If you are in the job market the first thing a potential employer will ask for is a CV; this is the universally accepted abbreviation for Curriculum Vitae (Latin for ‘course of life’).   It is also called a Résumé. These two international terms mean exactly the same thing and will be used interchangeably throughout this guide.

The most important thing to remember is that you need a good CV to make an impact on the reader.

In more than twenty years of placing people into meaningful careers I have read thousands of CV’s. Sadly, a very small number of these did a good job of capturing the uniqueness of the candidate in a positive way. Generally, they are too long, contain irrelevant information, and tend to miss the point.

It seemed to me that people who write CV’s or résumés fall into three distinct categories. There are those who go it alone, their mistakes are varied and numerous, those who use self-help books; they fare little better, as most of these publications do not get to grips with the real issues that constitute a good CV or résumé. Finally, there are those who go to ‘professional’ CV writers but seldom get good value for a service that is actually not cheap.

In expressing these opinions, I was challenged to come up with something better.

I applied my mind to the issue and developed a process that I believe is capable of adding real value to exactly the right places. It is also simple to do.

I am confident that this guide will help you create a CV or résumé that will stand out from the crowd by being a reflection of your uniqueness. More importantly you will have thought through some key issues that will make you much more prepared to market yourself and to deal with tough interviews.

I hope CVRighter™ will literally help you to …