Case study 4 : Two diverse jobs

Most people usually only have one general career direction on their CV, for example something focused on sales, IT, accounting etc. Now and again clients will come to us looking for two different kinds of jobs, but it is usually within the same sector. For example, IT developer and IT project manager.

Occasionally however, clients come to us who have two very different jobs mixed together on the same CV. This usually doesn’t do them any favours, as it just comes across as all muddled and sends out mixed messages; not the strong and focused message of specialism that is needed in today’s competitive job market.

Maria is a case in point. When she came to us she was working in two very different part-time jobs simultaneously, the first as a Mandarin teacher both in schools and on a private basis, and the second job involved promoting a retail business in Europe and Asia (particularly China).

As you can imagine, her original CV was very confusing, and really was neither one thing nor the other. Effectively it was in no man’s land. It was therefore no surprise that her original CV had not been successful in her many applications.

Maria said that she still wanted to pursue jobs in both sectors. In cases like this a general CV wasn’t really going to help her achieve that, so what we did for Maria was to create two separate CVs; one focused purely on Mandarin teaching in Europe, and the other aimed towards business development roles in China. To this aim she provided details of jobs in China that she both was interested in, and met the criteria for.

Initially she was somewhat unsure about what role she wanted to target in China, primarily because she had quite a varied skill set, and said she could turn her hand to a number of roles. Some clients need additional career help and advice, and we were happy to advise Maria. Upon speaking to her it transpired that she did a lot more for the retail company than she had mentioned on her original CV. Not only that, but she had achieved more than she seemed to realise herself. So we were able to not only draw out (and highlight) more achievements, but we were also able to substantiate these achievements and optimise this second CV towards the new target job.

Most people do not realise just what is involved with CV writing at the top level, and consequently don’t really know just what is possible with a lot of experience and a sprinkling of originality, creativity and natural writing talent.

In this case, Maria was delighted that the solution fitted her needs, and exceeded all her expectations. Like many, Maria wasn’t really aware of just what was possible, until we presented her with a much better solution.

Afterwards she said this:

“Thank you again for your wonderful service. You are the best.
I will definitely recommend your service to my family and friends.”

Maria, Portugal

< Case study 3 (Career Change CV)

Paul (182 Posts)

Paul , top UK CV specialist, head of leading firm CV Succeed, and author of the most pioneering CV book in decades, The One Page CV (published by top career sector publishers Pearson Education).


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