Principles of a Good CV. Jobseeker Basics I

Greg Wyatt • October 9, 2025

Good morning!

I'm transferring over my Jobseeker Basics substack to LinkedIn, so this is the first weekly edition of my LinkedIn 'newsletter'.

Every week you'll received either a chapter from my book, "A Career Breakdown Kit." or an edition of my weekly round-up. (You have a breakdown kit for your car - why wouldn't you in case of an unexpected job search?)

All are guidance on navigating a VUCA jobs marketplace in the UK, mainly at mid to senior level. Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous.

Today's edition is Chapter 30, from Part 3 - Get It Done.

Yes, it's Wall of Text - because it's word for word from the publication version. Something I offer for free to every candidate I represent for a vacancy. Or you can support my work by buying it - click Visit My Store on my profile.

This chapter relates directly to my free CV template. DM me on LinkedIn if you'd like a copy - Greg Wyatt, Bircham Wyatt Recruitment.

‘Ask 9 people for advice on your CV and you’ll end up with 10 CVs.’

A pithy truth that shows how subjective a CV’s quality is.

While also highlighting how frustrating it can be to spend time or even money on perfecting a document that the next person rips to shreds.

The person whose opinion matters most, in a hiring process, is the reader whose finger is on the Reject button.

What are the principles of a good CV?

Not a perfect CV, because perfection is wholly subjective and the path of madness in a difficult job search.

These principles are based on advice I give to job seekers when they ask for feedback.

Principles that come from my own insight, backed up by effective processes from a seemingly different industry.

First, we start with what a CV is and what a CV means.

Did you know the first recognised CV was written by Leonardo da Vinci in a letter highlighting his candidacy for employment? Yes, a CV and cover letter in one!

I’m pleased to say he got the job off his first application.

The notion of a document that presents candidacy dates back millennia with gladiators highlighting their achievements through the Lanista system. This was done to increase their reputation so that owners could earn more money.

A form of marketing document based on provable facts that synthesised their gladiatorial career in written format - a stone slab.

In a sense nothing has changed - your CV is a marketing document, which you use to highlight your candidacy so that your potential buyers invest their time to offer you an interview.

Where it has changed is the medium, given there are many means of presenting candidacy, including LinkedIn, other social media or platforms such as YouTube. You can even parade your portfolio on GitHub (for software), a website or other platforms.

For now, let’s stick to the CV proper.

I read a lot of debate on what a CV actually is and whether it is more of a technical document than a marketing one.

That’s a disservice to true marketing, which always has a basis in fact.

Your CV is there to highlight your candidacy and to give your experience meaning to the reader, helping them make a positive decision on you.

It’s there to get you an interview and for its readers to take you to the next stage.

A hiring process often has several moving parts, each a decision-maker in their own right.

From an administrator who sifts CVs, to recruiters / talent acquisition processes that make a longlist, to hiring managers and their bosses - each has their say on whether or not you might make the cut.

I’m sorry to say sometimes it is arbitrary:

‘If they’re this unlucky, why would we hire them?’ said the hiring manager to the administrator after binning one of the two piles of CVs at random.

While their decisions aren’t in your control, your words and how they are presented are.

It makes sense to create a document that helps the weakest link in the chain see you as a candidate of choice. One which supports other decision-makers, presuming they run the game fairly.

It isn’t only about applications - it enables your networking, doorknocking and speculative enquiries.

The principles of a good CV are the principles of a good marketing document.

A good marketing document at its core creates action - the decision to move forward.

A CV is an advert that should provoke attention, create interest and convert action.

I’m sure you have read much hoo-ha on what makes a good CV in the Talent Acquisition, recruitment, career coaching, and job seeker spaces. Much advice is contradictory, while some of it is cynical.

Instead of joining in that conversation, let’s look to another industry that uses words to convert action, as a basis for the principles of a good CV.

Whose principles are based on user psychology, behaviour and experience, and influence their actions to improve the odds of a purchase.

E-commerce.

A multi-trillion industry built on the words you read, marketing and advertising.

While it may not directly relate to recruitment or looking for work, its principles do:

Readability
Accessibility
AIDA (attention interest desire action; a century-old advertising formula that applies response-stimuli psychology)
Features (what it does; skills, tools, experience in a CV) and benefits (how it helps; achievements)
Search engine optimisation (SEO; keywords to be found) on the Google principles of Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (EEAT)
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO; words that convert)

Job boards and LinkedIn employ many principles of E-commerce in their functionality. These principles are not only equivalent but directly applicable to job searching.

What about assumptions and myths?

ATS compliance
7-second CV scan
CVs must be 1, 2, 3, 367 pages long
Anything people often talk about

These seem like big deals. They’re not, for a simple reason.

If you write your CV for a reader in a way that grabs their attention while following basic rules, you’ll navigate these seeming traps.

Let’s touch on the top three briefly.

To be ATS compliant, at worst, you need to avoid tables, columns and images. I say at worst because modern ATSs are less likely to struggle with these (read The truth about the ATS and AI – p18)
It’s true that in a volume process, the initial scan may be quick to check for obvious reasons to rule out applicants. If you pass the scan your CV will be read in more depth because you move from elimination to selection
Your CV should be… okay this gets its own section:

Everyone has their own opinion on what the length of a CV should be.

The only person who matters in a hiring process is the reader, if they have a strong opinion you can find out.

If you know their requirement for what makes a good CV and you are prepared to play to their whim - give them that.

If not, your CV should tell its story in a way that grabs attention and holds it. Accessibility, readability… those bullet points above.

White space is good
Unnecessary repetition is not
Conciseness is good
Ambiguity is not
Achievements that show context are good
Adjectives are not (strip an adjective out and does your CV lose meaning? If not, why are you relying on them?)
‘So What?’ is a brilliant editing question. If readers have to ask that of your statements, you need to find improvement or excise
Show specific and relevant information and don’t bore your audience with things they don’t care about

(If you’re a recruiter, why not apply the same to your job adverts? The reader psychology is the same.)

Grab your reader’s attention in the first half page, so they read the rest. If they don’t read past that first half page, it doesn’t really matter how well written the rest of your document is.

Get these points right, and a good enough CV will often be 800 to 1200 words long across 2 to 3 (even 4) pages.

Okay now on to actionable steps.

Accessibility and readability

Can someone who doesn’t know your domain see what you do from your CV?

If they can’t, there’s a problem, especially if they are the weakest link in the chain.

A good litmus test is to ask a friend you trust to see what they can tell you about you from your CV. What do they think your biggest achievements are?

White space: would you more easily read a condensed document or one that is clearly laid out? Don’t worry about spreading your CV onto a third, or even fourth page, if your experience demands it.

AIDA

The classic advertising framework, and how animals make decisions (look, check, I am hungry, eat). Look to your puppy for confirmation.

In a 7-second CV scan, you grab Attention on the first page with the most relevant information: your job title, key skills and tools that show how you meet essential requirements, and what the vacancy is looking for.

Get past this first test and gain their Interest through a clearly laid out document that shows the passage of your career (reverse chronological order, show company and role context).

Build Desire by showing the achievements that support your candidacy for the role you want. These are the problems you solve and show how you can help your next employer best.

Enable Action by providing clear and accurate means of contacting you - this may seem obvious, yet some forget.

A note on context.

Context is the information in your CV that answers the questions your readers should have.

What does your employer do? How many employees? What size revenue? What was the structure of the team in which you delivered your achievement?

If your reader has to ask a question about your CV, your CV should provide the answer.

Context is what most CVs miss and it lets them down.

One way to show context is to use the interview framework STAR (Situation Task Action Result) - this frames information in a way that has

meaning to your audience.

Features and Benefits

These are the basics of selling.

You don’t buy the technical specifications of a TV. You buy what the TV does for you.

You don’t buy the ingredients of a pizza. You buy the taste, sensation and experience it provides.

Both are important.

Most of your readers know broadly what a <job title> does - there’s no need to say it if the meaning is implicit.

What we want to know is how it helps.

An administrator may do administration. How does it help?

Do they arrange travel cost efficiently, take away the admin burden from the directors, save time?

Those are the benefits, even better in the form of achievements.

SEO

SEO primarily relates to keywords. Think about how you search on Google. We do much the same when scanning and searching on CVs.

Are the keywords from the job description or advert clearly stated on your CV?

These are typically the essential requirements, and this is a rare piece of ALWAYS advice. Always show how you meet the essential requirements.

Rely on EEAT in that list above. Show these keywords without looking cynical or careless.

Some career coaches advise a ‘white text keyword bomb’ as a hack - if a reader thinks you’ve employed a hack, you may be seen to be cheating, and that rarely goes well.

If your CV has the right keywords, it will be easier to find on CV databases.

You can use the same keywords to make it easier to be found on LinkedIn.

Which are two ways to be considered for unadvertised jobs.

CRO

The main point of a CV is to prompt positive action - the second A in AIDA.

The crux of a CV is to show the reader how you can solve their problems.

The problems that are at the heart of their vacancy.

Do this in a compelling way, and you’ll improve your odds.

CRO is built on psychology and understanding how your readers make decisions.

Think about the flow and readability of your CV - this is how websites work.

Everything in a well-designed website is intentional. Is your CV?

I find CRO fascinating - worth a read if you want to go down a rabbit hole.

While CVs are important, many people place too much importance on their place in the process.

A good enough CV is your best step forward. If you are a no anyway, perhaps it wasn’t meant to be.

Or maybe the decision was already made if you are in a demographic the reader chooses to discriminate against.

That may not even be for illegal reasons, if they decide you live too far away, are too expensive, or that you love Agile when they love Waterfall.

Go for good enough - it is a challenge to get there, but once you do, you can build on it for life, and it will help you get a job.

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Introduction to personal branding

By Greg Wyatt • March 30, 2026

What follows is Chapter 39 of A Career Breakdown Kit (2026) . It's 10 months old, so surely the algorithm has moved on right? Indeed, my own content performance has tanked if you compare 2026 to 2025. Around 12 million views of my content last year, while if I extrapolate my year to date performance, it looks like a little shy of 640,000 views. My LinkedIn feed is quieter, yet real life relevant conversations go from strength to strength, many of which stem from my content. Look, I don't love the term, but I am a fan of putting your message out there, across multiple means, so that your most relevant audience might become aware of you. And perhaps your relevant audience is an audience of one, a person who can put you nearer that job. Which is the only algorithm you need. This is a three part series, with part 2 on " Content strategy and philosophy " and part 3 on " A flair post ". Click on the links for the unedited versions on Substack. 39 - Introduction to personal branding Whatever you think of LinkedIn, you shouldn’t overlook its nature as a free marketing platform, where you can build a reputation through the words of your posts, comments and messages. Personal branding is a viable tactic as part of a multi-channel approach to your job search and it can bring opportunities to you. I'll start off by saying I'm not a fan of the term personal branding. It can lead to make-work which can even get in the way of what you should be doing. Writing and using content to create experiences that support a job search is a great idea and calling it personal branding - as a discrete activity - isn’t a bad thing. I expect there are many mediums through which you can build a personal brand. I'll focus on LinkedIn because of how entrenched it is in other job search activities. What a personal brand is For businesspeople the idea is that by building awareness of your personality, lifestyle and what you're promoting, you also build trust. So that when people are ready to buy, they'll buy your products. The brand might be personal. The goal is sales. When you see personal branding on LinkedIn it’s often a business that promotes their services through the account of the author. ‘Here’s my puppy, buy my stuff.’ Take note that the target audience for these advice posts is the businesspeople above. And these posts often seek to part them from their money. Your goals are similar. If there’s a commercial outcome you want, it’s likely a single job, not a throughput of leads. You’ll also see that controversial content gets huge engagement and can also repel readers. If you need a job, what’s the danger of writing overly spicy content? Could a reader make a decision against you based on your words? How much you need any job should inform the experience you want to create for your readers. How it sits in your wider job search Publishing content is about raising awareness and starting conversations with the right people. This can be your profile, written posts, newsletters, (bestselling) career breakdown kits, videos, you name it - anything you can become known for. In many ways the hierarchy of relationships your content appeals to is the same as with networking. Content can be publishing posts, commenting on the posts of others, sending direct messages. I’d argue even your applications and interviews are part of your personal brand. I think of LinkedIn posts like a plumber’s van driving around town. Most of the time you’ll disregard the van unless it cuts you up with noxious fumes. When you have a leaky pipe, you’ll surely take note of their number. It can support an application if a hiring manager decides to surreptitiously stalk your profile. And it can work against you if it suggests problem behaviour. A good balance for content is the poster in my daughters’ primary school from a few years back: THINK. Is it True? Is it Helpful? Is it Inspiring? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind? Achieve those five points and content will rarely work against your job search. Content should be consistent with your wider activity. Which means that everything people (potential employers) experience of you is a complementary and non-contradictory message. Content that contradicts your CV or cover letter may lead to red flags, whether that’s fair or not. Content should be intentional. HOW TO GO viral, and why you shouldn’t Anyone who writes content will enjoy the sweet, sweet flow of dopamine when you see reactions and comments trickle in. Such as that first flair post announcing you are available to help your next employer with examples of your achievements and what you are looking for. Do that and you’ll get loads of engagement. Why haven’t you done it yet? Tag me in and I’ll support you. Or you can do what most people do and say, ‘I’m sorry to announce I’ve lost my job, please help’ and that will get loads too. Because it is relevant and relatable to fellow job seekers, recruiters and sympathisers. Then you feel the soul-crushing defeat of a well-thought-out post, highlighting a problem in your industry, with tumbleweed to follow. Both types of content have a place. That tumbleweed post is relevant and relatable to a niche audience. I try to take a land and expand approach to content - job seeker advice, recruitment advice and stories, ponderings and satire, which I use to tackle topics from different directions. Over the past three years I’ve had between 3m to 11m views of my posts and I’ve gained a bit of business through them too. What I don’t do is try to go viral anymore. Because when I have gone viral with a few 1m impression posts, it’s taken weeks to extricate myself from them and there hasn’t been real benefit. I find my tumbleweed posts start better conversations from lurkers - those that never engage publicly. I promised you I’d show you how to go viral. Here you go. Relevance + relatability + readability + entitlement. Maybe add a selfie. If that seems too simple, search for this sentence on LinkedIn: “An employee asked me if he can WORK from HOME permanently.” You’ll need to use the double speech mark to search on the phrase, and rank by Posts. ‘Does it really work?’ asked Charles. I told him to try it as an experiment. He rarely got more than a few hundred impressions per post. 170,000 impressions, 2,000 reactions. Pretty viral for a first timer. It is the wrong path. What do these posts actually say? Who are they aimed at? And if they don’t appeal to people who can help you reach your objective, what’s the point?

Nothing but the truth. Innovation from Iteration, pt 4

By Greg Wyatt • March 26, 2026

I was tempted to use another Tom Cruise AI image for this article, but his hands ended up looking like feet, which wasn't a true representation of him. Probably not fair to use AI in this way either, stealing copyrighted material without permission. And so I use this AI 'stock image' instead, which is probably also highly unethical, but feels more suitable and sufficient . Anyway here's an article about why the same principles are crucial for good recruitment: ‘True and Fair’ is an accountancy concept that lies at the heart of reporting, and can be applied effectively in recruitment. Its meaning is that any financial statement made about a company should accurately and completely represent its financial position and performance. The role of auditing is to confirm that documentation meets this definition. Do so and everyone knows what they are dealing with. HMRC, shareholders, customers, suppliers, employees – useful, and in many cases necessary, to have access to a true and fair view of a company’s accounts. Can something be true and not fair? In 2001, Enron went bust, a huge scandal with real-life repercussions that led to new legislation in the US. Their accounts were true, in that they conformed with the required laws and standards. However they had an incredibly complex reporting structure which made it impossible to see the overwhelming debt they had. Poof! Bye-bye a $100bn company when this all came out in the wash. How about fair but not true? This can happen if a situation is described which gives a fair picture but lacks accuracy. An example here could be the UK politician who HMRC deemed behaved fairly but made errors in his tax reporting. Only a few million quid plus penalty. What types of recruitment documentation does this apply to? Three key ones that spring to mind (although there’s no reason it can’t be applied everywhere): The job description. The job advertisement. The CV. If these three documents were always a true and fair representation of either a job or a candidate, you’d interview and hire better candidates who stick around longer. With the caveat that these documents should also be ‘suitable and sufficient’, if you remember last week's edition. Documents are the first step in a recruitment process, relating to a decision to apply and the decision to interview. Is it not the case, that the second most common complaint in recruitment is “not what we expected”? Therefore, if we nipped this complaint in the bud, with true and fair documentation, wouldn’t life be better for everyone in the recruitment process? What does true and fair mean in recruitment documentation? I think it has to cover three points. 1/ factually correct 2/ shows context suitably 3/ describes sufficiently An immediate objection might be that job descriptions are always true and fair, but I’d argue this is actually rarely the case. If you recruit for a new role, do you audit your job description against the current context? If you have a generic job family description does it show the specific day-to-day duties of a role? Have things changed in the current role that makes it different to the last time you recruited? A common scenario in recruitment is that Greg resigns, and the hiring manager says “we’d love someone just like Greg”. Yet if Greg resigned, wouldn’t someone just like Greg be at risk of resigning for the same reasons in future? Would now-Greg have applied for the same role that then-Greg applied for? Which definition of Greg is the true and fair one you’d hire? It feels strange writing my name like this. There are lots of different situations in which a job description that was true and fair a few years ago is no longer so. The only way to ensure it is true and fair, is to audit documentation prior to going live. You may think a fully representative and accurate contextual analysis is too time-consuming for most vacancies, especially where it doesn’t actually matter if there is some inaccuracy. “Oh yeah, that’s not relevant anymore”. But if you have a key hire that can make a difference in your business, ‘true and fair’ should be the starting point, each and every time. If you have a systematic process that finds truth and fairness, you’ll see the benefit of applying the same across any vacancy – for the reason that the time invested at the outset is offset by interviewing fewer unsuitable candidates and wasting less time and resources overall. And what should be the more important reason of better recruitment outcomes. For any project I take on, this is the first step – getting the documentation in order. Get it right and everything flows from there. It’s a key reason behind my nearly 100% fill rate. It’s also one of the reasons my average tenure is over 4 years for key hires. These achievements don’t come down to chance. They come from my process. If you've forgotten why suitability and sufficiency is the other pillar, here's an example that isn't suitable: Nineteen experiential bullet points might be true and fair but will also encourage ideal candidates to run away screaming. See you next time. Regards, Greg p.s. While you are here, if you like the idea of improving how you recruit, lack capacity or need better candidates, and are curious how I can help, these are my services: - commercial, operational and technical leadership recruitment (available for no more than two vacancies) - manage part or all of your recruitment on an individually designed basis for one client. This can be a large as end-to-end delivery of a programme of vacancies, or as small as writing one job advert for a key hire- recruitment strategy setting - outplacement support