FEATURED ARTICLE

CVs

CVs

You may think that once you’re done with job interviews or you’re self-employed then you will never need a CV again. But think again! CVs are an incredibly important part of the tendering process. They need to be thorough, up-to-date and relevant, and formatted appropriately.

CVs constitute the way the majority of buyers will look to identify your staff, assess their skills, qualifications and experience, and decide partially based on that. Buyers not only like but need to identify who does what in your organisation and look at the unique skills and experience each team member can bring to a project. Indeed, CVs are a great way to supplement your efforts to showcase the unique elements your team can bring to the table that other teams cannot. So, getting CVs right will really help you sell yourselves, and overall, help your case for winning the contract.

To help buyers identify all the things they want to see, all of your staff CVs should be formatted in a consistent fashion. This will make your team’s particular skills and experience stand out and to make the document easier for the buyer to read and digest.

Important things to ensure you have on a CV include:

  • qualifications
  • Official accreditations/certifications
  • Eelevant skills
  • Education history
  • Experience,
  • And, of course, full name and up-to-date contact details.

It is also usually a good idea to include a smart but friendly photograph of each team member on their respective resumés, against a neutral background. Therefore allowing buyers to put faces to the names they will be reading so much about!

For the sake of accuracy and thoroughness, we would usually recommend your staff to provide you with their own information regarding individual experience and qualifications and you work to develop these into high-quality and consistent company-branded CVs.

Despite the amount of work that needs to be put into a good, polished CV, and the amount of content each requires, it is very important to make sure your CV is not too long. Very few buyers will have the time or inclination to sift through reams and reams of information just to find the important parts. Hence, your CVs must be focused and concise, yet thorough. Mainly, so that the buyer can see the important details about experience, qualifications and skills straight away.

It is usually a good idea to limit a CV to one side of A4 or two, at a maximum. Especially, if you have a lot of relevant information to detail. And of course, relevant is the keyword! A buyer probably won’t care if John from the Quantity Surveying department was Head of the Debating club at University! But they will care if he is a CSCS registered professional (for example).

How to perfect it:

Moreover, different sectors and organisations can present CVs in different ways. You need to be discerning and select the most appropriate way to present the information you have. This is dependent upon what your organisation does and the work for which you are bidding. For example, if you’re a creative agency and are bidding for video production or content production, it would be a good idea to do a video rather than a written CV, to showcase your creative credentials. Always think outside the box when you’re formatting your CVs.

Make sure to include the same things in a CV whether it be video, written or otherwise. Buyers need to see your experience, career history and key skills no matter which format you choose.

Always remember that whatever medium you choose for your CV, branding is a great idea. It looks neat, uniform and professional when your CVs all use standardised company branding in a subtle and distinctive way.

Top tips for a perfectly polished CV:

  • Accuracy – make sure all information you provide is relevant and up to date.
  • Precision– get to the point, don’t hide unique skills and impressive qualifications behind a cloud of rhetoric.
  • Relevance – Provide only information relevant to the work for which you are bidding; this may involve tweaking your CVs every time you bid for work. Also, provide it in the format that the buyer is requesting (if stated).
  • Uniformity– If you intend to brand your CVs make sure the branding is consistent across the board and that all logos included are the same colour, size and sharp and are placed in the same position. This will help your CVs look smart, professional and incredibly sleek.
  • Format appropriateness – a video CV might not be the best method of presentation for an accountancy or logistics firm but would be ideal for a creative agency.
  • Succinctness – more is less, the buyer will thank you for not providing paragraph upon paragraph for them to trawl through.

If you require any further information, please don’t hesitate to contact our Tender Consultants team who will happily work with you and your team to develop these.

Better yet, this is included in our Tender Ready and Tender Improvement programmes, ensuring you have highly-detailed CVs across your organisation.

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