keeping your CV focused

The very first rule of producing a CV is to make your content focused and relevant to the opportunity you're applying for. Highlight what experience you feel is most suitable and the rest will fit into place. Too many CV’s detail a past account of absolutely everything that an individual has ever done. This result’s in a very generalist CV and most of the information on there won't be relevant for the sort of opportunities that you want to apply for.

Let’s look at the specific example of an ex application developer who has now moved into a more strategic project manager or man manager role and is wanting to continue down this career path. As obvious as it may seem the best idea would be to focus on his / her achievements in this type of role rather than going back to application development. Going back to the first point, keep your CV focused.

Highlight what experience you have in those performance objectives relevant to the role. For a new man manager position these would be:
 

• How many people have you been managing?
• What project budget responsibility did you have?
• Did you manage the projects resources and recruitment?
• What methodology did you use and were you involved in the full project lifecycle?

If instead you wanted to go back to application development positions you should then concentrate the focus back on:

• What key technologies have you been using and why was this selection correct to the job in hand?
• What part of the project lifecycle did you develop / have input into?
• What key challenges if any did you overcome?
• What size of team were you in and what role did you play?

The project manager / man manager would require emphasis on the top section and although it is important to demonstrate past application development experience, companies looking for a new project / man manager will want to understand your potential capabilities in this role and simply acknowledge your past applications experience rather than requiring a detailed account of your past activities.

Getting this focus correct will hugely increase your hiring potential when identifying your next relevant opportunity.

So, in short, Keep your CV focused!