Practical CV rewriting guidance
Rewriting your CV after job loss: from history to relevance
After redundancy, most CVs fail for one simple reason: they are written as career archives, not as positioning documents.
They explain where you have been. Hiring managers care about what problem you can solve next.
Harvard Business Review recently made this point clear in the context of interviews:
the interviewer already knows your background — repeating it adds no value .
The same logic applies to your CV.
Your CV is not a biography
A CV is not meant to be fair. It is meant to be relevant. After job loss, many professionals respond by adding more:
- more detail
- more context
- more explanations
This is understandable — and counterproductive. What works is subtraction with intent.
Start with their need, not your past
Before you rewrite a single line, answer this question: “What does this organization urgently need from this role?”
Look for:
- recurring words in the vacancy
- phrases like must have, critical, responsible for
- signals about context (scale, change, pressure, growth, turnaround)
Then rewrite your CV as evidence that you have already operated in that reality.
I also wrote a blog post on how to introduce yourself during the job interview: After redundancy: how to introduce yourself without explaining your career – salomons.coach
How to rewrite your CV using this logic
1. Rewrite your profile summary last
Only after you know what you are positioning for.
Bad summary:
“Senior leader with 20+ years of experience in operations and transformation.”
Effective summary:
“Operations leader specialized in stabilizing performance and rebuilding execution discipline in complex, high-pressure environments.”
2. Reorder experience for relevance, not chronology
Your most relevant role comes first — even if it wasn’t the most recent.
3. Replace responsibilities with outcomes
Not what you did, but what changed because of you.
4. Remove anything that doesn’t serve the role
A strong CV is focused.
A long CV is usually defensive.
One Simple Test
If the hiring manager reads only the top half of page one, can they answer this question?
“Why should I talk to this person?”
If not, rewrite.
AI screening: why your CV must be readable by machines and humans
Modern CV screening is increasingly AI-driven, especially in the first selection round.
What AI systems typically do:
- compare your CV and cover letter against the job description
- score alignment based on keywords, context, and proximity
- penalize irrelevant experience, even if senior
- reward clarity, structure, and role-specific language
What they do not do:
- infer transferable skills unless clearly stated
- value long explanations
- “read between the lines”
This reinforces one hard truth: A generic CV is not neutral — it is a disadvantage.
When rewriting your CV:
- mirror the language of the vacancy (without copying)
- surface the most relevant experience early
- clearly connect outcomes to role requirements
- remove content that distracts from the match
A strong CV today is not just persuasive. It is machine-legible positioning.
And if AI understands why you fit, the hiring manager will too.
AI hasn’t made hiring less human. It has made clarity, focus, and relevance non-negotiable.
Final Thought
Redundancy often triggers a backward look. A strong CV forces a forward one.
You are not summarizing a career. You are making a case.
And the strongest cases are specific, restrained, and unmistakably relevant.
I am an experienced coach in this area, do yourself a favor and accelerate your ability to position yourself for the next job!
