The CV Wars: Getting Ready for Job Hunting

Lately, I've been revising my CV for the nth time. And I don’t mean minor tweaks like adding a new project or updating dates—I’m talking about completely rewriting it. This time, though, it's by choice.

The Beginning: A Simple CV That Somehow Worked

When I started working in IT, my CV was very basic—if not downright crude. One colleague gave me feedback, another gave me feedback, and off it went. The job market was booming then, readily absorbing rookies like me, even those fresh from a career change with little experience.

There were upsides to this. I gained my first professional experience, enjoyed having a full-time job, and got to know both the IT industry and startup work culture. But there was one big downside, a lesson I’m still learning today.

I basically had a job handed to me. I didn’t have to think about personal branding, about how to grow in order to land a job, or how to craft a truly solid CV. I didn’t have to learn how to separate the act of sending out CVs from my self-worth. I found a job in eight weeks. Another success story.

Reality Check

When my entire department was laid off, I was just finishing a bootcamp. I wasn’t ready for an abrupt job change, but I thought I’d manage. I moved forward with two main goals in mind: continuing to work as a programmer and securing a full-time job.

Freelancing—something I don’t particularly like—kept me working. It gave me experience in cooperating with with different clients and taught me a lot about building websites, not just for solo entrepreneurs but for small and medium-sized businesses. Any „free” time between projects went into learning, and lately, back into building my own projects (this website being one of them). That’s when my slowly built personal brand started paying off—nothing spectacular, but enough to add to my portfolio. Freelancing has its pros and cons, but given the circumstances, I executed my plan quite well.

As for job hunting, it wasn’t, and still isn’t, easy. Over the past two years, I’ve been tackling challenges I never had to face before. No, it hasn’t been smooth sailing. It still isn’t—I still have assignments to complete, and life keeps testing me.

That’s why I’ve decided to gather some of these experiences and share them in the form of a few „life lessons.”

Lesson One: What Do I Actually Want?

The first answer that comes to mind: a job. The second: any job.

At first, I wasn’t thinking about compromises. Then I was ready for major compromises—just to land something. Unfortunately, I hit the job market at a time when it was getting tougher by the day. I swung between hope, despair, and desperate private messages asking for help.

On one hand, given the circumstances, I don’t blame myself. Subjectively, I felt like I was in a black hole, looking for the quickest way out. Ongoing oncology treatment didn’t make things easier. To make matters worse, I often encountered a lack of understanding—or even resentment—when I explained my situation. Luckily, I also met people whose support helped me stay afloat.

On the other hand, **having no clear vision of my career path didn’t help **either. That vision came over time—through browsing job postings, talking to developers, reflecting on my experiences, working on projects, and attending conferences as a speaker.

Only after accumulating various experiences was I able to define my goal. I enjoy frontend development, but I’m open to moving towards fullstack or backend. While cybersecurity interests me, I currently lack the necessary skills (especially backend knowledge) to pursue it seriously. I like WordPress but don’t see it as my long-term programming future—though if life surprises me, I’m open to returning. For now, my focus is on React, Vite, TypeScript, JavaScript, and Python. Once I refresh my React skills, I’ll probably add NodeJS.

I was only able to figure this out because I had some time.

Lesson Two: How Much Time Do I Have?

There's a saying: time is money. But in job searching, the more accurate phrase is: *money is time.* The amount of financial resources and other available assets often determines how much time we have for different activities.

At my lowest point, I was ready to take any job—even roles I knew I wouldn’t fit into (like teaching, being a Scrum Master, or a data analyst). If I had been driven solely by fear, I probably would have gone down that path. I even considered registering at the unemployment office, though hearing about others’ experiences didn’t give me much hope.

Again, health issues didn’t help. After honest discussions with my loved ones, we decided to split the costs. My freelancing income, a fundraiser I set up through the Alivia foundation for post-treatment expenses, and immense support from my close ones continue to extend the time I have before I must take a job out of sheer necessity. (By the way, I’m still fundraising—so if you’d like to contribute, there’s an option to do so 😉).

There were tough decisions along the way. Launching the fundraiser, for example, was a difficult one. But all of this has given me time—every small project that brings in money, every month of support translates into more time for learning, working, healing, and rebuilding my confidence.

I regularly revisit the question: How much time do I have? Circumstances change. Knowing financial and emotional runway helps plan and adapt.

This knowledge also allows me to manage the emotions that arise when job prospects seem bleak. Of course, life is unpredictable. But I’ve realized that unprocessed panic, fear, and despair don’t help me learn or find solutions. And many of these emotions aren’t caused by life’s unpredictability but by my own worst-case scenarios.

Lesson Three – What Are My Priorities?

Until I started going outside more often, I didn’t realize how bad things had been. Maybe that’s for the best—if I had seen then what I see now, I might have fallen apart. To illustrate: a year ago, I would leave the house once a week (or once every two weeks). Now, I go out at least four days a week, sometimes even six!

Such recovery process takes time and requires distractions to avoid being overwhelmed by the weight of my situation and moments, when all I'm able to say is „sorry, I can't handle this”. That’s why I focus on learning, working when freelance gigs come in, and regularly testing whether I’m emotionally ready to resume my job search.

Initially I didn't know, how to set priorities. Everything revolved around finding a job. Then, I realized that approach was like banging my head against a wall. So, I started balancing job hunting with learning. Over time I noticed I need to focus on learning, how to effectively rest. Then: how to rebuild my health. Finally I focused on mental resilience and on my perception of reality around me.

All of this leads to job searching, but it’s not an obvious first choice. It's more about building a strong foundation first—so that I approach job hunting as someone ready for new challenges, not as a desperate person pleaing for help.

And Where Does the CV Fit Into All of This?!

The first version of my new CV is ready. It’s designed to be clear and contain the key information in a reasonably tidy format. For now, it’s two pages long, though it will likely end up as three. And most importantly—it’s good enough to start applying.

For months, I kept rewriting my CV, chasing the perfect formula for success, hoping to stumble upon someone who would tell me the one way to craft it so that it would guarantee results. But over time, I noticed a few things:

• As many recruiters, as many opinions—everyone has their own take on what the perfect CV should look like.

• Bigger companies have their own CV expectations, but without insider knowledge, cracking the code feels like a long shot.

• My best bet is a CV that speaks about me—not one shaped by my assumptions about what might make me stand out in the crowd.

I’m tired of overhauling my CV every six months just to satisfy the next, more or less qualified, reviewer. And while I’m grateful for all the feedback I’ve received, I’ve come to realize that the greatest insight into what my CV should be didn’t come from all these external opinions—it came from the journey I’ve been on and the lessons I’ve learned along the way. The rest? That’s just formatting. Sure, some things are non-negotiable (for example, a bathroom selfie in your CV is probably not the best idea), but much of it is up for interpretation (should skills go in a sidebar or under experience?).

Don’t get me wrong—many of the tips out there are genuinely useful. Reading a few articles on how to craft a good CV, watching a webinar, or even consulting someone for feedback can be valuable. Sometimes, it’s worth seeking out multiple perspectives to catch different recruiter-specific nuances. But in the end, these are just tools—they can either help you move forward or become distractions, making you second-guess everything just because someone told you your CV was worthless.

What really matters isn’t someone’s subjective opinion of your CV—it’s whether that CV actually gets you a job. And the key to making that happen isn’t obsessing over every minor detail, but rather knowing yourself, facing reality, and learning the lessons life throws at you. That’s what helps you choose the right tools for the goal—instead of getting stuck in endless debates over which tool is better, detached from the person actually using it.

If you focus on finding the perfect tool, you’ll just keep polishing and refining it endlessly—forgetting that it’s just that: a tool, not a magic key that instantly unlocks success. A shift in mindset, however, brings the real opportunity: when the time comes, you’ll know which tool to use and how to use it—to your own advantage.