How to write a great Contractor CV

A guide for contractors – how to write a great contractor CV.

You decided to apply for contract job and next step is to write your CV.

We mentioned some differences between permanent job and contract job CV’s – but here are more detailed steps for writing your first contractor CV.

Firstly, give yourself some time to write really good CV – after all your CV is one of the most important tools to landing the role.

The time that recruiters and potential clients have is really short and there will be a lot of other CV’s so take your time and write the best CV you can, highlighting and pulling out your major selling points to the contract job role.

The structure of your CV is important – here are some steps that will help you get that job:

Step 1P: Personal information and contact details

You should start with a short paragraph about you in general, and your name, full address, telephone, email…. Your contact details should be right near the top, so potential clients do not have to search for those over three or four pages of your CV.

The short paragraph should be an attention grabber that sells you and your skills – and says to the reader “read on!”…

Step 2): Summary

Include the professional summary right after your personal information. This is in addition to your attention grabber!

Make it relevant and do your best to make a client or recruiter want to read further. Summarise why your are the one for the contract job! The first page of your CV will get you to the interview.

Explain what your values are and why they should hire you for that job. Here you should add the top skills and strengths relevant for the specific job. Explain the benefits of your strengths and how that will affect the client’s business.

Step 3): Achievements

Your client wants to know what you can do and they want you to prove that. So pick up the most relevant achievements and explain what you have done and how that helped previous clients.

Step 4): Education

After you grabbed their attention you can now go into the details. Write about your education and qualifications.

List your highest qualifications first, including full name of institutions and dates.

You can include relevant courses, language fluency, things you can and know how to do.

Step 5): Previous experience

List your employers and positions in reverse chronological order. Emphasize the relevant positions, and if you have a long career, but don’t want to write ten pages of experience you can write about the most relevant jobs, skipping the irrelevant ones.

Describe each employer and role briefly. Give a description of what you were responsible for and highlight some key achievements and responsibilities.

Step 6): Content and formatting

Everything you’ve achieved will be forgotten if your CV is full of grammatical errors. Always double check the language and grammar.

Choose strong and powerful words and statements, back everything up with evidence.

Write in the third person, it will help you to express your skills and achievements without sounding too bragging.

Use font that is suitable and easy to read.

Format it, choose good layout, use bold and bullets to emphasize the relevant information, and make it look professional.

Step 7): Make it relevant for each role

Change your CV for each role. Highlight the most relevant skills, experiences and achievements. Address each client carefully, give them what they need.

Step 8): Do not include

Maybe you will be tempted to show the employee what great person you are and include your hobbies and photos in CV, but you should keep it professional.

They need the job get done and they are not interested in your pets, kids, travels, hobbies, political preferences, personal opinions… So there is no need to include any of it in your CV.

Contractor CV done for you!

If you would like a professional contractor CV done for you, then visit the following link, and simply submit your CV details to receive your completed CV!

Contract CV done-for-you! – coming soon!