Advice on CV required please...

[andyandy]

Any feedback would be greatfully received!!!


Personal Statement

I am confident, enthusiastic and self-motivated with the ability to multi-task, delegate effectively and I have a strong work ethic. To achieve maximum potential from my role I strive to employ creative techniques in the workplace whilst developing my personal skills and therefore benefit the organisation. I take every opportunity to develop my skills and to train those that will benefit from my knowledge and experience

Employment

Aug '06 to Present – xxx – Product Mgr

Product Manager responsible for delivering Careers Guidance Services to students, graduates, University Careers Advisory Services and corporate organisations.

Key responsibilities:

• Set marketing objectives and sales targets for student facing, university facing and business to business portfolios and develop strategies to achieve targets and develop products and services. This is worked to strict deadlines and budgets.
• Project management of student facing events, liaising with IT, Marcomms and sales teams.
• Planning and executing marketing plans to reach objectives, such as increasing guidance service sales by 100% in 12 months, by analysing sales, click through rates and page impressions.
• Develop relationships and networks within the Higher Education community.
• Planning and executing e-mail campaigns for the student, graduate and business markets.
• Attend exhibitions and conferences to improve knowledge, develop new contacts and raise awareness of GP, often presenting on topics such as Web 2.0, virtual recruitment and E-Guidance.
• Write and deliver software training to careers services, enabling them to use careers guidance software and communicate with students more effectively.
• Investigate new markets and business opportunities for potential licensees of GP software.

July '05 to Aug '06 – xxx – Sales Development Manager

Part of a team of Sales Development Managers recruited to help a start-up student mobile phone network. A hands-on approach was required in order to motivate staff and to provide the opportunity to develop their skills. Development of local and regional marketing strategies and maintaining an efficient sales team were essential to regularly meet and exceed sales targets where possible.
Key responsibilities:

• In this role I was responsible for negotiating marketing agreements to work in partnership with Universities.
• Recruiting and training sales teams comprising of students across a number of University campuses.
• Full responsibility was given to me to lead teams of UK and international students in such a way that monthly targets and key performance indicators were exceeded.
• Organising student events to raise company profile and collect sales leads.

July '04 to July '05 - xxx Students' Union - Vice-President Executive Team

Elected by the student body as Vice-President of Academic Affairs.

Key responsibilities:

• Facilitating the course representative system (approximately 1,200 representatives) and the design and administration of their training programmes;
• Active and full member of University Board and its sub-committees as well as regular liaison with Senior Management;
• Run marketing campaigns promoting University services to current and prospective students;
• Arranging and overseeing pre-entry student/parent events, deliver talks and lead campus tours;
• Recruiting and interviewing new staff;
• Achieving 60% completion of an internal and external survey issued to 36,000 students.

Education
'07 – '08 Chartered Institute of Marketing Dip Pass
P/t study
‘00 – ‘04 xxx 2:2
BA (Hons) International Tourism Management
‘98 – ‘00 xxx
A-levels Art & Design C
General Studies B
Geography C
Physics C
Young Enterprise Qualification PASS
‘93 – ‘98 xxx
10 GCSE's (Incl. Eng & Maths) Grades A* - C

Personal Skills and Interests

Health & Safety Health and safety at work CIEH basic certificate obtained.
Computing I am a very competent user of Windows, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio and Access. ECDL qualification.
Sports 11 a-side football, 5-a-side football, rugby and golf. I regularly represented my school in rugby and football, as well as playing for my local football team.
Other interests I am regularly involved with charity fundraising and also train at the local gym.

[Pauloz]

andyandy

Hate to say this, but you have here a great HR CV, but not a Product Manager CV. A lay person could get lost, and so could someone doing a cull.

There's a lot of management and marketing, but not a lot of product definition.

This gives a hint about your actual abilities and your product:

• Set marketing objectives and sales targets for student facing, university facing and business to business portfolios and develop strategies to achieve targets and develop products and services. This is worked to strict deadlines and budgets.

Product development... see what I'm getting at? This is mainly marketing, not strictly in the product line. Then it gets mixed up with the students' products, and how your product works with them.

Note: Don't use words like "facing" unless you're sure the reader will get them.Generic expressions like "develop strategies to achieve targets and develop products and services" will bounce off some readers because they're not specific.

The marketing stuff is thorough, and if you're going for marketing, fine. But if you're talking about hard product and services, it's not there.

Excuse a bit of possibly turgid, but honest, nitpicking, but I think you're missing some major sales points in this CV, and adding some slightly confusing information. This is the entry that's bothering me.

Aug '06 to Present – xxx – Product Mgr

Product Manager responsible for delivering Careers Guidance Services to students, graduates, University Careers Advisory Services and corporate organisations.

Now: Am I right in assuming the CG services are the products? If so, this is a fairly long piece of string, isn't it? I'd define this into streams or categories, whatever's appropriate, but pin down what you're delivering.

Key responsibilities:

These need to be in context with the CG services functions. The trouble with HR style terminology is that everything sounds like a workshop, not a practical exercise. All this is being done in the name of students creating product, right?

• Set marketing objectives and sales targets for student facing, university facing and business to business portfolios and develop strategies to achieve targets and develop products and services. This is worked to strict deadlines and budgets.

• Project management of student facing events, liaising with IT, Marcomms and sales teams.
• Planning and executing marketing plans to reach objectives, such as increasing guidance service sales by 100% in 12 months, by analysing sales, click through rates and page impressions.
• Develop relationships and networks within the Higher Education community.

You see what I mean? If the reader doesn't know what the students' products are, or what you're providing as a service, this is missing the target.


• Planning and executing e-mail campaigns for the student, graduate and business markets.
• Attend exhibitions and conferences to improve knowledge, develop new contacts and raise awareness of GP, often presenting on topics such as Web 2.0, virtual recruitment and E-Guidance.
• Write and deliver software training to careers services, enabling them to use careers guidance software and communicate with students more effectively.
• Investigate new markets and business opportunities for potential licensees of GP software.

These are more about your product, not the students'. Really, I'd go for a rethink about how you express your own product.

You have obviously achieved a lot, but this misrepresents your work.

Start with "This is what I do". Then bring in the achievements, detailing what your product did, and how it performed.

I grew up in an ad agency. I recognize the marketing elements. I know where you're coming from, but remember, not everyone speaks the language. Spell it out, on any CV you do.

Also remember that no two jobs are alike, and the CV will need some tuning with each app you make. We actively try to prevent people from using a One Size Fits All CV. The fact is that the One Size fits nothing, and usually misses essentials.

Actually your marketing experience will get you through this quite easily.

You're targeting a specific market with your CV.

What have they asked for, and what do they need to know?
How do you present competitively, to that target?

Use your professional instincts, just untangle that lot. You've got heaps of good copy there. I'd suggest trying a draft, targeted to the sort of job ad you're thinking of approaching.

[amber29]

Hiya,
I had a similiar problem, where my CV was not even getting a look in! Never heard back from anyone at the time.

My firiend got there CV 're-vamped' by a professional company and it looked good! Though I had never thought about doing it before I decided to give it a whirl and ended up landing me a job 2 weeks later! the website is www.cvandcareerexperts.com - might be worth giving them a shot?

[raaboo]

OKay,

I briefly looked at the above and some advice for you....

Firstly, look at ways to cut down the CV wording, a CV that is too 'wordy' can put people off.

Cut the the point at the begiining of the CV - summarise what you are looking for in future roles and what you have that makes you unique and employable above everyone else.

Avoid common statements - you would not believe the amount of CV's that begin with:

I am confident, enthusiastic and self-motivated with the ability to multi-task, delegate effectively and I have a strong work ethic

or similar.

another common statement -

Computing I am a very competent user of Windows, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio and Access. ECDL qualification

very run of the mill - try something like:
ECDL qualified with working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite