This ONE Mistake Decreases The Value Of Your Cybersecurity CV

Avoid this mistake when making your resume

I have been working in Cybersecurity for over 20 years in various positions both technical and managerial

Over that time, I must have reviewed thousands of CVs and Resumes from cybersecurity professionals for hundreds of jobs

I cannot emphasize enough how important a good resume is in Cybersecurity

Like it or not .. your Cybersecurity resume or LinkedIn is usually the first impression that hiring managers will form of you before they meet you

If you cannot make a good first impression .. you will not get a chance to impress your future manager, as your resume will simply get discarded at the first level

1- The Problem

While many mistakes can be made, such as poor writing, and typos .. one mistake seriously damages your resume.

Focusing on your job description instead of your achievements

It still boggles my mind how common this mistake is

Let us take an example of a CV I was helping a person with.

This is what his CV looks like

Keep in mind that this is a person with years of dedicated Cybersecurity experience, but my mind shuts down from the bullet-point hell I was subjected to

I forgot what the first bullet said when I reached the last one!

Let us take another one.

Same problem.

This person is another professional I know, and she is fantastic at her job, but her CV just lists off her job description.

• What does that tell me about the unique value she brought to the company?
• What differentiates her from the 1000s of other people applying for a job ??

2- How To Fix It

Here is what you should do to make your Cybersecurity CV stand out and show off what you can do

Spend at least 2–3 lines telling the hiring manager what you do

Spending the following 7 to 8 lines telling the hiring manager what you have accomplished

This simple tip can make a massive difference

Let us look at CV 1 again

See the difference?

Let us look at CV 2 also:

I hope you are seeing just how much easier it is now for the hiring manager to see the value you will bring

Focus on your achievements instead of listing off your day-to-day activities

Highlight the key things you brought to the role, as this is what will impress the hiring manager and not a boring read-out of your job description.

3- Use ChatGPT to make it easier

To make this easy for you. I have made a ChatGPT prompt that you can use ( it works for both free and paid versions ).

Just enter it, put in the career part of your CV, and let the magic unfold!

Good luck with a fantastic 2024 for your Cybersecurity career!

Here is the prompt :

I want you to act like an expert cybersecurity recruiter. I want you to analyze the following portion of my CV and optimize it in the following way.

1 — Summarize what I did in 2 or 3 lines

2 — Create an achievements section highlighting the five key achievements I brought to the company. Make sure to highlight the unique value I bought

Taimur Ijlal is a multi-award-winning, information security leader with over two decades of international experience in cyber-security and IT risk management in the fin-tech industry. Taimur can be connected on LinkedIn or on his YouTube channel “Cloud Security Guy” on which he regularly posts about Cloud Security, Artificial Intelligence, and general cyber-security career advice.