The CV - the first and most important step
Friday, January 22nd, 2010Every Regional Manager in every one of the Pharmaceutical, Generic, Medical Consumable and Medical Device companies receives on average 25 CVs for each advertised Medical Sales Role.
How will your CV stand out?
Why will the he or she read YOUR CV?
What difference will having a great CV make?
Let’s start by looking at what exactly a CV is.
A CV is an advertisement for you. It contains all your personal details, your educational achievements, a record of your employment history or career to date and an outline of your key skills and personal attributes.
Sounds like a boring list, doesn’t it?
It need not be and it should not be.
Let’s start at the beginning again.
Your CV is your first opportunity to impress. It should emphasize your strengths and abilities. It should outline in some detail why you are the ideal person for this job based on your educational qualifications and relevant experience.
The CV should be well laid out, aesthetically pleasing, typed in an interesting but conventional font, reasonable size (12pt is ideal) and ideally no more than two pages long.
Start with personal details at the top of first page. Confine yourself to Name, Address, Tel number and Email address. There is no need for Date of Birth, Marital Status and Driving licence in this section.
INTRODUCTION
In one or two sentences tell the interviewer why YOU are the most suitable candidate for the job, what three skills you would bring to the role and why you want the job.
PERSONAL PROFILE
In five bullet points summarize your experience to date, your achievements and your strong personal qualities. e.g. 2007 Representative of the year, 2008 Highest monthly sales ever recorded for Product X
KEY SKILLS
In five bullet points list your readily transferable skills that you think might be key to this job. e.g. Organizational skills, planning skills, selling skills, sound scientific and medical knowledge
CAREER HISTORY
This section is your opportunity to elaborate and explain in detail what you have been doing and what you have achieved since you left school/third level education.
If you have been working for ten or more years or had more than two employers then only give a detailed account of your last job and mere details of the previous jobs.
Give:
Title of Role: e.g. Medical Sales Representative
Company:
Territory Covered:
Products detailed:
Customer base: GPs/Retail Pharmacists/Hospitals etc
Key Achievements: e.g. Targets met and exceeded (give figures in percentages)
Knowledege and experience acquired:
Reason for leaving:
Always be honest as to why you are leaving or have left your last role. You will be very surprised how people will react to honesty.
For your second and third last role(s) just give bare details. You can expand on them at interview.
INTERESTS
In this section you need only briefly mention interests, hobbies and sports you like to play that you really do play and enjoy.
REFERENCES
It is enough at this stage to say that references are available on request
Details of you referees may be supplied at the very end of the selection process. You do not want an employer being made aware that you are looking for another job and equally well you do not want referees approached until you have asked their permission to quote them as referees.
Your CV is now complete.
To return to our original questions:
How will your CV stand out?
YOUR CV will stand out by being well laid out, easy to read, brief, bright, energetic and confident (it needs to reflect YOU)
Why will the he or she read YOUR CV?
Because it is very interesting, the first two sections have caught the attention of the reader and drawn them into the main section of YOUR CV.
What difference will having a great CV make?
All the difference in the world. A great CV will lead to an interview and then YOU will get the opportunity to shine like a beacon, stand out from the crowd by a country mile and you won’t just kill the opposition - you will BURY them!
Good Luck Now!