other Experience to follow. This tactic can make all the difference to whether your CV gets through the initial screening process.

If any of your job titles have been very specialised or specific to your organisation, consider using a more generic and recognisable job title in its place on your CV. Many recruiters are scanning CVs using specialist software which picks up on certain keywords, so it is important to reference those keywords.

If your CV could speak, it should be saying, “YES! I AM your perfect match. Pick ME! Pick ME!” Just give it the right language, tone and fluency of delivery and let it talk your way into an interview.

Written by Lis McGuire

Lis McGuire is a professional CV writer at Giraffe CVs. She has 15 years of experience gained delivering interview-winning CVs and cover letters for professionals at all levels, helping individuals to stand out from the crowd in a highly competitive job market. You can find her on Google+, Twitter and Facebook.