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But how do you make your profile so engaging that they will want to read the rest of your CV? Be relevant Tailor your CV and your profile to the role that you are applying for. A lot is riding on your CV, so it's vital to get it right. , Why does a CV need to be two pages? and Time for a CV refresh? Photo by Alison Saeng for Unsplash+

A CV without evidence of achievements is an empty podium with no winners. As a branding expert with recruitment experience, I’ve seen 1000s of CVs over the years. It can be hard to see the wood for the trees when you are writing your own CV. Check out my other content on CV writing and branding - How to write a CV profile, 4 Tips for a 5 star CV and Why is it important to keep your CV up to date?

Your CV is about you, but not for you. Does your CV showcase the return on investment (ROI) for hiring you? (Read about generating results for your CV) Mirror the language from the advertisement in your CV to It’s also an option to have your CV critiqued after you've used these 4 tips for writing a 5 star CV. Check out my CV blogs, including How to Write a CV Profile, the Most Common CV Mistake, Why a CV Needs

A client recently said to me: “Why does a CV need to be two pages? I can’t possibly cut my CV down to two pages, I have too much experience and won’t fit everything in. Details on how to generate results for your CV are in this post. 2) People read CVs end-to-end, so I It’s really not necessary to list ‘going to meetings’ on your CV! , What is the most common CV mistake? and all my CV tips here.

Here are the two mindset shifts to making writing your own CV less hard: Your CV is about you, but not You could even argue that hiring a CV writer demonstrates how seriously you take your CV. It’s the same with a CV. Check out my other posts on CV-related topics: 4 tips for writing a 5-star CV. How to write a CV profile. How to generate results from your CV by doing this one thing.

How can you optimise your CV for ATS? Tailor your CV every time Are you tailoring your CV to each targeted role? If not, you should be. In fact, triple-check your spelling throughout your CV. Check out my other content on CV writing and branding - What is the most common CV mistake? , How to write a CV profile, 4 Tips for a 5 star CV and Why is it important to keep your CV up to date

Stay sharp - ensure your CV is ready to use when you need it. Why is it important to keep your CV up to date? Does your CV need a tune-up? Check out my other content on CV writing and branding - What is the most common CV mistake? , How to write a CV profile and 4 Tips for a 5 star CV. Photo by Behnam Norouzi for Unsplash+

CVs are important and I spend a lot of my time writing about them and helping clients to have better Unlike CVs, which are written in third person, write your LinkedIn About section in first person. telling your career story and connecting with your reader. 6 - Check dates and job titles on your CV Your LinkedIn profile and your CV are your branding documents and as such, they need to be consistent Check out my other content on CV Writing: 4 tips for writing a 5 star CV and How to write a CV profile

There are times of the year when updating your CV and exploring better options is popular, but keeping your CV and LinkedIn profile up to date regularly with current market vocabulary is a small but wise Whilst you might be tempted to say 'I possess excellent interpersonal skills' on your CV (though I'd CV-speak words like 'proficient' and 'adept' rarely sound authentic, so...don't use them. If you’d like some help defining the value of your brand and/or getting your CV and LinkedIn up-to-date

I coached a recruiter recently and her pitch and CV profile start with ‘I help organisations find great

Iconic brands iPhone and YouTube Just how strong is your personal brand? What are you known for? Can you talk about why your brand is so strong or great? Do you even have a personal brand? Yes? Great, I’m sure you’re very successful. No? May I recommend you keep reading… I encourage people to introduce themselves to others and connect with them by leading with what they do and deliver, not their job title. Why? Well, it was a change I made a few years ago and the results have been astonishing. OK, so some people were impressed with “I’m an executive leadership and career coach”, but most just looked at me with a blank face or blatant disinterest. I get why. It’s too abstract. It means nothing to THEM, the people I’m trying to connect with. Now, I say, “I help women be more confident and able to talk about themselves,” and the result is very different. Every time I’ve said it (no lie), I’ve had a reaction. It sparks curiosity in other people and usually kickstarts a conversation. Why? Because THEY can relate to it. They know what being confident – or lacking confidence – at work feels like. It’s personal. It’s meaningful. And so, we spark a connection. Admittedly, my opening is sometimes met with “Really, are you a magician?” or “I could do with you helping me, I'm not very confident and I hate talking about myself”, but at least there’s an exchange and an opportunity to move the conversation in a more positive direction. So, how did I make the change? And how can you do it? It starts with noting down: – Who you are: what words you would use to describe yourself. Ask people for their ideas too, to gather vocabulary (and insight) – What you are: your job/area – Your expertise and strengths: think about your superpowers, the things you do really well and do better than others. Summarise your expertise and what makes you good at what you do – The impact you generate: the problems you solve and the benefits that brings to people and organisations – Your values: what’s important to you in your professional world and why? – Why you love what you do: what does it give you? The data that comes out of this reflective exercise gives you a framework and language to start playing with. Then, ask yourself – what happens when you do what you do? What’s the (desired) result? It might take some time to find the right definition and the right words, but keep playing until your concise, clear brand statement options surface. Talking it through and out loud can lead to lightbulb moments! Then test a few options on people you trust, get feedback and pick the best one. I accept that we need to talk about what we do and my second line when I introduce myself is exactly that. My third is how I do it. But I don’t ever lead with those now. So, what does your personal brand say about you? Is it compelling? Is it meaningful to other people? If you’d like help to define your brand and come up with a pithy one-liner that grabs people’s attention, and/or build your confidence talking about yourself, why not try a session of Career Therapy? Click on Book a call on the website or email me at louise@careertherapy.co.uk Why not follow me for more confidence boosting tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn Louise Newton Instagram @career_therapy_uk Check out my post on Power Words Make Your Personal Brand Stand Out and for a comprehensive intro, I highly recommend Susan Chritton's Personal Branding for Dummies. If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the Career Therapy Newsletter? It's packed full of thoughtful career support grounded in years of coaching experience...and real life. Check out my other articles on careers and confidence: What is my brand?, The power of passion for career growth and Your Work vs. Your Brand. Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash

Take control to be more confident Confidence is made up of several parts and one of those parts is control. When you feel more in control, you have more confidence. Want more confidence? Take control. There are things you can control (your thoughts, actions and reactions) and things you can try to influence (other people’s thoughts, actions and reactions) and the rest of the universe that you have no control or influence over, despite your hardest efforts or wishes (the weather, keeping the cat off the kitchen counter, etc). In psychology speak, this is called ‘locus of control’ and describes how we feel about the control of a situation. An internal locus of control is when we feel we have a strong effect on what is happening. An external locus of control is when we perceive that other people or factors are controlling the situation. This idea of how we feel about control (and where it is/who has it) has a strong relationship with confidence. Our confidence understandably grows when we perceive we have control over what is happening. Conversely, that confidence shrinks when we feel like things are happening beyond our control and, even worse, get ‘out of control’. You feel more confident when you have control based on experience, like travelling somewhere new. Once you’ve done it the first time, your confidence grows and the negative naysayers in your head get less airtime. You can’t control the weather or if the train shows up on time, but you can control many other aspects of the journey and feel confident about it. We feel more confident when we are in control because we know what we are doing and what is expected. We know we have the knowledge/skills/resources required by the situation. With different and evolving situations in the workplace, control is something that we may or may not always completely have, or even be close to having. As our confidence is strongly linked to how much we might feel in control of a situation, this locus of control can have a large impact on our approach to a situation and how we feel about it. When we feel that we are capable of changing a situation, we brim with confidence, set a goal and a plan for achieving it, develop strategies, trust ourselves and our methods and remove the doubt that can get in the way of our aims and action. The mental naysayers get zero airtime. But when we place too much emphasis on what we cannot control, we push that locus of control away from us, lose confidence and create a more difficult environment for us to succeed in. We lose belief, we second-guess and we procrastinate. And the naysayers in our head win. Even if we cannot control all aspects of a situation, we can control our reactions to it. “My boss is making me have sleepless nights,” said a client last week. No, they aren’t, thought I. They aren’t at your house poking you with a stick whilst you wriggle about under the duvet. You (client) are allowing your boss to have control over the situation. You are giving up your control because you don’t feel or think you have any choice. And when we probed further, it became clear that part of the wider situation causing the sleepless nights is that the client felt their confidence was being eroded by this person they had handed their control over to. So, how do they take it back? They choose to. If we decide to stop reacting and handing over control, quite simply, we have more control. Give less away = keep more. And that will impact how we see a situation and reframe what is happening. Your confidence can be raised by taking more control. (And limiting air time for the naysayers). Confidence can be changed and working on locus of control is one aspect that I focus on with my clients. The aim is to guide you to see more clearly where you are in the workplace structure and culture, so you can identify and ask for what you want and control the direction that your career is taking. You can’t always change things, but you can change how you react to them – and how you feel and think about them. Shifting your perception of who has control – and taking more control – enables you to feel stronger and increase your confidence, positively impacting your workplace situation and helping you feel happier and more capable at work. It’s work I do with my clients every week and they say it gets results. A session of Career Therapy with me as your coach can help you take control and see where the opportunities are to think, feel and act differently about what is going on around you. Let's explore how with a free intro chat. Click on 'Book a call' anywhere on the website or email me: louise@careertherapy.co.uk And don't forget to check out other posts on Career Therapy Instagram and LinkedIn for more impactful confidence-boosting tips and tools, including this one on how to Grow your confidence and Picking your shine time, What's stopping you? Think about how having just a little more control would feel...and what you'd feel able to do. These tips from Calm on taking control of your life can also help you find balance and build resilience. If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the Career Therapy Newsletter? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support grounded in years of coaching experience...and real life. Photo on Unsplash