Explaining Self-Employment on a CV
When writing your CV, having been self-employed, it is a good idea to focus on how the prospective employer will perceive periods of self-employment.
Some employers are absolutely fine with it, others are sometimes not.
In the main, there are misconceptions that being self-employed means you are not used to working as part of a team, could be adverse to adhering to policy or proceedures, or even that you will not warm to being instructed by someone else.
Of course, it all depends on the individual and in the main, these are myths.
There are many scenarios you can use to portray you are able to undertake these tasks, for example, a few are listed below:
You would regularly receive instructions from your clients so why is that any different to being instructed by a line manager or company director? As such, ensure you convey this in your CV.
In any profession there are guidelines and regulations to adhere so why not mention your compliance or memberships to organisations?
When it comes to working as part of a team, this can still be possible when self employed, particularly if you have to work alongside other trades or professions in order to complete works. Ensure you portray you team and leadership capabilities and cite examples.
The other alternative is to perhaps utilise a different term or phrase for having been self-employed. Some applicants prefer to refer to themselves as having been 'freelance' or a 'contractor' or 'freelance contractor' as this indicates that you have been actively working as part of a team for a larger organisation, which is likely to be a criteria they are looking for.
Each CV sent should be written and tailored according to the job for which you wish to apply and there are many industry tricks that can be employed when writing the CV but without being false or mis-leading is rather an art!
Writing a CV if you are self-employed can be a little tricker than the norm but with our expert help and a careful play on words, a CV can be written to fully showcase your skills and experience to win over the employer.
Explaining Self-Employment on a CV