Your Corporate CV – 10 Top Tips to make it Stand Out from the Crowd

If you work in a corporate environment, you are going to need a Corporate CV. At some point you will have to submit your CV for use in a sales pitch. And, at that point, you need to be ready with a CV that is fit for purpose. Whatever stage we are at in our careers, by following a few tried and trusted techniques we can all come up with a CV that make us stand out from the crowd and helps win that job.

Writing a Corporate CV is different from writing an open market CV (one where you as an individual are applying for a job). For this article, we shall stick to what applies in the Corporate world. Whilst there are some clear crossovers, there are also some big differences.

You should be clear about what your CV is for in this context. It will be part of a bid document. So, this is not just about you. How crucial the team selection is in the bidding process will determine if your CV is a big deal or not. The chances are that in most cases, there will be other determining factors in the bid process which rank higher than team selection. This is a major difference between your Corporate CV and an open market one. In the former you can hide amongst all the other stuff, in the later you are completely out in the open. So, whilst there may be slightly less scrutiny in the corporate bid, you still need to get your CV right.


Your CV is unique to you. No one else will have the exact same blend of skills and experience as you. And, you are the expert, on you! This is your chance to showcase your talent. Get it right and it may well open a world of opportunity. Get it wrong, and you risk not only losing the pitch, but damaging your own reputation in the process. Make no mistake, your Corporate CV is an important document to get as right as possible.
So, here are 10 Top Tips to help create your perfect Corporate CV.

1. Be Honest
Always. So, let us be clear. If you are not being honest, then you are lying. Lying is morally and professionally wrong. And, just in case you are wondering, lying in a CV is a criminal offence within the terms of the Fraud Act 2006, with a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. Wow. But there is worse. If you are not honest in your CV, you will be found out. At best you simply will not get recruited (the recruiter will politely give you your allotted time and then get you out of the door). Or you will get totally humiliated by the recruiter (think Apprentice style). (Ok, this is less likely in the Corporate situation, but it is so important as to worth a mention here.) Even if you get past the recruitment stage you will get found out when in post and you fail to deliver and will face the wrath of your colleagues who must cover for you. So, be honest, always!

2. Make it Personal
Remember, that your CV is about you, whoever the audience is. At the end of reading it, a hirer needs to feel they know you better, and has a clear picture of your capabilities relative to the tasks they are hiring for. So, do not be tempted to big up your CV by adding lots of spurious facts about past projects or clients. Mention a client name but leave it at that. You are selling you, not that client, so never be tempted to add biographical detail of the companies you have worked for, it is simply not relevant and a mere page filler. If it is not relevant to you, leave it out.

3. Avoid listing out Job Descriptions
The same goes for lengthy descriptions of the Responsibilities you had in past jobs. If I am hiring a Project Manager, I know what a Project Manager does, I do not need to see your last Job Description detailed out. I am a lot more interested in what you did relative to those tasks/responsibilities. Believe me, I have seen so many CVs where, by the time you strip out project/client facts and responsibilities, there is little or nothing left of the CV other than a name, job title and some qualifications. I feel I know the person no better than when I started.

4. Be positive about your achievements
So, if you are now sitting there having stripped away most of your precious CV in line with the last two points, you may be scratching your head and thinking how do I show what I can do? Let us be honest (Rule 1 please), it can be hard to show case your talent, particularly if your experience is limited and you are new to a role. So, here is one simple trick that anyone can use, at any stage of your career. Change the emphasis from a Responsibilities orientated CV to an Achievements orientated CV. What did you achieve? Were you successful? What Challenges did you face? How did you overcome those Challenges?
Consider the following – “I delivered the project on time, to budget and to the required quality standards”. Great, well done, you did your job. Now, consider the following – “I successfully delivered the project on time, to budget and to the required quality standards against the backdrop of an evolving and changing client brief that saw 100 change orders”. Wow, now I am interested!!

5. Be Clear and Concise
Try to avoid ambiguous statements. If you say you were the Project Manager for a multi-million-pound project, were you really? Or were you a Project Manager as part of a Project Management team? One small word and it makes a world of difference. Believe me you will get found out and will be an unpleasant experience. Best to avoid ambiguity, keep it clear. And where you can, keep it concise. Your CV is not your corporate life story, more an overview and highlighting the best bits. For your Corporate CV, never more than 2 pages.

6. Check your facts
If you are going to use statements of fact to bolster up your position and back up your achievements, make sure they can stand up to scrutiny. If you use facts which are in the public domain, they can be checked. If you use facts that are not public knowledge make sure they sound credible and you can back them up. Good facts used well will support you. Spurious claims will not, and you will get found out.

7. Check your spelling and grammar
Your CV is probably the first thing a hirer will see of you. And based on it, the hirer will form a first impression. Do you want to create an impression of a competent professional person who has taken time to get their own presentation right? Or that of someone who hasn’t bothered to check what they are presenting? Your CV is the most important personal document you have in your armoury to get right. So always check spelling and grammar. Also, don’t use acronyms as if everyone knows them, assume they don’t. By all means use an acronym but spell it out first. And, if you are blessed with membership of a professional body, get the name right. Know your ‘Institute’ from your ‘Institution, for instance.

8. Make it Relevant
Whilst your Corporate CV is always going to be in sector and a reasonable fit of the project requirements, it may need tailoring to suit the particular requirements of any given project. For example, if your background is primarily the Project Management of residential buildings and the project is for an office restack, you may want to turn down the residential element and turn up the office restack element in your CV. This is not always easy, particularly as it must be done strictly in accordance with Rule 1. No CV will ever fit all roles, it will usually need to be tailored to fit.

9. Follow a template
We have particularly not focused on how your Corporate CV should be formatted ie. how it should look, what fonts to use or not use, the use of photographs, paragraph justification and so on. This is because in most Corporate CV situations you will be using a standard company template. But be careful. Templates can get corrupted. Formatting should be consistent across all CV’s going forward in a pitch. Make sure you check it out.

10. Check it
When you have finished your Corporate CV, get someone to check it. We are all apt to read past our mistakes, so a second pair of eyes is vital. And, as our lives change your CV will need to as well. Make a regular date to check in with your CV and keep it up to date. You will not regret it!