Recreate your CV for a mid-career job

Time waits for no man, and as time passes, we all evolve and adapt. We learn more, take on more responsibilities and have to present ourselves differently. Similarly, the CV that served you well as a fresh job seeker will not do you as much justice now. Just as you have adapted and improved over your career, your CV will need to reflect your achievements, success and experience and show the positive growth you have undergone.

It is understandable if you feel reluctant or believe that a simple sprucing up here and there will make your CV look brand new. A CV overhaul takes a lot of time and effort and can be challenging even for the most seasoned professionals and career veterans. However, there comes a time when rewriting your CV becomes an absolute necessity. If it has been a while since you’ve thought of yourself as a junior employee, that time has come.

Remember, you are not the same job seeker you were at the starting point of your career. You now have much more experience and accomplishments up your sleeve and will be undertaking the task of writing a CV as a whole new professional. A new and improved, 2.0 version of yourself who has so much more to offer now than you did in the dawn of your career. Your CV’s main purpose is to market you successfully to prospective employers, so it should reflect both your past growth and your potential to grow and develop further in the future. To help you rewrite your CV, Bayt.com, the Middle East’s leading job site, has prepared this quick, userfriendly guide to rewriting your CV for a mid-career position.

Chop off any dead ends

When you have accumulated over five years of work experience, it becomes necessary to trim any unnecessary weight on your CV that could prove to be more distracting than complementary. The work experience racked up over your college years as well as part-time work that is irrelevant to your desired position or industry are probably taking up valuable real estate on your CV. This space could instead be used to list more accomplishments from your most relevant and recent jobs as well as to focus on the skills you have developed and the responsibilities you have held that make you more qualified for your chosen career.

Remember, even when applying for mid-career positions, which usually accommodate CVs that are longer than a page, your CV should still be relevant, concise and straight to the point. Even taking your years of experience in to account, the employer will not want to waste too much time scanning your CV for the information they need.

Lead with your trump card

At this point in your career, your CV should have more focus on accomplishments instead of a mile-long list of skills. With this much work experience, you should be able to prove your skills with achievements and quantify them wherever possible. The accomplishments listed should also reflect a progression that demonstrates you took on more responsibilities and achieved more over time.

You should still have a list of skills in your CV to ensure it passes automatic application systems, but make sure that your job details your responsibilities so that employers can ascertain a fair idea of what you have actually done and are capable of achieving. This will speak volumes more than a multitude of buzzwords without evidence. Listing some of your responsibilities is okay, but an employer is going to be more impressed with how you met these responsibilities, what targets you achieved and what growth you have contributed to.

Put your work first

This is an area that allows for some discretion in the format of your CV. When you were still in the spring of your career and have recently graduated, your education would have been the main selling point in your CV. Once you have accumulated years of experience and achievements, you can choose to move your education experience after your work experience. The way your CV is organized signifies which sections of your CV are most important.

Polish and shine

When you were fresh meat in the job market, there were a lot of things you could get away with. For instance, sharing certain personal details such as hobbies and interests or embellishing your CV with personal touches. For someone in the beginning of their career, this can be chalked off as creative. But, once you are moving up the career ladder, you will need to polish everything and ensure your CV is more professional than quirky. Make sure your email address is professional and clear. It is best to opt for an email address that solely features your name. If you can’t bag that email, then you can add a relevant number, hyphen or underscore.

The second-most important thing to make sure you don’t look inexperienced is having a professional-looking CV photograph. Your CV photograph should be a simple headshot with either a smile or straight-faced expression. It should also have a plain background and feature you dressed in professional attire. You will want to provide a neutral, professional first impression. Selfies, mirror shots or otherwise unprofessional pictures are better left for social media.

With the assistance of some polishing up and a change of perspective, you can take your CV to the next level with ease. The main thing you need to guarantee is that your CV is focused, accomplishment-oriented and polished. Then, your experience can do the talking for you. If you’re still struggling with the idea of writing a golden mid-career CV, you can always opt for a professionally written CV that is sure to knock the employer’s socks off.