If you’re interested in finding a new job in the current market, you need to approach the situation just like any sensible business faced with a decline in its traditional customer base: you need to find new customers and they need to understand the benefits and value you offer – your return on investment (ROI), in fact.

Stage One: What is your ‘core product’?

You need to define from a generic rather than a sector/role-specific perspective what you can offer a new employer. For example:

· You are: highly credible, objective-driven, client focused, a strong leader, etc.

· You have extensive experience in: strategic planning, operational management, CRM, project leadership, etc.

· You deliver: increased market share, client revenue, shareholder value, etc.

It is worth taking a little time to stand back and really consider not just what you can ‘sell’ to the market, but what it is you want to sell and to whom?

What you want to sell will depend on which skills and abilities you prefer to leverage. It will be closely aligned to your personal drivers and motivators: your focus may be functional (such as a senior client-facing role), or general (such as an MD/CEO/VP-level position where you will be the integrating force in the organisation).

The ‘to whom’ aspect is analogous to establishing a specification against which you are buying a service or product; you need to establish what your key criteria are when evaluating a new job opportunity, market sector or company. For example:

Location: UK or international?

Size: You may consider a range of options depending on your risk profile – perhaps even early-stage businesses.

Culture: Organisational fit is perhaps the most important factor from both parties’ perspective.

Sector: Your choice here will depend on the situation you are comfortable with so a sector with a high level of competitive activity, product churn and technology-driven change will be rather more dynamic than one within a more monopolistic/commodity environment.

Stage Two: New profile

You now have a clear definition of what your new ‘brand’ represents, so you will need to communicate this strongly to the ‘customer’ in a way that makes it obvious that you are both relevant to its needs and to the requirements of the job, with a high level of confidence in your ability to deliver.

The objective is to grab the reader’s attention (you only have a few seconds) and encourage them to keep reading. So your profile will not begin: “A City professional with 15 years’ experience gained within XYZ PLC …”, but rather: “An outstanding client relationship director with an exceptional record of success within highly competitive markets…”

Confident? Yes! Relevant to the job? Most certainly!

Stage Three: Achievements

Now that you’ve secured a potential employer’s interest and demonstrated your confidence, you need to show them why they should employ you.

The achievements section is all about tangible, quantified (ideally) examples that demonstrate the impact you have made throughout your career. This section should unequivocally communicate the ROI you represent to any business, and is the power-house of your CV.

These statements will follow directly after your ‘profile’, with the chronology on the second page of the document. Typically, they will start with words such as: Transformed…, Led…. Built …, Increased…, Established…, Secured…, and even, Rescued…, Mitigated against…, etc.

In each case, you are looking to include a number to indicate the scale of the project, or the magnitude of the turnaround or level of new revenue generated. For example:

· Increased annual revenue at XYZ PLC by more than 40m; grew assets under management for private clients from 500m to 1.2bn …; or,

· Led a major business transformation programme for XYZ PLC that delivered P&L benefits in excess of 25m; this included both cost savings and substantial gains in effectiveness across the revenue generation teams….

This is the area of the CV most people find the most challenging, and requires intensive and objective analysis. However, it is well worth the effort, not just to help secure the interview, but also to provide a series of anecdotes to support your presentation at the next stage of the process.

The last section of the CV is the chronology, and the key here is to set out concisely your responsibilities, including number of direct reports, level of budget, etc., avoiding jargon or indeed sector-specific abbreviations and terminology.

Finally, you should provide details of higher-level education, and any other information that may be relevant to the ‘sale proposition’, such as languages, non-executive director positions, and interests that demonstrate organisational ability, etc. Listing hobbies and sports interests is not really relevant at this stage, although these may be useful to quote further down the track when you discover the chairman supports the same team!

Click here to see an example of a Second jobber CV

Click here to see an example of a Mid career CV.

Click hereto see an example of a Senior manager CV.

Tony Reeves is a senior consultant at The Fuller CV, a company specialising in producing interview-winning CVs. The Fuller CV has teamed up with eFinancialCareers to offer you a free CV review service, performed by one of its expert financial sector specialists. There’s also an introductory discount of 10% off all our other services until the end of November. Click here for details.