InsightCV
Your Professional Career Counselling Service
Why do I need a CV?
Many people believe a CV is only needed for a job search.
But the CV adds value for your career development even if you are satisfied with your work and you are not looking for a change of company or organization.
1. Do I really need a CV?
Your CV, which is an abbreviation of Curriculum Vitae – meaning in English, course of life, is your personal account of how your career has developed up to the present time.
It describes your education, work history and accomplishments, including any published papers, reports, and books, and highlights the completion of significant employment tasks.
2. The CV and the Job Description
Your CV is different from a series of job descriptions because the CV emphasizes how you completed the assigned tasks.
Especially important are:
a. how did you identify the key issues
b. how did you analyze them
c. how did you use your experience and skills and the resources at your disposal to deal with the most difficult problems and solve them
d. How did you quantify the benefits of your work in statistical terms.
The tasks assigned to you may have been part of a larger project and in this case, you should state how the completion of the tasks assigned to you contributed to the successful completion of the larger project.
3. The value of the CV in career development
A significant advantage of your CV is the value it can bring to your bi-annual or annual performance review.
Your CV should help focus the performance review towards your key strengths, including your creative thinking and problem-solving abilities, as well as your soft-skills such as social skills, empathy and integrity.
This should enable you to discuss how you contributed to the success of your group and to your company/ organization. In addition, you should be able to express what you have done on your own initiative to develop new skills. Then you should be able to express what you believe could be useful in terms of future in-company training and professional development, which could lead to a future promotion or to a career move within the company.
Not all bosses find the staff performance review discussions easy for them, even when the review has been structured by the human resource department in terms of forms and questions. Bringing your personal achievements to the review meeting can help your boss with their task., and consequently help to ensure a result that you feel is fair and reasonable.
4. The value of the CV in dealing with foreseen and unforeseen circumstances
In the ever-changing economic conditions around the world, job security is not the same as it has been in the past. While many industries and work disciplines are expanding and new employment opportunities are being created, others may be stabilizing or even contracting.
Some highly successful companies have started reviewing and reducing their workforces. In addition, traditional and family-owned companies that have been operating successfully for decades can also be affected. This may be due to many different reasons but one reason increasingly in the news is the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Employees at all levels and ages may be impacted by the changes. However, downsizing may be more devastating or troublesome for members of the workforce over a certain age and especially those who have stayed with the same employer for decades with the expectation that their employment will be secure until they reach retirement age. If they are faced with sudden redundancy and the need to search for a new job, the job-searching process can be especially daunting.
The discipline of keeping a CV up to date will help them to identify benefits they have produced and this will help them to be able to create a resume illustrating real achievements and the application of knowledge and skills that will be necessary if they find themselves unexpectedly unemployed.
5. The Benefits
Once you have started the CV preparation you will see the benefits for yourself and realize how your self-analysis and self-assessment creates a personal marketing of your skills and abilities.
Understanding your achievements can help increase your personal satisfaction, fulfillment and happiness, while you are working.
This is why we recommend that you should maintain a CV even if you are satisfied with your work and with your current employer.
