My last pro tip for writing a CV Personal Profile that makes an Impacting First Impression is another small change which can have a big impact. I have called it Further Impact and it is rarely used. Make sure you use this tactic (along with the other 4 writing tactics) as it will help you stand out from competing candidates.

Let’s look into the Further Impact writing tactic. 

#4 Further Impact

In my previous blog post regarding adding your Best Achievement to your CV Profile, I used the examples below to demonstrate a great way to do this:

“One of my greatest achievements has been leading a national project to improve customer reviews of our services, which resulted in a 50% increase in bookings further leading to the expansion of our operations.”

“One of my greatest achievements has been leading world class projects for our clients involved in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which resulted in boosting our client’s revenue by over 300%.”

Notice that the candidate has not just listed an achievement, but has highlighted the impact their achievement has had on the bigger picture. This is a tactic I call “Further Impact”.

This example shows the reader that the candidate is fully aware of the impact their work has on the bigger picture, which is a FANTASTIC selling point for any employer. How passionate does this candidate come across? Would you want to interview someone who demonstrated their awareness for the bigger picture?

It’s one thing to know what your results were. Keeping a brag file or a record of your results and achievements is a good thing to do (and still many candidates do not do that!), but a great thing to do is to know and understand what impact your results had on the bigger picture. 

Remember it’s not enough for you to know that the bigger picture is important, we all know that the bigger picture is important. Many of you are fully aware of the impact your work has on the bigger picture of your companies success, but you need to demonstrate that you know this. You need to tell the reader of your CV that you are focused on the bigger picture. You can’t just hope that they will assume this about you no matter how much experience you have gained – always demonstrate what you know to a reader by writing it down in your CV.

So if you have not thought about this before and you’re wondering how to work what the Further Impact of your work was, then ask yourself questions like this:

• Did your work create additional opportunities? What were those opportunities? (for the company or for others)
• Did your work lead to gaining additional clients? (maybe due to a referral or a good reviews)
• How many additional clients did you gain as a result of your achievement?
• Did your achievement lead to repeat business? Perhaps even repeat business for larger projects or larger orders? What was the impact of those? How big were those projects or orders? (summarise using percentages and figures)
• Did your work create additional revenue? What did that additional revenue do for the business?
• Did your work cause an increase in demand for your products or services? How much of an increase?

By demonstrating that you are fully aware of the impact your work had on the companies you have worked for, you are showing the reader of your CV that you’re not just someone who does the bare minimum effort. You’re demonstrating that you are proud of the great work you do, that you think about how your work will affect others, and you’re demonstrating a real commercial awareness.  

You could also use this writing tactic to highlight a particularly successful project or piece of work, which would encourage the reader of your CV to ask further about it during the interview stage. This is a strategy used in CV Writing in itself and I will show you how to write a CV which sets up the interview in your favour, and helps focus the interview on the topics you would prefer to discuss rather than be taken by surprise with questions you were unable to prepare for. Keep an eye on a blog for this post as it’s gonna make a real difference to your success with interviews.

Thanks for reading this short 4 part series! Check back for our latest career advice posts and do feel free to contact me if you have any questions about anything you have read.