This is not a “resume or CV” article. I’m not a fan of those. In fact, I’ll usually decline when asked to do a talk about that subject at a meeting. My reasoning is that many people put too much emphasis on the appearance of their paperwork. They fuss, write, and rewrite, over and over, when they should be attending meetings, making phone calls, or performing some other, more productive job search activity.

As I’ve written before, a good resume is better than a great resume because the good one is out there working for you while the great one is still being analyzed and revised. Because I don’t want to feed that frenzy, I’ll concentrate this month on helping you get your job-search paperwork up to the “good” stage. You can take it from there with your ever-improving networking skills.

Some Resume and CV Topics Are Still Controversial

Regrettably, the world is full of resume and CV ideologues. If you are a “one-pager” person, you believe that nothing in the world is worse than a multi-page CV. And vice-versa. You can read conflicting advice in every resume book in the Library of Congress, and there are more than a thousand on that shelf.

A resume is typically a laundry list of facts and information about a person. As a sales document, most don’t have a lot going for them. And that’s really what your paperwork is — a sales tool to get you an interview and a shot at a job. In the worst extreme, the CV format is simply a biographical sketch. Taking this “no selling” issue further, some marketing-shy, just-the-facts scientific types apply the same approach to their cover letters as well. Sometimes that approach works, I suspect, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Using a “just the facts” academic CV-style in a company application is just plain wrong. Hiring managers are looking for more than that. Your writing style for a job application, including your cover letter, says something about you. Your choice of words, your selection of powerful phrases and descriptions — these things either work for you or they work against you.

Focus on Their Interests, Not Yours

The CV is typically an exhaustive list of accomplishments: education, employment, awards, presentations, publications, patents — anything you ever did in a professional context. Like a CV, a traditional resume is a list of accomplishments, but it’s typically more stylized and selective — and it’s far shorter. While the one-page resume has its fans, CVs (for experienced scientists with loads of patents and publications) can run 10-15 pages, or even more.

For the technical professional, I recommend an approach that’s a little bit different. I call this slightly embellished document an “industry CV.” The industry CV should paint a more compelling picture of your capabilities than a dry, academic-style CV, and it should be shorter. It can be longer than a resume, and it must be focused on the needs of the employer. That’s where powerful writing, and editing, comes in.

Consider the “Objective” statement that some people put on their resumes. It’s better than nothing, I guess, but really, employers care about their own objectives, not yours. That hiring manager is thinking, “I’ve got a job to fill here; all I need to know is, can this person handle the work involved?”

A more powerful approach is to include a “Qualifications” statement, tailored to fit the particular job you’re applying for. Consider everything you know about the job and craft a statement about why you’re a good fit. If you can convince your reader, who spends an average of 20-30 seconds with each resume or CV, that you can fill their needs, you’ll move into the short stack.

So, don’t write:


Few hiring managers are going to be eager to pay you to “apply knowledge within an industry setting.” They’ve got particular problems they want you to solve. So write something more directly related to the employer’s needs, like this:


This approach matches the applicant’s qualifications to the job requirements. The former approach emphasizes learning in an academic setting, while the latter conveys the impression of a smart person who’s eager to attack the problems the company needs to have solved.

Other Alterations of Your CV for Higher Impact

One thing that can create confusion is that writers often use the term CV and resume interchangeably, as I often do in this very column. But a resume and an industry CV are used for different types of jobs. A CV should be used for technical positions that require more detail. For example, the industry CV should be three to five pages, plus an attached list of publications. Some are a lot longer than that, but what is most important is that it be succinct.

Fine-tuning your CV means cutting back on superfluous detail and adding the “sizzle” that gets you the interview. The sizzle is in your statement of qualifications, right at the top of the first page (which is prime “resume real estate”). Now cut back some of that superfluous detail, which documents the relics of days gone by.

For example, you don’t need to have a list of every poster delivered or abstract written. Avoid that “personal interests” section that is so often dropped into a CV to make it seem resume-like. The occasional hiring manager will be impressed by your interest in bowling, but more will find it a distraction, and at least a few people will be turned off by it. (Yes, there are people who will stereotype you if you are a bowler, a motorcycle enthusiast, a wine aficionado, etc.)

In your CV, the powerful writing ends with the “Qualifications” statement. From there on, it’s editing that counts: tidying up, shortening, formatting, focusing — in other words, making certain that it bears no resemblance to the CV your first biology professor still has up on his website.

The Cover Letter: Choose Your Words Carefully

The other crucial document, the partner to your CV or resume, is your cover letter. Your cover letter style can make a huge difference in your success at landing interviews. And that’s why you should never use a form letter. Hiring managers (and HR staff) read cover letters, as a rule, so this is your chance to focus on a major accomplishment and ensure your CV gets more than the perfunctory 20-30 seconds.

When composing your cover letter, think about what the reader is looking for and point them towards it. Use one of those short paragraphs to highlight an accomplishment that they will find more about inside your CV. Like the “Qualifications” statement on the CV, this is your “grabber.”

An example:


See how this cover letter grabber ties together with the qualifications statement on the CV? That’s the old one-two punch!

David G. Jensen is the founder and chief executive officer of CTI Executive Search, a unit of CareerTrax Inc. (Sedona, AZ). CTI is a leading recruiting firm in the biosciences. You can reach Dave at (928) 282-5366.