A Winning Professional CV can be yours, but ONLY when Armed Forces CVs writes it…

Renowned Professional CV Writer and Armed Forces Veteran, Steve Thompson, promises you his powerful “CivvySpeak” CV will get you a Job Interview. In fact , he guarantees it – he puts his money where his mouth is:

“If the CV I write for you doesn’t get you an interview within 60 days of leaving, I’ll rewrite it – free of charge – until it does.“

A Professional CV Writer, I’ve been ‘out’ of the military for nearly 30 years now. As a former civilian HR Head and a highly-trained Copywriter, I know EXACTLY what works and what doesn’t. Please don’t make the fundamental mistake of trying to ‘get your foot in the door’ with a weak CV.

Trust me – DIY CVs are for mugs

Perhaps you’ve written the CV yourself, or ‘improved’ it by discussion with buddies and colleagues. Maybe you’ve run it by your CSM, BSM or OC, or other sincere and well-meaning advisers. Take it from me – I write CVs every day for a living – they really don’t have the necessary expertise to advise on the construction of a Professional CV.

Such an error of judgment will cost you dearly. You could waste weeks or months making fruitless job applications, and maybe even squander your final military salary.

Don’t just take my word for it. Click here to see a simple illustration of how it could cost you at least £15,000 and probably a lot more. It’s terrifying…

Your Professional CV must be your “Silent Salesman”, working for you in your absence – you won’t be there when it’s read. The CV really must slip stealthily and covertly into the reader’s mind to compel him to reach out to you. It’s not voodoo or witchcraft; just needs to ‘press the right buttons’…

Each and every Professional CV you send out must immediately:

• Grab the reader’s attention straight off the page or screen.
• Instantly convince your new prospective employer that you’re better than the next candidate in the pile.
• Defeat the ‘enemy’. It’ll have to beat CVs from hundreds of other applicants, many of whom are qualified civilian competitors who have been ‘out there’ all their adult lives…

…and the document you send out needs to be strong enough and focused enough to do that in just 8 – 12 seconds….MAX!

Not easy. But don’t worry…

I’ll civilianise your Professional CV and turn it into the Sales and Marketing Proposal it MUST become to propel you through the door to interview when you ‘get out’.

In today’s economic climate it’s tougher than ever to close the gap on your civvy competition. It’s not enough to just match relevant phrases and attributes from the job ad, highlight your transferable skills, or squeeze in some of your ‘soft’ skills. These are all important, of course…

But now – more than ever before – it’s absolutely vital that you proactively SELL yourself to the employer…and we know how difficult that can be for service leavers.

In fact, it’s not just an issue for service leavers. This is, unfortunately, part of our genetic makeup in the UK. A well-written Professional CV will do that selling admirably for you.

We don’t like to sell ourselves.

Most of us hate to ‘descend’ to selling ourselves; blowing our own trumpets. But it’s critical to success at this stage, so if you can’t do it, trust it to someone who can – someone who has the experience and expertise to do it for you – and can prove it!

Deceptively simple in principle. However, in practice you MUST turn your Professional CV into a solid, commercial marketing proposal. The CV should grab the reader by the throat and give him or her a good shaking!

Your Professional CV must also stand out from the rest.

It can’t do that if it ‘looks’ the same as all the others cascading across the selector’s desk, written to a common formula or Word template. You’re in direct competition with anyone leaving the military with the same trade, maybe even from the same regiment or corps. Or via one of the very good ex-military recruiters we all flock to on exit. Incidentally, the ex-mil recruiters will also, with the best of intentions, create their own unremarkable version of the ‘CV formula’ for you. Disastrous.

So, how do you differentiate yourself…

…from the other logistics specialists, project managers, team leaders, finance managers, workshop supervisors, HGV drivers or CP Operatives?

Your Professional CV must be the key component of a critical sales process that promotes and sells YOU. It should scream out that you’re the ‘hot, new, shiny, must-have product’ your target employer just can’t do without! You’re the ‘plug-in’ solution to their ‘key frustrations’ (i.e. what they’re advertising for).

6 Important Keys to Professional CV Writing for those leaving the UK military

The Curriculum Vitae (literally ‘Life Story’ – that’s what CV means, in case you didn’t know) you submit needs to tell the potential employer the six key attributes they absolutely MUST know about you: what, why, when, how, where, and who (Rudyard cKipling’s “Six Honest Serving Men”). Most CV’s I see rarely cover three….

Cut Out the ‘Green’ Language

Remove all the military jargon and rank info. Dump the ‘radio procedure’ terminology. Forget the job-description type passive language like “Responsible for”. It’s weak and only tells the reader what you were required (aka ‘told’) to do. If you’re applying for a management role, that’s commercial and career suicide.

Additionally, this terminology doesn’t explain to them whether you actually completed the tasks. Nor does it explain what you achieved for your employer.

Positive, Vibrant, Action Verbs

You must use strong, positive, language and ‘action’ verbs to describe your performance. Give actual numbers to quantify how much you contributed. And tell each of those ‘mini stories’ in a way that connects with the employers’ business needs.

Explain to the reader how YOU will impact their business

Tell the employer how YOU can save them money or make them money. Make it clear to him how YOU are going to streamline their procedures and speed up their processes. Let her know how YOU can improve their staff retention. Describe how YOU can increase their profits, drive innovation and market penetration, reduce losses and much more…

Get the idea? Your Professional CV is all about what you can do to ADD VALUE to the employer’s business. It’s not about how they should help YOU!

Unless you do that – in ‘civvyspeak’- within 8 to 12 seconds of the reader opening your CV, you’ve no chance.

Sorry to burst your bubble, chum. I expect CTP didn’t put it quite like that …

But here’s some GOOD NEWS:

If you can’t do it, I can write it for you.

Get your Professional CV from the ONLY Military CV Specialist in the UK! If you have served in the Army, Royal Navy (RN), Royal Air Force (RAF) or Royal Marines (RM) you WILL get interviews with my CV. I guarantee it!

Well over 750 ex-military Clients just like you have proved it. Look at some of the testimonials over on the right, or see my LinkedIn Recommendations. BS not spoken here….

My Clients come from all 3 Services, and across the full rank spectrum. Commissioned and non-commissioned – from the Officers’ Mess to the NAAFI, and from the Wardroom to the Mess Deck. I also have an increasing number of Clients from the Police Forces around the UK.

Armed Forces CVs is run by Ex-Military for Ex-Military. You’ll never need to explain your service or skills to me – I’ve been there, done it, got the DVD, trashed the T shirt.

Better than that, I can translate your experience into language that Civvies understand! Today more than ever, Civvy Street needs talented people like YOU. Your Professional CV needs to convince them WHY!

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Why MORE THAN 90% of CVs never even get READ – Here’s the SHOCKING TRUTH…

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Huddersfield, England UK

Dear Colleague

What I won’t do is bore you to death with fluff or filler, or give you a load of waffle. I’ll be direct and candid, straight to the point – that’s my style, like it or lump it – I “tell it like it is”. So, before we get down to the ‘nitty-gritty’, here are a few FACTS for you:

The Facts

• Unless we can tell recruiters and employers what we do, in language they can understand, they’ll always give the interview (and the job) to ‘Joe (or Jane) Civvy’. He or she is a known quantity and speaks their language. ‘Simples!’, as Aleksandr the Meerkat would say.
• In the post-COVID-19 era and following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we’re rapidly sliding into the deepest, darkest recession and toughest economic climate in living memory!
• If you want to get a Job Interview with ANY organisation today, you need an incredibly strong, compelling, focused and dynamic Professional CV.
• The CV needs to be actually READ!
• We, the Military, are ‘flavour of the month’ out there in ‘Civvy-Street’ at the moment. We have the best press since the Second World War. But…..
• The overwhelming majority of civilians don’t know what we actually do. They only see what the media (mainly TV) shows them.
• They don’t understand our ‘language’ or jargon, or our way of life, or our culture.
• It is very much ‘us and them’. Soldiers are soldiers and the rest are ‘normal’ people (civilians). The general public won’t ever admit it, because they really don’t want it to be that way. It’s not deliberate. But it is, unfortunately, TRUE!

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Enough ‘facts’ – what do they all mean?

Simply this. When you leave the Military, return to civilian life, and apply for a civilian job…. you’re at a major disadvantage when compared to any civilian competition. With unemployment soaring during the pandemic and competition for every job getting tougher and tougher, your Professional CV needs to sell you more aggressively than ever before.

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It’s not rocket science, even if you ignore the impact of COVID. It makes sense really. Look at the situation the other way round. What if a ‘civvy’ shooting club member had applied for a sniper instructor’s job in Afghanistan or Iraq. How likely do you think it would have been for him to be offered the position if all of the competition was from SASC or a Regimental Bisley Team?

The core technical skill sets might be broadly similar, but he would not have the kinetic operational experience, know the ground, speak the language or ‘fit’ into the culture.

And it’s very likely his CV would reflect that!

The bottom line?

It doesn’t matter how good you are. Or how well qualified, or what your considerable skill sets may be.

If you can’t get those attributes across to the potential employer – and explain how they will help his business – you’re dead in the water. And remember that you aren’t there to personally explain them. Before you get the opportunity to do that, your completely impersonal and anonymous Professional CV has to open the door for you.

Your Professional CV has to do that in about 8 – 12 seconds, max!

That’s all the time your CV has to ‘hook’ the reader…

Think about it – most job advertisements attract literally hundreds of applications and CVs. Typically, there are between 350 and 500 applications for the majority of ‘white collar’, management or professional vacancies. Worse – Since the COVID-19 Pandemic kicked off, that number of competitor CVs has doubled!

This mountain of CVs has to be reduced to a manageable number of ‘possibles’ quickly. Often by the same overworked and underpaid person who placed the ad for the vacancy in the first place.

It’s a heck of a job. I know, I’ve been there and done it – watched the video, got the T-Shirt!

The reality is that you just don’t have the time to even start evaluating them. You just pull those out that look right; those that have the specific skills or keywords you’re looking for. If they don’t jump out at you immediately, you just bin that CV and move on to the next.

Time is at a premium…

You know what ‘Overstretch’ is, and ‘Mission Creep’. Civvy Street is no different. Managers and department heads in industry have exactly the same problems – not enough people, time or resources. Goal-posts are constantly being moved and everybody’s wearing too many hats. So time and effort is at a significant premium!

Today’s fiercely competitive marketplace separates the very good CV from the excellent. But only the best of the ‘excellent’ category gets past the initial sift for a second look. The final filter will narrow these excellent 4 or 5 CVs down to the truly exceptional 2 or 3 that make it to interview.

Remember, none of the people featured in the CVs are known by the selectors at this stage. The ONLY decider is the strength of the Professional CV and Covering Letter. It’s these crucial two documents that secure the interview for you.

Testimonials and Recommendations – read what others have to say…

Here’s a good example of just that; there are dozens more over on the right, and on my LinkedIn Profile.

This one’s a brief testimonial from an RAF Officer. He kindly wrote to me on the final day of celebrations of Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee back in June 2012:

“Dear Steve,

I hope all is well with you and that you’re enjoying the Jubilee celebrations.

Just wanted to give you some feedback on the CV and cover letter you helped me with and to say thanks.

So far I have sent the CV to one company with the cover letter you wrote. The combination did the trick and I got short-listed for an interview. I had the interview a couple of weeks ago and used a lot of the principles from your ebook to create a good impression. I got the call last week offering me the internship and I will be heading down to London tomorrow to meet the team.

My biggest dilemma now is that I still have 18 months left in the RAF!! I had fully expected to spend over a year networking and getting rejected but with your expertise and perhaps, some good luck, I have my first offer on the table already.

Thanks again for all your assistance,

Best wishes

Andy”

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Many of our clients, when they turn up for interview, are surprised at how few competitors make it through. In every industry and sphere of employment nowadays, management time is at a premium. Gone are the days when 20 people would be called for the initial interview. The process is just too expensive.

Lockdown in the pandemic era made the situation even worse. It’s now more important than ever that your Professional CV and Covering Letter are incredibly powerful and focused.

CV writing is tough…Writing a Professional CV is a huge challenge for most of us.

Of course, I’m perhaps a little biased, but I would always entrust such a critical career change document it to a professional.

I am in constant touch with employers and clients and have almost daily feedback from them. Plus a not-inconsiderable 25+ years of ‘in-the-trenches’ experience to draw on.

The two biggest problems I see in military and ex-military CVs haven’t changed in all that time, both very similar:

• 1. Too much jargon and military terminology. Employers don’t know what a Section Commander is, what a Sitrep is, or what it means to be ‘On Stag’. They think an RV is a motor caravan! A recent Soldier Magazine article illustrates this perfectly: “We deployed on various operations, providing depth protection and disruption ops, keeping the insurgents away from lines of communication.” I promise you, most civvies wouldn’t have a clue what this chap was taking about!
• 2. Inability to properly explain military jobs, roles, ranks, appointments and operational issues in civilian terms.

Jargon…

We take our jargon for granted and use it naturally. The civilian recruiter or HR Professional doesn’t, and has neither the time nor inclination to start trying to work it out.

When he or she reads terms like ‘Regular’ and ‘Territorial’ on a CV, for example, and ‘operational readiness’, they have to stop and think. Firstly what those terms mean, and secondly how they translate and mesh into their own or their company’s environment. It breaks the flow and slows down the process.

Human nature being what it is, most readers will simply take the easy option and move on to the next CV. Chances are he or she can understand that candidate’s background, skills and qualifications instantly and doesn’t have to think about them at all. Your chance has gone. Forever.

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Many other factors – it’s not just ‘writing’…

Creating a CV in the first place is not an everyday or familiar task for most people. That said, many intelligent and articulate individuals, given a few hours, can use a word processor and can get skills and experience down on paper.

But that isn’t the issue here.

What chance do you think a ‘standard’ Word document has, if it looks just like all the other CVs in the pile. Don’t even mention all the competition and other factors we discussed earlier…

Format and design – keep it simple and ‘clean’…

The gimmicky, often ‘arty-farty’ type of offering most SNCO’s and Officers (sorry guys!) seem particularly adept at pumping out these days is almost criminal. Ask any recruiter or personnel/HR person who sees them every day. They say that the one place where artistic design or creativity should NEVER surface is on the face of your Professional CV!

There is just no room for these, and the ‘look-alikes’ fade into the background.

CV Writing is an unique blend of art and science. Are you good at both?

More importantly, do you know what current recruiters look for in a Professional CV? Or which ones they automatically drop?

I do. I write and analyse CVs for 8 – 10 hours every day, 5 or 6 days a week. Repetition is key to perfecting any skill. Look at stripping and assembling a weapon, delivering a passing out parade or carrying out a foot patrol.

Repetition – it’s how you get good at anything, isn’t it?

How can you possibly expect a CV you’ve put together yourself, maybe for the first time in 15 or 20 years? Or even the only time, if you joined straight from school, college or Uni? How could that document properly represent you in the most critical presentation of your life so far?

It’s also the one occasion at which you’re not even present to argue your case or explain anything?

Even if it’s got the approval of your mates, the unit welfare or education officer, or your OC, that approval will be a ‘best guess’ and inevitably opinion-based. Bear in mind that most of them will be either in the same position you’re in now, or have yet to get there themselves.

However, what I’m telling you isn’t based on opinion at all. It’s based on what’s working now – TODAY – in the real world civilian job market, and it’s been tried and tested to destruction. I’ve written thousands. They work.

Here’s the Truth…

Your CV needs to be your powerful advocate. Accurate, committed and totally focused on the task at hand. It must present you in plain, everyday (civilian) language. If you are to get an interview your Professional CV MUST AT FIRST GLANCE – instantly – stand out from the pile without gimmicks or fancy, quirky visual tricks.

Sell, Sell, Sell…

The carefully prepared Sales Proposal (that’s what your CV needs to be) presenting your case should spring off the page in a clean, clear, credible and professional way. It must sell you, your skills and your relevant experience so hard it leaves no doubt in the selector’s mind that YOU are the very best candidate for interview. Your CV should immediately cut any potential rivals out of the equation. Now is not the time to ‘wimp out’ with polite introspection…

Remember the 8 – 12 seconds I mentioned earlier?

Forget it! It’s already old info. We’ve moved on even while you’ve been reading this web page!

Unless your CV slays the competition within 8 seconds, you’re dead. Out of the race.

Your Armed Forces CV does exactly that. Together with your targeted, structured and individually-tailored Cover Letter it acts as your silent but incredibly powerful salesman, instantly propelling you, in leaps and bounds, well ahead of the competition.

That’s it. Everything else, as they say, is just commentary.

If you want that Interview, you need The Armed Forces CV.

I know – I can almost hear you saying it: “He’s bound to say that, he wants to sell me a CV!”, and you’re right, I do – it’s my business. More precisely though, it’s your success that drives my business. The recommendations and testimonials you see on here and on LinkedIn are what keep me doing what I do.

The reality is that there is just nobody else out there who knows the ground and the players like I do. And I’m also an ex-Army WO1 who has successfully made the transition. Having been a civilian for more than 25 years now, I’ve helped hundreds of ex-Service people just like you to move swiftly and seamlessly into their new lives as civilians.

Already transitioned – successfully…

‘Hiring and firing’ has been the biggest part of all the roles I’ve held for most of that time. Initially as a Financial Accountant in industry, then as Finance Director and Head of Personnel for a global manufacturing group. Latterly I’ve practised as a freelance (self-employed) copywriter, management consultant and business restructuring specialist.

Following my second redundancy in 1997, at the request of many friends and colleagues whom I had been ‘servicing’ for a number of years, I set up Professional CV Writing Services and Top Pro CVs. They grew very quickly, largely through word-of-mouth recommendation, to become highly-successful providers of Career Coaching and CVs at all levels. Armed Forces CVs became a natural progression.

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Right. Now you know ‘what’s what’ – here’s a simple question for you:

“Do You Want A Civvy Street Job Offer When You Get Out?”

Whether your answer is “Yes” or “No”, take my advice and you could even get an offer before you go on terminal leave. Before your last military salary payment goes into the bank!

If you really want to get that Job Offer from ‘Civvy Street’, maybe even before you leave the Armed Forces . . . . . then this is the most exciting message you’ll ever read!

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Here’s why:

There’s an outstanding new Career Transition Product called the “Armed Forces CV”. An ex-military Expert CV Writer has written it specifically to enable you to ‘get your foot in the door’ with an employer, and at the same time gain a real advantage over competing civilian applicants.

• Imagine being able to move seamlessly into civilian life, without taking a drop in pay, or worse, having to scramble around to get a good civilian job. Wouldn’t that be great?
• Or what if you could slip quietly, covertly, into ‘Civvy Street’ as if nothing had happened, and simply crack straight on with your new life as a civilian? How would that feel?
• Imagine being able to just get on with your resettlement and training package, without having to rely on the ‘system’, or worry about getting a civilian job at the end of it. It truly is possible, but you need to know how.

That’s what this brand new Professional CV Package helps you to do.

And it’s not like any other CV Package you’ve ever seen. It gets civilian employment lined up for you. And if you start the process early enough you could have a job to go to before you even leave the Military!

Why?

Research, development…and rigorous testing.

Every part of the Package and my service has been carefully and painstakingly researched, and accurately targeted.

The result, the Armed Forces CV, is there because ‘you asked for it.’

Well, not ‘you’ specifically, but built from the answers people just like you gave to real live questions. Questions from people who have already been through the ‘mil-to-civvy’ transition, have since got into civilian employment, and with my help have easily left the competition for dead.

I set up a simple web page way back in 2010. People in your situation, about to leave the Services, visited it and asked me their most pressing questions, challenges and fears about moving into ‘Civvy Street’.

Not a level playing field for ex-military…

They were concerned about getting an interview with a civilian employer, and being able to compete on a ‘level playing field’ with similarly-qualified civilians. Those questions, concerns and challenges haven’t changed. In fact, they’ve intensified.

I personally analysed the questions, using my 20-plus years of professional experience and hard-won expertise, and answered them! Then I ran them past my clients, civilian and military, and my ‘team’ of writers and in-house experts. Finally, I went out to the industry and got the opinions of other CV and Career Change Experts.

If you know me, that meant no fluff or B.S. – I always ‘tell it like it is’, no punches pulled. Just the real answers you wanted to know.

Redesigned and rebuilt ‘from scratch’…

I designed the Armed Forces CV to address every single point, and to incorporate every identified facet. I can honestly say that the resultant product and service meets or exceeds specification in every respect.

Here’s a sneak peek at the ‘stealth’ solutions I’ve built into the process as a result of your answers, and what now goes into every Armed Forces CV:

• How to ensure YOUR CV is the one the employer reads first
• 3 simple ways to make sure you get an interview every time you send out your CV
• The little-known way to make sure ‘Joe (or Jane) Civvy’ doesn’t get in there first
• 5 proven steps to beating the competition – hands down
• 2 simple keys to get job offers coming out of your ears
• AMAZING! We have effectively ‘written the book’ on how to translate your military skills into ‘civilianese’, so it’s all in the CV
• 4 proven strategies for getting employers to consider you before the rest
• 7 insider tips and tricks for opening the ‘doors of opportunity’
• A dirt-cheap way to separate your CV from the pile sitting on the prospective employer’s desk
• A free and easy way to slam the other 250-plus applications he has received, taking them completely out of the equation
• Have you been looking for this for ages? We KNOW how to write your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) so that it is YOU the employer ‘buys’ and puts at the top of their list
• How to blast past even the well-qualified civilians that are your direct competitors
• REVEALED! The hidden truth behind translating military skills and terminology, or jargon, into ‘Civvy-Speak’
• The secret weapon for making your military career a huge positive for a civilian employer

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And that’s just a fraction of what I incorporate into your Armed Forces CV. All these unique and ‘secret’ techniques are built into it – you don’t even need to think about them! That’s why you should get it today. In fact, you can be reading our Exclusive Career Development Questionnaire in as little as 5 minutes from now.

And don’t worry…..if for any reason you’re not happy with the content, you have a complete guarantee to protect your investment:

100% RISK-FREE GUARANTEE

Look, you’re my customer. And if you’re not happy, it reflects badly on me. I have a well-established reputation, and you know how word travels within the Services community!

So if you’re not happy with your Armed Forces CV, and it doesn’t get you the interviews you want, just fire off an email to me and I’ll happily rework or rewrite the CV until it does! OK? So you really can’t lose!

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What’s a resource like this worth?

To have someone do all this research for you, or acquire the expertise yourself, would cost you a minimum of £35,000 (I should know, that’s what it has cost me!). Particularly the laser-guided, pin-point accurate, techniques and methodologies I use – SPECIFICALLY for ‘getting your foot in the door’ with a civilian employer, and gaining for YOU a real and distinct advantage over competing civilian applicants.

This isn’t some ‘spray-on’ collection of commonplace or everyday pieces of publicly-available information – this is crucial, specialist, insider knowledge of the marketplace, and breakthrough techniques that have taken me a pretty tough 25 years to acquire and perfect.

Everything is done for you, so that you don’t even have to think about the process. The Career Development Questionnaire, which forms the backbone of my service delivery to you, explains everything in PLAIN English. Which means it’s dead-easy to read, understand, and complete. And it’s logically laid out.

Which is why the Armed Forces CV is such a bargain at only £196.37! [This is for the digital (email) version; to avoid raising the price, we have cut out the physical products, saving you £50. Instead of paying almost £250, you can print your own copies out at home or at work, and pay the reduced price. You receive everything else, just no printed copies or CD]

We’ve just finished re-costing the product and taken your valuable recent feedback on board. We have still managed to keep the price under £200 for the 10th year in a row!

So £196.37 is ALL you pay – in total, if you take the digital version!

That’s right, a fraction of what it’s really worth, or what it has cost me to research and build this unique interview-winning process. You can still get the full package if you like, including CD Rom and printed and bound copies on Conqueror paper, but it needs a slightly larger investment from you of £246.37. Completely up to you which you choose.

Why would I make it so affordable?

Because I’ve been where you are now. As an ex-soldier myself with over 20 years’ exemplary Regular service, plus a couple of years with the TA behind me, I know how difficult it is to make the change. When I left the Army there just wasn’t a service like this available – not anywhere. The Resettlement people did their best, but frankly just weren’t up to the job. Not entirely their fault – the CV market is too volatile and specialised, and its secrets are jealously protected.

As an ex-infantry Warrant Officer (WO1), I also know I’m privileged to be uniquely placed to cater for this particular market. I know the language and the marketplace, and understand how to translate your military skills, ranks, appointments and jargon into ‘Civvy-Speak’.

It’s relatively straightforward for me to make it easy for civilians to understand what you are all about. This is key; absolutely vital. If you’ve read the info above, you understand why. I just cannot understand how many of the mainstream civilian CV writing services claim to be able to write a CV for Forces leavers, despite having no military or service experience. Worse, they all use so-called “CV Consultants”. They’re a joke……

I have been writing CVs every day for over 25 years…

On the ‘Civvy-Net’ I write CVs for company directors, managers and other professional ‘high flyers’ through Top Pro CVs every day, as I have for more than 25 years. Despite this I only realised in 2010 what a massive need there was for people leaving the Armed Forces. A bespoke product. I should have picked it up much earlier, really.

You get exactly the same level of service and product as my Top Pro Clients, including a one-hour telephone consultation with me personally (if you need it), but you get better value.

Because of my specialist background knowledge I write all Armed Forces CVs myself. This means I don’t pass on to you the premium rates I would otherwise need to charge, to cover freelance writers’ fees.

Please note: Although my writing your CV personally is of immense benefit to you, I would just point out that there can also be a “downside”, and it’s this: When I’m busy (which seems to be all the time since the last SDSR), it can take me a couple of weeks or so to get your first draft out to you for approval.

This is simply because there may be a dozen people in the queue ahead of you. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it. I write for up to 10 hours per day, 6 days per week as it is, sometimes 7. It’s physically impossible for me to consistently produce more than 1 – 2 CVs per day.

Delegation is impossible…

I have tried taking on writers with military experience to do the ‘grunt’ work for me, and then finalising it myself, but quality goes down the pan and I end up writing it myself anyway. So that idea went the same way as the glass hammer I gave my late Dad for Christmas a few years back.

For most people who plan well ahead this isn’t a problem, and sometimes, if there is an urgent need, I can adjust my schedule slightly. But you need to consider this when ordering – plan on 2 weeks from getting your paperwork back to me, and within 1 or 2 days tolerance that should be fine.

Just being honest – if I could do more I would!

My unique Career Development Questionnaire, which has been cunningly designed to double as interview preparation, can be downloaded to your computer in a flash. Which means you can be reading it and beginning your civilianisation process in as little as 5 minutes from now.

No matter what, however, The Armed Forces CV is an absolute bargain for you.

And yes, I am still being pressured by my Financial Director to raise the digital package price again from £196.37 very soon. He has pointed out, probably quite correctly, that we have not increased prices since 2010, and if I keep it at this price it won’t be long now before I simply won’t be able to cope personally with the volume.

In this circumstance I’d have to recruit another ex-military writer to take up the overspill, as I did before. That, of course, means additional overhead expense.

He also argues that because you are guaranteed to get your CV written by me personally, rather than one of my other executive writers, there is more reason for you to pay premium price. He doesn’t understand – he’s not ex-military. And, of course, he’s an accountant. I was once told that accountants know the price of everything but the value of nothing! His name’s Phil, but I call him Vlad (the Impaler)……

Once I get a few more recent testimonials from satisfied military clients, and the volume picks up, the price may have to increase. So you’ll need to be quick if you want to be sure to save some money.

£196.37 is a drop in the ocean…

compared to the results you’ll get with the Armed Forces CV.

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Right then – let me tell you what else I’ll do to make this absolutely the best investment you’ll ever make.

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I’m going to ‘throw in’ some free bonuses that are literally worth more in real terms than the CV Package itself!

Simply grab your Armed Forces CV right now, and here’s what I’ll also give you:

FREE BONUS NO 1:

Tightly-focused, personalised and targeted Cover Letter (worth at least £29)

This amazing bonus is all about actually getting your Armed Forces CV opened and read.

I can’t stress how important the ‘humble’ Cover Letter is – I’m actually writing a book on the subject at the moment. Send your CV in without one, or write it badly, and your CV will never see the light of day. Fact.

When you identify a position you want to apply for, just send me the details and I’ll write you a personalised Cover Letter, an exact match for your CV, to GUARANTEE it gets read!

Once you get it, the Cover Letter will also show you:

• How to give yourself a huge and unbeatable advantage
• Ways to specifically tie the employer’s ‘key frustrations’ to your skill-set, making you the ‘must have’ new employee to solve her problems
• What you need to do to identify and isolate those critical success factors from the vacancy ad, so that you can instantly position yourself as the ‘Product of Choice’.

Not bad, right? But that’s not all you get! Because I’m also throwing in:

FREE BONUS NO 2:

Interview Follow-up Letter (worth a minimum of £23)

Are you beginning to see how valuable this package is? This bonus alone gives you the edge over all those other interviewees, who simply won’t bother to write this important relationship-creating masterpiece. They won’t even think about it!

Here’s what it reveals:

• How to align the points you discussed with your interviewer to make him subconsciously choose you over the competition
• A number of ways you can create that critical rapport with the interviewer after the event, when he is already starting to forget your face and those of the other interviewees. Just think how it will impact on your chances of selection when he receives a polite and very relevant ‘Thank you’ letter from you?
• The secrets of reinforcing your relationship and leaving a fresh, lasting impression. You can bet that none of the other candidates have done this. Puts you streets ahead!

Imagine how you’d feel if you knew these things! YOURS FREE when you order the Armed Forces CV. You are reading this, aren’t you?

Well the good news is, that’s still not all! Because I have yet another gift for you.

FREE BONUS NO 3:

CD-ROM with your Armed Forces CV in 4 digital formats (normally £19 each, so a £76 value!)

In addition to the physical copies of your Armed Forces CV (in PDF – Portable Document Format), for perfect printing, copying and reproduction every time, and professionally bound for that extra presentational panache, you’ll also receive it in 3 extra (editable) digital formats on CD-ROM.

Here’s a short list of what this amazing bonus contains:

• Word (.doc/docx) format that you can personally edit and tweak for maximum impact in the future if you wish, without coming back to us (saving you more money) or losing the winning language and format of the Armed Forces CV
• HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language), for posting onto websites, preserving the format, look, and feel of your physical Armed Forces CV. You could post it onto your own website, Facebook or Linked-In page, for example, as a permanent (and editable) online reference where you can send or point prospective employers and recruiters to.
• ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange – text to you and I!). This is especially useful for ‘copying and pasting’ sections from your CV into online application forms, which many employers require these days. It contains all the information from your CV, even your address, telephone numbers and email. Saves you hours of hassle, as it has been stripped of all the formatting codes and fonts that are embedded in the Word version, for example, which makes it instantly usable.

[Note: The CD Rom is not included in the digital package (nor, of course are the printed copies), but you still get all the above files in digital form, instantly usable, by email]

FREE BONUS NO 4:

A copy of my acclaimed eBook “Breeze The Interview, Get The Job!” (sells all day, every day for £27)

Once you’ve snagged the interview, the REAL work begins! Most people would rather recite poetry from memory live on National TV, or walk down their local High Street stark naked, than go through the vomit-inducing, gut-wrenching Hell of the dreaded Job Interview. My book will get you through the experience painlessly.

THIS BONUS ALONE is worth the investment; a massive 10mb of easily-digestible information and detailed preparation techniques to ensure the whole interview process goes smoothly. I sub-titled it ‘Preparation on Steroids!’

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Phew…that’s some list of FREE Gifts, don’t you think? A total of over £155 in bonuses!

They’re each worth every penny. But today, they’re yours FREE.

I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep these bonuses up there. It’s part of another marketing test we’re running.

They’re worth a lot, and we have previously charged extra for them, so at any time I could be persuaded by my Financial Director (he’s a bit tougher than me, which is why I keep him on staff) to take them down forever.

So if you want them, get in quick!

Tell you what – I’ll even send the whole package (physical version only) out to you by Royal Mail Next Day Special Delivery! And I’ll put it all in a strong board-backed envelope to protect the valuable contents without bending or folding – FREE OF CHARGE (worth another £8.95).

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Customer Testimonials

Listen, don’t take my word for it on how great this package is. Read what people just like you have had to say about it. These are actual (and recent), genuine testimonials, and can be viewed at our premises by appointment. Many of them are also on LinkedIn::

This from a former Infantry WO2, currently providing Asset Recovery Services and Close Protection in Hungary:

“In a nut shell my previous CV was not getting me anywhere fast. I was introduced to Stephen via The List UK, the Services business network. Stephen has opened my eyes to the highly important subject of how to translate my Military & civilian experiences, skills and abilities from Military speak into civilian language, his ex military background previous experience & style immediately put me at ease and very quickly gave me confidence and a feeling of trust. I was therefore willing to impart private and confidential information to him in the form of my current CV.

Stephen very quickly got to work having received all the information he required to get going in less than one week my new very informative and professionally presented CV along with the very important covering letter was ready for me to present to a new recruiter whom I had been in contact with previously. Throughout the whole process Stephen maintained first class communications and provided advice when it was sought.

This is one service I would have no hesitation in recommending to others

In fact I have already informed a number of ex military friends & colleagues about Stephen and his company. I am sure they will make contact with him very soon. Total value for money a first class service, with the added advantage of being able to make follow up enquiries to seek advice from Stephen in the future, as your career or circumstances may change.

Glowing praise indeed, of which we are very proud…

This from an Ex-Corporal, The Parachute Regiment, on an FCO Contract providing Close Protection in Kabul, Afghanistan at the time:

“I would highly recommend Armed Forces CVs. The service was quick, and highly efficient. Despite being out of the country there was regular communication by emails through the whole process. I was sent a draft for which I asked for a few alterations to be made, and these were done straight away.

As I was away the completed CV was then sent through email in several different formats, and the whole excellent package was there waiting for me when I returned home.

I used the CV to approach several companies and was offered interviews straight away. This is a highly professional service and would highly recommend it to anyone.”

How about this one from a Weapons System Expert, a Lieutenant Commander about to leave the Royal Navy:

“Many thanks for your excellent service. Now convinced and very content with your product and output!”

A (female) Staff Sergeant from the Special Investigation Branch of the Royal Military Police had this to say:

“Had tried to do my CV via the Career Transition Workshop but hadn’t been getting past the first filter. It was suggested to use the Armed Forces CV advertised in Soldier Mag.

This is the first site I had used, as it was aimed at the Services. I cannot fault the service I have received, and the CV is very different to my attempt. It definitely does ‘smack you in the face’ and make you want to read on.”

As they say, the proof is in the pudding. And these people are more than happy. Just like you’ll be.

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You can’t leave this page empty handed, can you?

For a mere £196.37 (£246.37 full physical version), you’re getting the Cutting-Edge CV you need . . . PLUS MUCH MORE.

Now, you can only get this product from me – the ONLY Specialist Military CV Writing Service in the UK. It’s not available anywhere else, even on the web. Just imagine being able to get yourself started on this unique career transition package straight away.

Opportunity + Preparation = Success

Increasingly, many of my clients purchase their Armed Forces CV when they are NOT specifically looking for a move. This gives them the competitive edge when they do actually begin the search for their “perfect” job because most of the groundwork has already been done. In today’s uncertain business climate this can be an absolute master-stroke; you never know when you may quite suddenly find yourself having to look for a new position!

It has been said that overwhelming success ONLY occurs when opportunity meets preparation.

Lifetime Value

I appreciate and cherish the Lifetime Value of my Clients. Because I securely store your dossier of information “in perpetuity”, each new Professional CV crafted for your next and subsequent moves is completed quickly and efficiently without any compromises on quality or accuracy. All you need to do is give me the details for your new position and I update accordingly, for a very modest fee.

As a Member of the Professional Association of Resume Writers & Career Coaches (PARW/CC), I consider Clients my most valuable and sought-after resource.

I’m also a Member of the UK’s Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), and am a Fellow of the Institute of Recruitment Professionals (FIRP). I’m proudly invested in the very highest standards of service and professionalism.

No more ‘jobs for life…’

Research indicates that today, unlike 20, 10 or even just five years ago in some arenas, there are very few “jobs for life” out there any more. Sadly this includes the Armed Forces. Indeed, in today’s market place people typically change jobs every 3 to 7 years on average. Amazingly it is not unheard of now for an individual to have had up to four complete career changes over their working lifetimes!

The good news for you is that once you become my Client, you will never need to concern yourself with obtaining the best possible CV ever again. I Guarantee It!

Finally, and in summary, I have given you a LOT of information; hopefully enough to make an informed choice. However, please feel free to explore the site and testimonials to satisfy yourself that I do what I say. Then give me a try – you won’t regret it, and you will have that new civilian job much sooner than you think. Good Luck!

Hope to welcome you as a client soon. Until then, stay safe and healthy. I wish you great success, and remain, with very best regards.

Respectfully yours,

Stephen Thompson

Warrant Officer First Class (WO1) and Bandmaster of the Army, Retired

Fellow of the Institute of Recruitment Professionals (FIRP)
Member of the Institute of Leadership and Management (MInstLM)
Member of the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches (PARW/CC)

P.S. Don’t forget…

In addition to your Armed Forces CV Package, you’re getting more than £160-worth of bonuses for just a fraction of that price. Everything to get you started in ‘getting your foot in the door’ with a civilian employer, and gaining a real and significant advantage over the hundreds of competing ‘civvy’ applicants.

So if that’s what you want to do, this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Grab it now before prices rise again!