A CV is a CV, right? Wrong! Now before I go any further let me caveat: people the world over have different views of CVs – are trends really applicable or not? how long can they be? must we have basic or is colourful and graphics-heavy ok?– and so on. So many might argue that the one document is entirely usable across all roles, sectors, countries. There is a degree of truth in this of course: at the end of the day the nuts and bolts are to tell the reader who we are, what we’ve achieved and in what academic, work or volunteer context. But – and it’s sizeable – readers are different in what they expect.

The cynics amongst you may question why this is so. There is, we would all agree, good and bad – concise, factual, accurate, grammatically 100% vs. verbose, non-specific, woolly and poorly constructed. But what is missing – deliberately – in that sentence is “only”. There are (sorry cynics!) light and shade, nuance and – perhaps both the nub and the thorn – readers’ varying expectations. This applies nowhere more than in the public <> private sector divide.

Divide I hear you ask? I’m afraid so. There are many recorded instances of clients moving between one and the other only to find that the CV they thought would fit both, does not. This is due mainly, though not exclusively, to two things: corporate and public sector senior managers have different views of their own sectors and markets; and each has a very fixed view of the others’ sector. This can be unpalatable for both sides but when someone wants to move across, the differing stances play to how the CV is constructed.

Here we need to lay bare the fundamental differences between both sectors because being aware of, and understanding, those will feed the CV and how it should put together. If you asked most senior managers, they would say the differences could be boiled down to

Private	Public
Return on Investment	Value for Money
Shareholders looking for returns	General public – awareness there is no profit to be had
Need to be aware of competition	No such requirement
Cost efficiencies across all business areas	Arguably not requiring of focus
Speed of action – necessarily high	Able to be slower

Boiled down, there is a cut and thrust, an urgency of action, an awareness of returns, that pervades – rightly – the commercial world. That is not required to anything like the same extent in the public sector. Yes, I know we don’t, if we work there, want to accept it. But it is evidenced by not infrequent press coverage of large public infrastructure projects which employ hundreds of consultant with vague remits, finishing – if at all – late, going hugely over budget. And the outcome is always a government enquiry but negligible individual accountability. Not nice to hear but a fact.

So, you ask, how does this affect or impact the CV and its use?

There was an instance where a very senior NHS procurement manager with 30+ years’ experience, whom I was assisting, wished to demonstrate that her skillset was 100% able to be transplanted, without modification, into the private sector. I tried to explain that things were not quite that straightforward, though clarification of this was neither easy nor received well.

Explanations and guidance were offered as to why the CV needed to capture scale and scope of what she’d delivered, and place less emphasis on cost, delivery on time (or not), and who the stakeholders were. It came down to: what precisely are your measurable deliverables which, if you don’t meet them, will see you lose your public sector job? There were none – on paper yes, in practice, no. It was a hard sell.

So, if the candidate wishes to transfer from public to private, what must the CV’s angle be?

1) It must be built around the specific requirements of the company, articulated in a way that highlights an understanding of not only the role but the commercial requirements of it – giving the reader the message that “I understand failure is not an option”

2) It must show there has been a forensic assessment of the candidate’s own background to find the skills and achievements that position them for the role. There has to have been a cull on the candidate’s part, of irrelevant projects or duties which muddy the waters. Remember: omission is not a factual inaccuracy – the CV vs. what happens at interview distinction is critical

3) A clear outline of leaderships – whether by role title or simply as adopted on a per-project basis, to illustrate key commercial awareness: how to save money, streamline processes, improve cost-effective procurement, reduce operational inefficiencies, and so on

4) Absolutely crucial – avoid all jargon. It is fair to the public sector to note that some private sector executives love jargon – they think that “management speak” makes them appear to be controlling a huge empire. In actual fact it’s vacuous, annoying nonsense. The key thing for the public sector to not only remember but fully embrace is that the public sector is notorious for jargon. It is impossible, on a CV, to get round the ridiculously long role titles in central or local government; what is possible – and must happen – is that woolly waffle must be removed

As for the last, a recent Google search for “NHS Vacancies” produced, 2nd in its list, “NHS Scotland Recruitment”. The “Senior Managers” tab produced the rather frightening “General Manager eHealth – Patient Administration & Transformation”. The most obvious question is what are we transforming patients into?
So the public sector crossover candidate will need to be careful of job titles. They may need to add an explanatory sentence describing the scope of the role, preferably rewritten in properly researched private-sector terminology.

It can also often be the case that some public sector managers do not appreciate the extent to which large companies use CV-scanning software or an “Applicant Tracking System” (ATS) to filter for specific keywords. This failing, if that is not too strong, is often driven by those same senior public sector managers being moved or promoted internally. They therefore often don’t understand that they need to make sure the key elements or words in advertised role descriptions are in their CV summary (sic), skills (sic) and professional history (sic) sections; that they must dig deep in the job description for role-specific keywords.

A minefield? Well not really, just a need for public sector acceptance that a like-for-like role transfer to corporate may not be as straightforward as they feel it will be.

And does the private sector manager have the same CV-construction difficulty? Not really, no. Many recent articles by headhunting agencies and CV writing companies indicates – I think correctly – that as the recession of 2008 (and beyond) took hold, the public sector realised it needs more commercial skills, more emphasis on recruits being risk-averse, dynamic, rapid in response. As long as the private sector candidate can evidence these well on their CV – which, let’s be honest, if they’ve only ever worked in the private, will be quite straightforward – they should get to interview.

CV differences? Yes, but only to a degree; harder for the public sector employee to manage? Probably. Impossible for either to transfer as long as the CV is appropriately tailored? Absolutely not.

The bottom line: research, research, research what the “other side” wants and, as long as you are able to convey this properly on your curriculum vitae, you have as good a chance as the next man (or woman!)