A future leader needs to write an attractive CV. What details and subtleties do you need to consider?

“I can do everything”

It would be best to have a fundamentally different CV than the one you had for a performing position. Think back to anything relevant to leadership or administrative work in previous jobs. At this stage, ignore the nuances – prepare the basis, and then proceed to the fundamentally important details.

Leadership experience. In the list of job duties, it is necessary to indicate management functions: setting tasks, organizing work, monitoring performance, maintaining reporting, etc., the recruiter may get the impression that you were already a manager but did not succeed.

Skills. Even though you are now applying for a management position, you need to be an expert in your field. Therefore, immediately after describing the administrative and managerial functions, start presenting your skills as an excellent specialist.

Desired position. Do not position yourself simply as a manager – this way you will not show a potential employer anything about the position you are going to take. Specify which department, sector, or direction you want to become the head of.

Achievements . When filling out this section, please remember about quantitative indicators, expressed in numbers and percentages. But at the same time, one should not forget that the credibility of the figures given is also of great importance; in no case should you take credit for the entire department. If you had your project, you could already write about meeting deadlines, fulfilling KPIs, increasing productivity, etc.

Accents. Of course, it is important to underline the relevance of the job you are applying for whenever possible, especially if you have any of the listed requirements/characteristics that are given in the job. Such little things will turn out to be additional points with an equal chance with other candidates, so the CV that you send must be individual for each employer.

Mandatory items

Here is a small list of actions that should be reflected in work experience – check if all of the points are on your CV:

• experience in team leadership;
• training and motivation of employees;
• defining strategies, setting goals, setting priorities, assigning responsibilities, areas of responsibility, etc .;
• control over the implementation of tasks, determination of efficiency, KPI implementation;
• creation of reporting documentation;
• own efficiency.

Using this diagram, you can formulate the skills you have so that the employer can see that they “cover” all the requirements for a manager.

Major mistakes

1. “Performing all duties appropriate to this position”. A person who has done a job that he did well will always talk about it with pleasure. Otherwise, the conclusion is one – he does not like his business and does not want to do it. Why does an employer need such an employee?

Fix: Describe features (7 to 12 items) and achievements (1 to 3 items).

2. Skills described randomly. A professional who knows his work’s specifics well always clearly understands his experience’s primary and secondary sources. A CV in the style of “what I remembered is what I wrote”, where managerial expertise is mixed with executive experience, is unlikely to interest an employer.

Fix: Divide the skills into categories, and within each subsection, keep the sequence from general to specific. For example, first, you indicate the management experience as such, and then the necessary options: remote administration, motivation, control, building business processes, documentation, etc.

3. A carbon-copy CV. You must understand what they want to hear from you. The more closely your portrait matches the image of the right employee, the better your chances are.

Fix: Of course, you shouldn’t write every CV from scratch; create one basic form and adjust it for each job. Take the time to study potential employers carefully.

Leave one of the complete CV openly available, and when applying for a particular vacancy, use the CV designed for a specific company.

Search technique

It would be best if you remembered that a “wait and see” attitude would most likely not work. You have to be active – it’s not enough to post your CV on a job website and wait for responses to come. Look for your employer and try to interest him. Pay attention to the cover letter in which you must emphasize your managerial qualities and argue your readiness to take a managerial position. 

Still unsure? No time to write it on your own? We are happy to help!