You started at the bottom rung of the career ladder, flexed your skills, developed your experience, and now you’re ready to climb your way up to a management position.
But due to the level of this role, your CV must communicate a range of important messages to recruiters that were not present in your entry-level events CV.
Here are some expert insights on adapting your CV and tailoring it for a mid-level events manager role.
Identify the skills the role requires
To tailor your CV to the job, you first need to identify what skills, qualifications, and experiences the vacancy requires.
As you read the job description, highlight the requirements that you fulfil and be sure to mention them naturally throughout your CV.
Common hard and soft skills required in events management often include project management, event logistics and reporting, budget management, venue marketing, problem-solving, leadership, teamwork, and communication.
Introduce a core competencies section
Since you’re applying for a management position and are likely to have a wealth of experience, it’s a good idea to introduce a ‘core competencies’ or ‘key skills’ section near the top of your CV. This section prioritises your core set of skills, providing recruiters with a digestible snapshot of your experience immediately.
If you tick all the boxes for the role, recruiters are likely to continue reading your CV to extract more detail.
Demonstrate your industry knowledge and success
While events is a niche within marketing, it covers a wide range of industries and types, from Christmas parties and conferences, to product launches and exhibitions.
As a result, it’s crucial that you showcase your knowledge, expertise and achievements to prove your value.
When listing your skills and experience in relation to the job description, be as specific as possible and support your claims with facts, figures, and statistics.
For example, in a management role, employers will be keen to see what your leadership abilities are like. But instead of simply writing "I led a Christmas party event," show the employer how you achieved this.
Did you lead a team of people? If so, how many? What was the budget for the event? What metrics were used to gauge the success of the event and what was the outcome? Did you address any problems and conceive solutions?
Show where your expertise lies and the impact you can make in the new position.
The more measurable and specific the details, the more likely you are to pique the recruiter’s interest.
Reduce irrelevant details
You may have zoomed in on the requirements the recruiter is looking for, but to make your value stand out, you should also cut down on the irrelevant details.
Start by looking at your past positions of employment that are unrelated to the role for which you’re applying. For these jobs, you can afford to reduce the information to employment dates, job title, company and a summary line or two about your experience. If you held the position more than 15 years ago, you may choose to remove it from your CV entirely.
If you’re considering the removal of a role entirely, be sure this won’t create employment gaps on your CV, which is a red light for 23% of recruiters.
Tailoring your CV doesn’t mean starting from scratch every single time. Adapt and target your base copy to ensure it doesn’t become jumbled and convoluted, and instead, shows what a skilled events professional you are.
TopCV offers a range of CV-writing services including expertly-written and keyword-optimised CVs, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles. It is currently offering a free CV review to help you land your ideal events manager job.