12 tips for a perfect interim CV

A well-written and balanced CV can easily and clearly demonstrate to a recruiter or prospective employer why you are the right candidate for an assignment. Unfortunately, a poorly written CV can do the opposite. As an interim consultant, your CV is your main sales tool.

There is therefore every reason to invest both time and effort in developing a really good CV. So how do you write the perfect CV? The answer is: you don’t. With different recipients, preferences also vary. Thus, there is no one-size-fits-all template. Despite this, we have put together a number of points to keep in mind when writing your perfect interim CV.

Be short, concise and specific. Enables the reader to easily form a picture of your experiences. Use a template that supports this and let the content of the CV take the lead, rather than the design.

You choose whether you want to write your CV in Swedish or English. In the normal case, it doesn’t matter. Should it be the case that a CV is requested in the language you have omitted, you will be asked to complete a CV in that language during the recruitment process.

Start with a profile description that can best be described as an “elevator pitch” of your professional self. Try to describe in a few sentences your focus areas, as well as the level and type of organization you have worked in. Even if you have worked in several roles and industries as an interim consultant, you must be able to summarize your experience.

Present your career in chronological order with the most recent assignment first. Customers want to see what you have done in recent years and what your interim career has been like. As an interim consultant, you change assignments more often than as an employee. Make sure you keep updating your CV (no one wants an outdated version!), but by all means keep it short, concise and specific. All for continued good overview. Use the same format when describing your different roles.

In the context of interim roles, the last ten years are the most significant. Focus on them and make sure to clearly describe your assignments and/or employments during that time. For other positions, it is sufficient to briefly list them. Consider how far back in time you should go. If you’re going to work as an interim CFO, maybe it’s not so important that you were a scout leader in high school?

Try to quantify your experiences. Highlight your key achievements and accomplishments in your most recent roles. Please tell us briefly about your successes and the benefits the organization has enjoyed as a result of your efforts. Please support your list with numerical evidence.

Don’t assume that everyone knows what kind of company you were in. This is especially true if you have worked in smaller businesses. Provide the correct company name, briefly state the company’s size, revenue, and the type of business, in order to describe the context in which you have been working.

Your education is secondary to your experience. Therefore, place your education after your work experience and primarily focus on the educational qualifications that are relevant to the type of assignment you are interested in. Be selective and list them in descending order, with the most recently completed education first.

Make sure it is clear how we can contact you and where you are located geographically. It also plays a role in the assessment of whether you might be considered for an assignment or not. Normally, the first priority is to find a local person in the area where the assignment is located.

Writing about your interests or hobbies can be a good way to give a complementary picture of who you are outside work. In the context of interim roles, you can skip that. The client is primarily looking for someone with the right competence and consultancy skills to carry out the assignment.

Spelling mistakes, misplaced modifiers, and other careless mistakes have no place in a resume. Use, for example, the spell check in Word and review your resume an extra time, or ask someone with a keen eye for proofreading for help before submitting it.

Write your CV in Word. Most recruiters will still want to redesign your CV in their template for client presentations. If you absolutely want to PDF your CV, do it. But skip PowerPoint or other odd formats.