CV Writing Tips: What’s your 2020 story?

If you’ve been working in Norway the past year, it’s very likely some aspect of your work has changed:

Maybe your living room has turned into your office.

Maybe your hours have been cut.

Maybe you’ve been let go, either temporarily or permanently.

But no matter what’s happened to you in 2020, it’s forced you to adapt to a new situation, either when performing the job you have or being forced to look for a new one.

While you’ve probably realized all this while it’s been happening, you might not yet realize how you can turn it to your advantage when looking for your next job opportunity.

You see, anyone interested in hiring you’ll want learn about how you’ve handled adversity and risen to the challenge, asking in a sense:

“Everyone’s got a COVID story – what’s yours?”

What did you do to improve your situation?

So tell your story in your CV in a way the reader can understand and appreciate.

tell your story in your CV in a way the reader can understand and appreciate.

For example, if your work involves sales of any kind -- and your sales dropped through the floor when the pandemic hit – use numbers to show this fall. Then describe what you did to bring those numbers back up (or are still doing to make this happen).

Or say your work involves testing new products – and these products got delayed due to pandemic-related production slowdowns – describe what you did to take care of your customers during this unwelcome waiting period.

Of if you, like so many others and no matter your job, had to figure out how to handle your kids’ online schooling while working full time in the same house – describe what you did to make this new and difficult everyday situation go as smoothly as possible for everyone.

Use active verbs in the present/past tense when writing:
rearrange, reschedule, rotate, switch, reverse, transfer, alternate, etc.

It’s been a tough year for all workers

You don’t need to include any words here about how your life’s been made difficult during this time. Any recruiter or hiring manager knows that already (and has probably gone through the same thing themselves).

Instead, let this fact shine through your writing in the simplest and most direct way possible that, yes, it’s been a tough year – but these are the actions you took to tackle it head on.

And, above all else, don’t forget that you’ve got a unique, interesting story to tell.

Everyone’s got a COVID story – what’s yours?