CV writing tips for CX professionals - part 1

How do you get your CV to reflect you as a person as well as a professional without ‘adding personality’ with offputting novelties which will probably get you discarded altogether?

This is a great question!  

You know that it’s unlikely that the hiring manager or talent specialist will have much time to look at every CV, so how do you create a fast impression of being an approachable subject matter expert used to being the go-to person in the business for their subject?  

As every CX professional knows, two of the most important strengths all successful CX execs share are problem solving, and stakeholder influencing.  

And yet, many CX professionals see this as so completely obvious that they do not need to spell it out on their CVs! Seriously – you really must!

You can and should list these in your Skills section – but additionally a great way to really emphasise these and bring them to life is to round out and humanise the Education and Professional Achievement section on your CV.  Of course, first of all we need to see your qualifications here – your degree, MA, MBA other professional accreditations.  

But have you ever:

• Published an article
• Written a book
• Reviewed a book
• Been interviewed
• Won an award
• Judged an award
• Caired a round table
• Facilitated workshops
• Represented your company at an industry event
• Been quoted in an industry magazine

Cast your mind back for any and all of these experiences.  

All of these present you as a subject matter expert who is approachable, articulate and a good human to have around. It’s a very powerful and very underused framing tool which is easy to add – you’ve already done the work here, now are just listing it out on your CV.  

And if you don’t already have this collateral... start creating! Write something now which reflects your thoughts or experiences on a relevant subject, and send it to your industry media, as well as MyCustomer of course!

So to sum up – 

1. Make sure your skills section includes Problem Solving and Stakeholder Influencing.
2. Add proof of your subject matter expertise into your Professional Qualifications section.

For more advice or to have a chat about the market in general – or of course if you are recruiting in Customer Experience - please get in touch with Kate Baird or Jo van Riemsdijk at CX Talent Ltd – and there’s lots more information on our website completely free of charge.  

www.cxtalent.co.uk / [email protected] / [email protected]

More CX recruitment tips to come - watch this space!