Books for Job Clubs No 3 - CVs in a Week (Book Review)

In 2002 the Chartered Management Institute published CVs in a Week, a book of about 84 effective pages, which day-by-day gives motivation to the CV-compiler to complete a first class CV of appropriate style in seven days. The authors are Steve Morris and Graham Willcocks.

The seven 'chapters' are indicated by page headers as the days of the week. Each gives directions and balanced comment on a selected part of the process, namely:

1. ways to see oneself in a processed manner (on Sunday);
2. basics of the CV (on Monday);
3. understanding the prospective employer(s) from the advert and in other ways (on Tuesday);
4. a retrieval mapping approach to one's life and working life (on Wednesday);
5. putting the CV on paper - approaches to style and format - almost a first draft (on Thursday);
6. fine-tuning the layout and phraseology of the various sections of the CV (on Friday); and,
7. attracting the right employer - partly by the covering letter (on Saturday).

The approach will give the applicant a wealth of self-understanding, approaches and ideas for the CV and confidence that one is probably spot-on. A criticism of this slender volume is that there is no index - hopefully, however, the reader will only once need to use the book for the first CV that is then sent to the perfick employer who immediately recognises the perfick employee!
Footnote: It was not until about Wednesday that I remembered that I am a member (albeit retired) of the CIM!