You need a good governance CV to give yourself the best possible chance of being considered for a board role.
Why do I need a governance CV?
A good governance CV clearly and succinctly summarises your skills, experience, and achievements with specific emphasis on your governance or senior management skills. Your governance CV is different from your recruitment CV for a job.
Nominations services also need your CV to include you in their search when appointing agencies seek nominees for board vacancies from them. The appointing agency will use your CV as part of their selection process to assess your experience and achievements in relation to the board role.
What do I need to include?
Use these headings to develop your governance CV:
- Personal information – your contact details, date of birth, residency status, hapū/iwi, cultural and ethnic identity, proficiency in other languages to English, and any valuable perspectives that you might bring to the board table, for example a disability perspective.
- Professional summary
- Governance experience, including board roles and dates of service
- Community service and volunteer work
- Professional memberships, awards, or recognition
- Educational qualifications and accreditations
- Professional training and development activities
Tips for writing a great governance CV:
- Be succinct: a good good CV is usually no more than three pages long. Include only the information that best reflects your skills, experience, and achievements that are relevant to the governance role.
- Governance experience up front: it is important that you put any governance experience at the beginning of your governance CV, as you want this to stand out. This can include your experience on committees as well. If you don’t have governance experience yet, try and draw out other relevant experience that highlights your leadership skills.
- Include context where relevant: mention the size and scale of your achievements, your employment and volunteer work history, previous projects, details about the workforce you managed, and how you managed budget, profits, and savings.
- Be honest but not unnecessarily modest: your governance CV should be an accurate reflection of your skills and experience. Always be 100% truthful about your achievements and experience and don't embellish or exaggerate. However, don’t be shy about stating the level of influence or leadership you had in a particular role, project, or team
- Reflect your professionalism, not your personality: a governance CV is a professional document designed to summarise and reflect your professional skills, experience, and attributes. It is not an opportunity to display your personality or character traits. Keep it simple, straightforward, and professional.