How to write a resume: Tips for seasoned aid workers

Writing your resume is always tough, especially as you progress through your career and accumulate years and even decades of experience. In international development, this is made even harder by the fact that many careers take surprising twists and turns, cross sectors, countries and continents, and jump between staff and consulting positions. Condensing the rich tapestry of an aid professional’s background into a few pages becomes a daunting task because every detail seems as important as the next. Regardless of your seniority, however, it is always best to limit your CV to three to five pages. Some employers will specifically ask for a shorter CV — check out these tips for senior professionals on how to write a two-page resume. The information you include in a resume must really make you stand out as the best candidate for the job. Quality — not quantity — is key. Here are some tips on how to craft that senior-level CV, based on my experience as a professional CV writer for the Devex CV Writing Service, which helps professionals regardless of their level of skill and experience craft a winning resume. Establish your priority by proving you are … … a leader: Aid organizations expect their senior staff to drive the organization forward. Often, my senior clients overuse midlevel terms such as managed, oversaw and organized. These skills are important, but for senior posts it is vital that the bullet points highlighting your professional experience start with leadership keywords such as led, spearheaded, shaped, drove and produced. … an initiator: Senior assignments tend to require you to be forward-thinking. So in your CV, demonstrate where you have been the direct initiator of projects, developments and improvements. Make sure you include examples of such initiatives and start the description with keywords as initiated, launched, instigated, developed and pioneered. … a capable communicator and representative: At the senior level, it is vital to demonstrate that you have a track record in and are comfortable dealing with the highest level of personnel, since you may be dealing with top political, business and donor figures. Therefore: ● Include at least one bullet point outlining where you have regularly interacted with such figures, including their respective levels. ● Include another bullet point if you have acted as an official representative for organizations, activist groups, government departments and so on at conferences, negotiations and intergroup meetings. ● Include a third bullet point if you have presented to audiences at in-house meetings, external conferences, forums and talks. … accomplished: One of the biggest mistakes senior personnel make is underselling their achievements. It is one thing to talk about a water issues awareness project you initiated, HIV clinic capacity building program you instigated and major grant applications you led, but on their own these only tell half the story. Make sure to demonstrate what the outcomes of all these were. For instance: ● Did the water project lead to a measurable reduction in water use and a more widespread adoption of the strategy by other institutions? ● Did the HIV clinic improve its operations and roll out your program to their partners? ● Were you successful in obtaining those major grants — and if so, from which major donors, and how much money was at stake (if that information is not confidential)? This kind of detail will make you stand out above the rest. If you left a project before seeing its full effects play out, try to get in touch with previous colleagues and find out. Finally, consider including a section with five or six bullet points right at the top of your resume entitled “Major Achievements” and use it to summarize those accomplishments that will be most relevant and impressive to the job you’re applying for. Common omissions Many CVs tend to be a little too vague about the experiences at hand. Make sure that you provide sufficient qualifiers that explain them better. For instance, “Oversaw all operations and strategy” can be vastly improved to: “Oversaw all operations and strategy, including: spearheaded efficiency improvements, saving $1 million in annual operation costs; instigated the adoption of new donor management software, leading to a 10 percent rise in private donations; successfully managed Asia programming expansion and set up new lines of systems and processes.” International experience Many senior aid professionals have a vast array of international experience. However, most forget to include the details of it in their CV. You should not limit this section of your resume to the countries where you have lived and worked for extended periods of time. Make sure you list the details of countries you may have visited for shorter projects, may have researched extensively for an NGO or government publication, or where you may have helped drive programming at an arm’s length from headquarters. Career progression If you have been working with the same organization or government department for a long time, it is important that you make it clear how you have progressed. Include all promotions and title changes in your career chronology. Management experience I have often seen senior-level resumes that make only a brief mention of managing teams. Consider providing details of the size of the teams, their country base and your level of involvement in their management and HR capacity building. Troubleshooting The aid world is full of challenges that other sectors may not face. Senior professionals should prove they can handle them. Make sure you specify what challenges you have faced while working on foreign aid projects. These can include resource scarcity, conflict zones, politically and diplomatically sensitive projects, challenging populations such as refugees or child soldiers, or perhaps a failing project that you helped turn around. If all this is not enough, why not save yourself the time and hassle and let Devex write your CV for you. All of our professional CV writers specialize in international development, so no one is better positioned to truly know your needs and as well as those of your potential future employer. Whether you’re a seasoned expert or budding development professional — check out more news, analysis and advice online to guide your career and professional development, and subscribe to Doing Good to receive top international development career and recruitment news every week.