CV – What stands out?

Conventions: I found a range of different approaches to the CV task. Given that we asked what you have done ‘professionally’ and what ‘professional training’ do you have, I though some CVs stood out as more effective than others. Firstly, some CVs gave prominence to professional work by simply listing these first, e.g. Donna Wilkinson listed her professional online CVs first, (e.g. SPOTLIGHT; MODEL MAYHEM). What does this say about Donna? Well she has professional web based CVs, that she is serious about her career, that she fits the ‘normal’ way of presenting yourself, say via Spotlight. So this is a ‘conventional’ way of presenting yourself. Is this a ‘Convention’ that is expected? Does Donna appear to understand this?

Personal Statements: Some of you have used this devise. Its value is it is an opportunity to talk about what matters to you, which a CV alone cannot do. One example is Gabrielle Campbell’s ‘Personal Statement’. Here Gabrielle talks about her aspirations but also talks about her personal circumstance. Does a Personal Statement fit into a professional profile? Does it add, or detract from the presentation of a real person? I think as a personal statement Gabrielle strikes a well-balanced line between being to familiar (colloquial, off-hand) and being too inspirational (ooh I’m lucky, oh really unlucky). Her statements are nicely centred, feel authentic, and represent a mature person who has dreams, but who is centred in her own real life.

‘The personal is professional’: Peter has also written about this on his Blog ‘The personal is professional’. Well-established professionals you hear speak or on TV often seem to merge their professional and personal ways of being. They take their lives seriously, and their work seriously. This is why I like Gabrielle’s Personal Statement; it seems to be a ‘whole representation’ of her professional and personal life.