Writing a CV When You Have a Lot of Experience

1- You need to know which experiences to highlight!
It is essential to know the relevance of past experiences for the targeted position and, above all, to know your strengths and weaknesses. Prioritizing experiences is very important because having ten years of experience doesn't justify a five-page document.
Therefore, you must choose which experiences to highlight, generally those that lasted the longest. Knowing your strengths allows senior candidates to avoid downplaying the skills they have acquired.


2- Tangible and factual elements to demonstrate your expertise
Thus, to demonstrate expertise, a candidate with solid experience is strongly advised to rely directly on truly tangible and factual elements. For example, if you have had significant experience in a sales position, it may be interesting to highlight figures that measure your performance, such as revenue and margin growth. Similarly, if you are applying for a management position, consider detailing your contributions to the company, remembering to highlight concrete figures, such as productivity growth.

3- Junior/Senior Contrast 
Francis Kirschving, director of the Objectifs RH firm, says that "it is only when the candidate has become aware of their strengths and weaknesses that they can properly sell themselves on their CV."

While a junior will highlight their education, particularly their impressive degree, which they undoubtedly worked hard to obtain, a senior might neglect this section in favor of the "professional experience" section alone.

But a senior candidate would make a big mistake by focusing solely on their experience. Of course, this should appear first on the CV, but nothing prevents a senior from mentioning their education. While it's true that, due to the evolution of higher education (particularly the LMD reform), a degree obtained 15 or 20 years ago doesn't necessarily mean much, don't forget to specify all the training followed in the company.

Any advanced training course followed as part of continuing education can be relevant. For example, someone wanting a management position could highlight the fact that they completed a three-day conflict management training course; this can only add weight to their application.

That being said, without dwelling too long on this training, still consider explaining in a few words what you learned; it will help the recruiter...

Finally, note that the "miscellaneous" section is unfairly neglected, when it is not simply omitted, by senior candidates. Yet, as Francis Kirschving points out, "hobbies, membership in an association or a sports club are all elements that deserve to be highlighted and humanize a CV."


In conclusion, even if it's normal to want to highlight your experience, you must ensure that the CV doesn't become solely a "catalog" of positions held, which may not necessarily interest the recruiter. Therefore, you shouldn't neglect other sections that will give more depth to your CV.

Source: www.dogfinance.com


Stepstone.fr