When someone is made redundant, one of the first things they often say is, “I need to update my CV.”
I completely understand that.
It gives them something practical to do when everything else can feel uncertain. They’ve been told their role is at risk or their role is ending and the next thought is often, “I need to get myself out there.”
A CV matters but as my conversation with career coach Phil Sterne reminded me, creating a CV after redundancy is rarely just about putting someone’s experience into a document.
Phil works with people at career crossroads, including many who are going through redundancy or leaving an organisation after a settlement agreement. He said people often come to him thinking they want a CV, “and that’s usually a big part of it.”
What they often leave with is something bigger: “confidence in their next move”.
That feels important because when someone has been made redundant, especially after years in the same organisation, they may not only be updating a CV. They may also be working out who they are outside of that role, what they want next and how to talk about the value they bring.
Why a CV can feel harder after redundancy
For many people, redundancy is the first time they’ve had to look for a job in years.
They may have moved through their career by being promoted internally, recommended by someone, or as Phil described it, “tapped on the shoulder”. Their CV may not have been needed for a long time. In some cases, they may not really have one at all.
I’ve been in that position myself. When I was made redundant I didn’t have a current CV and the second time I had an old one from years before. So I know how strange it can feel to suddenly have to put your experience into words when your confidence has already taken a knock.
Phil talked about something he sees often with people who have been in a role for a long time. They have what he calls “unconscious competence”.
They know their job because they’ve done it for years. They understand the business, the people, the problems, the history and the things that make everything work. Over time that knowledge becomes so familiar that they stop seeing it as anything special.
As Phil put it, “they forget what they know”.
When someone has been doing something for years, it can feel obvious to them. They might think, “I just do it.” Yet what feels obvious to them may be exactly the experience another organisation needs.
Start with value, not the job description
One of the things Phil sees all the time is CVs that read like job descriptions.
This happens at every level, including senior level. People list what they were responsible for, who they reported to, what areas they managed and what processes they oversaw.
It’s understandable – if someone hasn’t written a CV for a long time, their job description can feel like the easiest place to start. It gives them something to work from when the blank page feels impossible.
The job description is not the finished CV though.
A future employer doesn’t only need to know what someone was responsible for – they need to understand what changed because that person was there.
That might be a process they improved, a team they helped, a risk they reduced, a cost they managed, a problem they sorted out or a piece of work that moved the organisation forward.
Phil gave a simple way to start shifting a CV away from job description language. Take a responsibility, turn it into something active, then add the outcome.
If the job description says something like “facilitating workshops to help teams devise processes”, that tells us what sat in the role. It doesn’t yet tell us what happened because of it.
Phil suggested turning it into the past tense first: “Facilitated workshops to help teams develop new processes.” Then add the outcome.
What did those workshops lead to? Did they save time? Reduce cost? Improve customer experience? Remove unnecessary steps? Help teams work together better?
Sometimes you can quantify the outcome. Sometimes you can’t. Not everything has a neat number attached to it, although there is usually still an outcome of some kind.
That’s where CV support after redundancy can be invaluable. Someone else can often spot the things the individual is brushing over.
Think of the CV as a marketing document
Phil talked about how the purpose of a CV has changed.
For people who haven’t been in the job market for a long time, a CV can still feel like a record of their career with a list of jobs, dates and responsibilities.
Phil described it differently. He said a CV is now “absolutely about being a marketing document”, rather than “an anthology of your history”.
That distinction makes the purpose of the CV clearer. A CV isn’t there to tell someone everything an employee has ever done. Its purpose is to help the person reading it understand, quickly, why they might be relevant for the role they are recruiting.
That means thinking about the employer. What problem are they trying to solve? What do they need to see quickly? What would make them think, “Yes, this person is worth speaking to”?
This matters when someone is finding work after redundancy because the pressure to move quickly can be strong. People want to get the CV finished, send it to recruiters and start applying.
Sometimes that action is helpful but often it leads to a CV that is too broad, too long or too focused on the job someone has just left.
Write the CV for the job they want
Phil said one of the biggest mistakes people make is that “they write the CV for the job they’ve got, not the job they want.”
That changes the way you look at the whole document.
After redundancy, keeping all the options open can feel safer, especially when someone is not sure what they want next. Phil explained: “I see quite often is people saying I want to consider doing this kind of role and maybe that kind of role and maybe some consultancy. Can you do me a CV for that?”.
His response is to slow the process down because one CV cannot solve five different problems. If redundancy has made someone question what they want next, that lack of direction can show up quickly in the CV. They may want a different sector, pace, level of responsibility or work that uses their experience in a different way.
If the CV is being used for a career change after redundancy, it needs to be written with that direction in mind.
Phil’s advice was to pause and think about what they have enjoyed most, where they have contributed the most, what they want to do more of and what kind of problems they want to be solving next.
Those questions are not always quick to answer, especially when redundancy is still raw. Taking time with them can stop someone rushing into the wrong CV for roles they don’t really want.
Use AI CV writing carefully
We couldn’t talk about CVs without talking about AI CV writing.
Phil was balanced about this. AI can be useful for prompts, structure, wording and spotting gaps. If someone has notes from a conversation, it can help pull out themes or summarise what might be useful.
There is a risk though when someone drops an old CV and a job advert into AI and asks it to write the whole thing.
Phil said he can often tell when AI has done too much of the work. The CV might look fine on the surface but it can lose the context, nuance and personality that helps someone sound like themselves.
It’s vital that a CV sounds like the person. It needs to reflect their value, their choices and the role they are aiming for.
Phil’s advice was to use AI “in support of a human conversation rather than instead of” one.
That feels like the right place for it. Use it to help someone think but don’t hand the whole process over, especially at a point when they may already be feeling unsure of their own value.
Why the conversation matters
The outcome of this work might be a CV but the process often does something else too. It can help someone remember what they’ve done, talk about their experience again and separate themselves from the redundancy decision.
That’s why redundancy coaching and outplacement support can be valuable. People often need space to think, talk and rebuild confidence before they can present themselves well.
Phil described the value as being in the conversation itself, not just the finished CV. As he said, “It’s so often what’s not said that holds the gold.”
A CV won’t take away the shock, self-doubt or fear that can come with redundancy. But the right conversation around a CV after redundancy can help someone move forward with a little more clarity.
If you’re supporting employees through redundancy and want them to feel properly supported with what comes next, thoughtful outplacement support can make a real difference.
About the Guest
Phil Sterne is a career coach who helps senior people navigate career crossroads, including those facing redundancy, settlement agreements or decisions about what comes next. His background is in recruitment, with almost 20 years’ experience across agency recruitment, headhunting and in-house recruitment teams, including time at Amazon supporting business growth across the UK and Europe. Today, Phil supports clients with CVs, LinkedIn profiles and career direction, with a particular focus on helping people understand the value they bring and build confidence in their next move.
Discover more content like this in our Redundancy Matters podcast, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
If you’d like to keep in touch to receive regular content on Redundancy, Outplacement, and to be notified when our podcast episodes land you can join our mailing list.
And if you want to find out more about our services you can get in touch to discuss how we could support you with our Outplacement Support Services.