The Covid-19 virus has left many businesses with no choice but to make lay-offs – and the job market has never been so competitive as a result. Research by consultancy firm McKinsey indicates that workers without a degree will be hardest hit by the crisis, with up to 59 million jobs at risk across Europe.
Whether you’re amongst the job seeker fallout from the Covid-19 crisis or you’ve been job hunting for a while, you might be wondering how you can give yourself a competitive advantage over other candidates right now. One area to consider is the type of CV layout you’re using.
The Chronological CV or resume
Traditionally, job candidates have used a chronological CV or resume to present their employment information to recruiters. This simply means giving your work history in chronological order (in many countries – the UK for example – reverse chronological is most commonly used).
A chronological CV typically follows this format:
- Contact details
- Personal statement
- Work history
- Education / Qualifications
- Skills (optional)
- Hobbies and interests (optional)
- References (optional)
If a skills section is included, it is typically a short list of the hard skills requested by the employer, together with some indication of proficiency.
When should you use a Chronological CV? “If you have some relevant work experience in the area of employment, or sector, you wish to enter,” according to Oxford Brookes University. Prospectus, a recruitment agency, recommend this format if “You have a solid work history and good career progression”.
The benefit of this format is that the recruiter can quickly see what you’ve been doing in your most recent role. They’ll also be able to follow your career progression quite easily.
However, the chronological CV has some distinct downsides. If you’ve jumped around from one job to the next, this will be glaringly obvious if you use the chronological format. Alternatively, if you’ve had very little formal work experience, the chronological CV or resume is unlikely to sell your skills in the way other CV formats can.
The Skills-based CV or resume
A skills-based CV is exactly as it sounds – it focuses on demonstrating to an employer that you possess the key skills necessary to perform the role they are hiring for. According to Prospects.ac.uk, you should “highlight the skills mentioned in the job advert or person specification, as these are the attributes that the employer is looking for”. In addition, you might want to demonstrate that you have:
- Skills they have not asked for which are highly beneficial to the advertised role.
- Additional unrelated skills that would be beneficial to the employer’s business.
Sometimes a skills-based CV is called a functional CV. Whilst this type of CV can draw on formal work experience, it doesn’t rely on it. You can demonstrate that you’ve acquired and used a particular skill in a host of ways, such as through:
- Education
- Extra circular activities
- Community projects
- Voluntary work
- Working for the family business
- Hobbies and interests
- Activities undertook in your spare time
So, for example, if you were applying to work in a café, you might draw on any of the following types of experience:
- Volunteering on a food stall at an event
- Working part time at the local school’s kitchen
- Volunteering at a soup kitchen
- Cooking or baking as part of a community project
- Taking formal cookery classes
- Completing cookery training at school or incidental to your employment
- Catering for large family events such as weddings or funerals
- Passing food hygiene certificates as part of any of the above
With a traditional CV, it would be quite difficult to fit the above type of experience into the ‘Work experience’ section. With a skills-based CV, the sought-after skill is the heading and the above examples are listed underneath by way of evidence. To see how this is done, check out this example on CVTemplateMaster.com which comes with sample content and a how-to-write guide as a bonus. A further good example can be found on Prospects.ac.uk.
