The Quiet Devastation Of Realizing Your CV Is The Problem

For four years, Wambui’s manager had been the person who knew exactly what she was worth.

He had seen her handle a client complaint that had arrived as a formal letter threatening legal action and leave the same client writing a testimonial three weeks later. He had watched her train two new team members who had both outperformed their targets within six months of joining.

He had been in the room when she had disagreed with a decision in a board meeting, professionally and with enough evidence to change the outcome.

The problem was that when Wambui left that company after four years to look for something new, her manager’s knowledge of her did not follow her into the room. Her CV did. And her CV knew almost none of it.

How The Gap Happened

Wambui had written the first version of her CV herself, and it had been modest in the way that people who are genuinely good at their work tend to be modest. She did not want to overstate things. She did not want to seem like she was making herself bigger than she was.

When the modest version produced nothing after two months, she tried an AI tool, which a friend had recommended after using it herself. The AI had taken Wambui’s modest version and made it sound more professional without making it more honest.

The client complaint that had turned into a testimonial became a way of ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction. The board meeting where she had changed an outcome became a contribution to strategic discussions.

She came to me six months into her search with the quietly devastated energy of someone who had started to believe the CV was the true version.

The Conversation We Had

I asked her to tell me about the legal letter. About all her achievements, and we started the work from scratch.

What Changed

Within a month, Wambui had three interviews. Two hiring managers had asked her specifically about things they had read. One of them had said during the process that her application stood out because it felt as if a person had written it rather than used a template.

If you have been modest on paper in a way that is costing you opportunities, click here to talk to our experts; we can help you find the honest version without making it feel like showing off.