7 tips to learn how to write a good CV to land more interim jobs!

So what's the difference between a traditional CV and an interim one? Here are some differences:

• An experienced interim consultant have a more extensive CV due to many time-limited assignments, which increases the challenge of describing what you have done without becoming unstructured and losing the common thread.
• In the case of interim assignments, the ability to quickly familiarize oneself with assignments and the ability to work in different corporate cultures and with different types of colleagues are highly valued.
• As a rule, a temporary assignment is more operational than the corresponding permanent role. A common mistake is to ”overshoot the mark” by leaving out the operational experience.
• An interim manager is hired to cover a short-term need and is therefore less interested in the candidate's long-term ambition. The customer should be the focus and it should be clear when it is appropriate to hire you.

Finding a good writing CV template isn't easy - we've listed 7 CV tips that land interim jobs:

Contents

We start from the beginning. A CV should include the following: name, place of residence, contact details, where you worked, when, brief information about each employer and what the different roles involved.

”Competency-based” CVs may possibly be complementary in the first selection but are not presented to the client. The same applies to so-called ”consultant CVs”, which of course raises the question of how valuable it is to spend time on. Instead of making a mess of it, start with the following principles:

• Structure your CV in reverse chronological order
• use bullet points to briefly and concisely describe each role
• do not write in ”I” form”
• avoid long sentences and narrative text
• A CV that does not meet these criteria risks drowning the relevant information in unnecessary text, the logic is less clear and the CV is easily perceived as unclear. Information on the types of roles and assignments you are primarily seeking (see below), the geography you cover and availability is also useful information.

Appropriate length

How long is a string? The ”2-page rule” was possibly a relevant guideline before the Internet existed when you had to take into account the cost of postage. Joking aside, limiting yourself to a given number of pages on a CV is the wrong focus for the simple reason that everyone has different levels of experience, making it impossible to say that you should stick to a certain length. Recruiters work with information and welcome as much relevant information as possible.

A CV that is too exhaustive is likely to lack relevance, a CV that is too short will provide a poor basis and, in the event of an interview, you will have to focus on completing the CV instead of a more fruitful dialog.

Let the last ten years take up 80 % of the CV, while the roles before that do not need to be described in the same level of detail. In summary, the reader should be able to easily grasp what your career has been like, what each position has entailed in a short, concise and factual way. Remember to critically review what is relevant to the type of job you are primarily applying for. A commercial CV is usually three to four pages long, airy, stylish and contains plenty of relevant and interesting information.

A recommendation to get a well-structured and airy CV but avoid too many pages after many years of interim assignments is to use margin adjustment to get a good structure. Collect the interim assignments under one and the same heading (given that they are related in terms of time) where each assignment is marginalized to a sub-heading. Do not forget that even short assignments are meritorious and should be included.

Market yourself right

It sounds simple, but it requires that you have reflected on what kind of assignment you want, and that you have the self-distance to realize which assignments you are potentially relevant for from the client's perspective. You don't want to ”close any doors”, as they say, but the reality is that no one is good at everything and everyone who has a multi-year career has niched themselves in some way. Despite the fact that most of us feel that we would be great in a completely new role, we do ourselves a disservice by not having the customer's perspective when writing our CV (or interviewing for that matter). The good news is that this applies to everyone so it's important to use it to your advantage.

• Decide on a maximum of three positions that you primarily market in your CV. Feel free to write this out at the beginning of your CV so that it is immediately clear what kind of job you are looking for.
• Formulate yourself on the basis of what the customer wants to buy and what value you can create for the client.
• Keep in mind that the client is largely buying logic and generally wants to hire someone they can feel comfortable with in an interim role. Therefore, be concrete in your experiences. Have you had staff responsibilities? -Write how many people. Responsible for the sale of a subsidiary - Describe your concrete contribution to the process.
• Don't assume that the reader knows what the role means. Titles can mean different things e.g. ”CIO” can stand for Chief Information Officer, Chief Intelligence Officer and Chief Innovation Officer. All three are equally ”right”. Also, don't assume that you understand what the role entailed or what the company does. Instead, provide the reader with that information in the CV.

Layout

Don't fuss with the formatting, layout or font. Keep in mind that many recruitment companies present a uniform structure on their candidate presentations. ”Advanced” formatting, lines, boxes, borders, colors and the like are superfluous and generally give a less senior impression and serve no purpose. Use a clear and neutral font, preferably Garamond size 12.

Those who object on the grounds that a CV does not ”stand out” or is ”boring” do not share our view of the purpose of the CV. To turn it around: a CV stands out and is valuable when it is well-structured, easy to read, informative, well-worded and highlights relevant information so that the person studying it gets a clear picture of what the person has done and what jobs it makes sense to hire them for in the future. The exception is, of course, if you are applying for a job as an Art Director or similar.

Remember that the purpose of a CV is to get an interview and it is in the face-to-face meeting that you have the opportunity to highlight your personality, ambition, motivations and the rest that will complement the information in the CV. Interviews spent repeating what is written in the CV are meaningless (at least nowhere near as meaningful as they could be). But that's another topic for another time.

Be searchable

Recruitment agencies (and many other companies) use system tools to retrieve CVs from their database using categorization and keywords. For this reason, it is advisable to use keywords in your CV that provide as many relevant hits as possible. If you have worked in a particular system/accounting principle/project tool or other - write it. Vary between synonyms. This is one of the reasons for sending CVs in both Swedish and English.

Gaps & images

A natural part of working as an interim consultant is that you are not fully occupied, so don't worry about any gaps between assignments, or employment for that matter. When you only have years as a time span, it is more difficult to determine relevance as there is some difference depending on whether the assignment lasted between January 2013 to December 2014, or December to January. Sitting in an interview and recounting months is no fun for anyone, but that time should be spent on more in-depth topics.

Picture or no picture? My colleague Stefan says NO and usually half-jokingly says that a picture says more than 1000 words and a CV rarely contains more than 500 words, which means that the picture would then say more about the person than the CV itself. Some industry colleagues think absolutely Yes! and I personally lean towards Maybe. Opinions differ on whether a picture is appropriate. Those who say yes usually refer to the fact that it is more personal, while those who say no believe that it is the skills that should be assessed, not the appearance, and therefore any picture does not belong in the CV. Regardless of where you stand, I offer the following advice to those who insist on a picture in their CV or cover letter - take a professional face picture with a white background for exactly this purpose.

Highlight what the customer wants to buy

In the rush to emphasize seniority, it is common to forget to take into account what the client is looking to buy. Categorically, interim roles are more operational and the client is almost invariably looking for an energetic person who will roll up their sleeves unpretentiously, even if it is a skilled role. It is common for the same person to also act as an advisor to the CEO, be expected to take an active role in the management team and contribute at the strategic level.

Highlight strategic experiences but don't forget that everyone interim assignment have operational elements and if you do not highlight your suitability to work at several levels, you risk overshooting the target. This is one of the most common reasons (if not the most common) why experienced people do not get the jobs they want.

Some final words

There is, of course, much more to be said on this subject where almost everyone has a strong opinion. My hope is not that you will agree with everything, but will be satisfied if I have succeeded in inspiring you to challenge your views on the subject. Maybe even convinced on some point.

Dare to let go of old perceptions. Do not complicate things. Don't embellish in a way that distorts. Use logic to your advantage - be clear about what services you offer and when/where/how to hire you. Dare to close some doors to open others. Work continuously with your CV and regard it as a living document, send your CV to carefully selected actors who have a good opportunity to mediate assignments, have foresight in your assignment search, send updated versions when you know when your current assignment will end. And finally: don't forget that the CV represents and promotes YOU and should be treated accordingly.

Hope you've picked up some valuable CV writing tips and good luck!

Yours sincerely

Wictor Bonde, Partner Interim Search