Your CV is your brand

Why think of yourself as a brand

A brand is simply a clear answer to three questions: who is this, what are they known for and why should I choose them? Employers ask exactly those questions about every applicant, usually on a first, quick read that rarely gets past the top of page one.

Most CVs never answer them. They list duties in date order and leave the reader to work out what the person is good at. A CV that answers the three questions up front does the reader's work for them, and that is the one that gets read to the end.

Start with your positioning

Before you write a word, decide what you want the employer to remember about you. That is your positioning: your professional identity, what you are known for and the value you bring. For a particular job, it is the value that answers what that employer most needs.

Write it as one sentence for yourself first. It becomes the headline under your name and the spine of your profile.

• Weak: "Hard-working and reliable team player seeking a new challenge."
• Stronger: "Care assistant with four years in dementia care, trusted to lead the night shift and train new starters."
• The stronger version could only be one person, and every word of it can be checked.

Find your through-line

A story needs a thread. Look across your jobs for what connects them: responsibility that grew, a specialism you deepened or a skill you carried from one setting into another. That thread is what turns a list of jobs into a career that makes sense.

It matters most if you are changing direction or have gaps. A retail supervisor moving into logistics already has a through-line: stock, rotas and people. Name it, and the move stops looking like a leap.

Evidence, not adjectives

Anyone can call themselves organised, a natural leader or passionate about customers. Recruiters skip those words because they prove nothing. What persuades is evidence: what you did, for whom and what changed as a result.

Write each bullet point as the task, what you did and the result. If there was no measurable result, say what the work was for or how big it was instead. Never make up a number: an interviewer will ask about it, and a claim you cannot explain does more harm than a modest one you can.

• Instead of "Responsible for stock", write "Took over stock ordering for homeware and cut the lines showing out of stock on the weekly report".
• Instead of "Good with people", write "Trained five new starters and handled customer complaints through to resolution".

Compare it with the job description

Every job description is the employer telling you what they need. Go through it line by line and, for each main requirement, find the piece of your experience that proves it. Then make sure that proof is easy to find on your CV, near the top of the relevant role and in words close to the employer's own.

Many employers use software that reads a CV before a person does and looks for the words in the advert. Using their language for work you have genuinely done helps both the software and the person. Where you have no evidence for a requirement, leave it out rather than stretch the truth to cover it.

The cover letter is the same story, told to one employer

A good cover letter follows the shape of a good story. Open with the employer's need and who you are in relation to it, not "I am writing to apply". Then give two or three proof points, each tied to something they asked for. If there is an obvious question, such as a career change or a requirement you do not fully meet, answer it honestly and show what does carry across. Close with what you would bring and that you would welcome a conversation.

Say only what you know about the employer. Praise copied from their website reads as flattery; a specific reason you want to work for them reads as a decision.

Where to start today

Write your positioning sentence. Pick the job you most want to apply for, list its five main requirements and put one piece of your own evidence next to each. You now have the skeleton of your profile, your strongest bullet points and your cover letter.

Then see how your CV compares with the job: our free CV check shows the words the employer uses and which of them your CV is missing.