How to Upgrade Your CV for a Manager Position

When you first graduated from university, the chances are that someone from careers services provided you with a standard CV format to use as you prepared to secure your first position in the “real world.” Now that you have a few years of solid work experience in your field of choice and are pursuing manager-level positions, it’s time to update your CV from its entry-level format to something that properly showcases the management skills and abilities you’ve worked so hard to obtain.   

The process can seem a bit daunting, but once you know some of the most practical strategies to use, adapting your CV for management roles becomes a lot easier.

With that in mind, here are simple ways that you can tailor your CV for management roles!

1. Highlight credentials at the top

If you’ve graduated from university, earned an advanced degree, or completed another type of certification that is considered to be a valuable qualification for the role you’re pursuing, add the post-nominals for these credentials to the top of the CV, just after your name.

By placing this important information towards the top of your CV, you’re ensuring that HR managers don’t accidentally overlook this valuable selling point during their initial review.

2. Highlight your transferable achievements

Achievements are practical evidence of this. They demonstrate your success as an employee, as well as how well you can use your skills to bring about a positive change. They’re things that you are personally responsible for that have created a positive effect on your organization. No matter what your skill or experience, you will have at least one achievement in a role that you can point to in a CV.

But how can you highlight management achievements if you don’t have any management experience? The trick is to highlight achievements that demonstrate transferable skills for the role.

3. Optimise your CV with keywords

Many organizations use software known as applicant tracking systems (ATS) to pre-screen online applications, sort them, and store them in a digital database. Recruiters can then search this database using keywords such as specific skills, qualifications, or job titles to create a shortlist of applicants.

If you want to ensure your CV receives proper consideration for the manager role you’re targeting, it’s important to optimise your entire CV with the right keywords. Pay particular attention to the information you include within the top third of your CV, such as your personal profile and your areas of emphasis.

Not only will the keywords you place in these sections help to make your CV more searchable, but it will also catch recruiters’ eyes early on.

4. Include links to relevant sites with contact information

If you work in a creative field (e.g. filmmaking, music production, advertising, writing, product development, design, photography, and other arts) where the fruits of your labors are best presented with audio or visual aides, consider creating a blog, portfolio or other online galleries to showcase your talents. Then, include the URL to this website at the top of your CV, near your other contact information. If you work in a field that’s not as creative, simply include a customized link to your LinkedIn profile.

5. Feature education at the end

Once you’ve been working for a few years, it’s time to shift the education section of your CV to the end of your document. When you first graduated from university, your new degree was one of your strongest selling points. As a result, this information was placed towards the top of your CV where it was sure to receive proper attention from recruiters. However, now that you’ve been in the workforce for a while, your recent experience and the management skills and abilities you’ve developed during that time should take center stage.

Ready to take your management CV to the next level? Consult our professional CV writing services today.

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