When I help clients rewrite their CV—or that crucial first page—I often start by interviewing them, because what’s on the surface is rarely the whole story…
“Is this your most up-to-date CV?”
Yes.
“And it includes your key responsibilities and achievements?”
Absolutely!
Then I start reading…
Supported cross-functional collaboration to drive strategic Pharma initiatives.
A bullet point trying to encompass everything by saying absolutely nothing.
“What does that actually mean?”
So, I start digging…
🌱 What was the initiative?
🌱 Who were you collaborating with?
🌱 What was your role?
🌱 What changed because of your work?
Imagine someone in Pharma whose “cross-functional collaboration” turns out to mean coordinating medical, regulatory, and commercial colleagues across four continents to close launch-readiness gaps for a rare disease diagnostic tool—helping the teams meet their designated launch dates in the US, EU, and China.
Now we have something to work with.
A specific piece of work. A scope. A meaningful impact.
Give up the Corporate Jargon. Sound Human.
And yes, companies can be guilty of this “sin” too: job ads so full of corporate jargon that you still have no clue what the heck the job is about.
But I beg you—you don’t have to carry that language into your CV as well.
Give up the corporate jargon and sound (somewhat) human 😄.
Interview yourself: Purpose, Scope, Contribution, outcomes
📌 You can interview yourself, too.
Read each bullet on your CV as though it belongs to someone else.
What would you ask to understand what they actually did?
Look for:
☀️ Purpose: what problem or unmet need were they addressing?
☀️ Scope: which products, markets, therapeutic areas, teams, or budgets? At what scale?
☀️ Contribution: what did they personally do?
☀️ Outcomes: what changed, improved, or became possible?
Use measurable results 📐 where you have them.
Where you don’t, describe an observable 👀 outcome. Don’t invent a percentage just because you think every bullet needs one.
You’re not trying to sound impressive. You’re trying to be factual, specific, and less wishy-washy. Why?
📌 Because how else can you expect to stand out in a flooded market if you sound like everybody else?
Keep asking “What else?”
Give yourself that interview. You might even surprise yourself with what you’ve actually accomplished.
Oh, and don’t stop at the first few bullet points. Keep asking
📌 “What else?”
I bet there are one or two forgotten gems to be uncovered… You can then choose the most relevant ones to highlight.
And if you’d like someone to do the digging with you, that’s part of my work. I bring HR experience, questions, and curiosity to help you uncover—and communicate—the value of what you’ve done.
Because, let’s face it—sometimes, it needs a fresh pair of eyes to spot the treasures where the dust has settled…
With love,
Dina 🫶🏽
Resources:
- Previous related post:
- A little antidote to Corporate jargon:
Watch my dear friend Peter Sandbach’s brilliant 2016 TED talk, “A cure to Corporate jargon”. It should cure yours too. 🙂
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