I help my clients to create CVs that stand out, and they need to! Recruiters get literally hundreds of CVs for each application and your CV gets barely 30 seconds attention before it is put into the pile to review more closely or the one closest to the bin.
Read a great article by The Brazen Careerist – How To Craft A Remarkable “Purple Cow” Resumewhere she compares a resume to the Seth Godin concept of a purple cow, something that gets everyone talking about it. Some of what she writes about is sound good practice, to discuss achievements rather than details on roles and responsibilities but even that can look like a boring, safe layout.
I love the way she suggests alternative layouts
A mind map around accomplishments
A slide show of accomplishments
Putting your details on a cereal box – excellent if you are going for a creative role.
A CV which focuses on references from clients/customers
I regularly suggest that clients start a work related blog, but have yet to have a client with the courage to do one. She suggests the same, and also to include interview samples. I think this is a great idea – have a link from your CV/application to a web site where you answer typical questions. It also means you can add details of your work – pictures, reports, lots more to bring your CV to life and show why you are the right person for the job.
I recently spoke to somebody who said that they don’t have a CV and had nothing to put on a CV if they had to construct one.
Even a school leaver has things to put on a CV. I think what she was concerned about was what to write down when she hadn’t done paid work for 10 years whilst she was a full time mum.
But she had lots that she could note – being a homemaker brings lots of transferable skills including organisation, conflict resolution, financial management and more. Plus there’s the involvement in charities and voluntary organisations. There’s also probably scope to refer to hobbies as well!
What could be helpful is to think of the job that interests you, find out the key requirements and personal characteristics for the job and use that to help you identify examples from you life.
Think about all the people who you need to relate to; all the problems you have solved, your organisational skills. I’m sure you will find many examples from your life.
I’ve been reading yet again about video CVs – more companies are coming up that think that this is the way to get your message across, however, I don’t see how it can work for sifting – short listing is done very quickly and I could have gone through 10 CVs in the time it takes to watch a video.
It also can be seen as discrimination against those who aren’t as photogenic and so if the video is short there is little time for an interviewer to warm to you if you don’t make a brilliant first impression.
With Woolworths going into administration it is a difficult time for their staff, wondering for how long they will have a job. If a buyer is found they are highly likely to close some stores.
But Woolworths have looked in difficulty for a while. With so much competition, how did Woolies respond – by increasing their product lines and so selling lots of different things but not enough of anything?
So you could buy DVDs and CDs but their line wasn’t as comprehensive as in HMV.
So many other products, like children’s clothes could be bought cheaper in the major supermarkets.
Then they diversified into selling mobile phones, a highly competitive market and I wouldn’t have though they had a big enough market share to buy as cheap as the major phone companies.
So how does this help you, the job searcher?
Have a good look at your CV. Are you a bit like Woolies, showing how much you can do but not enough depth on anything?
I’m working with a client at the moment who has a background in catering management, retrained to become a legal executive and is now, following redundancy, looking for a new career. Her CV was a combination of the catering and legal work, and neither really focused on the new area she wants to move into.
So we are now focusing all her work experience onto the new career path, and emphasising the education that supports this, and deemphasising her hotel and catering qualifications. It’s not just about discounting this though. Her HND covered a lot of business topics, so we’ve listed them. All is looking so much better.
So you may be thinking of a number of different jobs to apply for, but do make sure that each application is clearly focused on one specific job.
It’s getting harder to get a job, but there are still jobs available, you need to do everything possible to make yourself stand out from the rest.
That means that your CV, covering letter and every way you make contact with your potential new employer is as good as it can be.
But some people send off their applications even though they know they could be better. I had an email today from someone who said
“I know my CV isn’t the most desirable as I have a mixture of short term roles. I also think I let myself down on the cover letter”
It’s all about how you position your CV and letter. Short term jobs are not necessarily a problem, but it does depend what you have done and how you describe this.
A covering letter should be focused on the job being applied for but too many ramble and bear no relationship to the job being applied for.
It’s such a waste of time to let an application go forward when you know it could be better. That’s why people will work with me as they know I can help them to present themselves well, and to create a great impression at interview.
I can never comment without actually looking at a clients CV, letter and the relevant job ad, but the money spent on an hour or two working with me can prove very helpful.
Faking your CV can have drastic consequences, so don’t be tempted.
I read in the paper that the boss of the Las Vegas casinos empire – MGM Mirage has stepped down as chief executive once errors in his CV were spotted. There was a story in his Wall Street Journal questioning the authenticity of his MBA qualification.
It might be tempting to make some changes but if you are spotted you’ll lose your job. So much better to be honest!
With the recession it’s important that your CV is up to date and does you justice. Will it be a sales document that helps to get you to interview or will it help your CV to hit the reject pile.
Is it up to date – have you included details of your most recent role?
How confident are you in its effectiveness – whilst it’s always worth asking friends it can be worth asking someone experienced in short listing CVs to review your CV and let you know the impression and impact it has.
I’ve already written a number of blog postings on CVs and you can read them via this link
The Telegraph on Friday had an article on how CVs are growing in length – no longer a one or two page summary they are becoming more akin to a thesis. I understand why this is happening we want to stand out from the rest and I’ve previously written about video CVs.
Bryony Gordon mentions the video CV from Aleksey Vayner which he sent to a bank he wanted to work for. It was called ”Impossible is Nothing" and the seven-minute video featured the Yale student talking about his success and talent. Apparently he could also be seen bench-pressing, karate- chopping bricks, downhill skiing and completing 140-mph tennis serves. Alas I couldn’t find it on You Tube.
However, there are a number of other video CVs such as this woman who seeks a job in film production and this which may be a good reflection of her personality but in the short clip I saw I don’t see it helpful for a job application.
There are many other videos I could click on but I’m going to resist, or i’ll be too distracted.
On the face of it, it sounds great – a chance to show your personality and to enhance the written word.
But, as I’ve done some short listing recently, I’m reminded of how quickly you can shortlist using paper CVs. It’s time consuming for companies, a CV can be read through quickly in about a minute but even a short video CV is likely to take 5 minutes and it’s going to be too consuming a task for a recruiter.
It’s also not going to be so easy a job to compare candidates against each other. I’m sure there are other problems – not everyone can afford this software and it contains info that can be seen as discriminatory including about sex and race.
Reminds me of when people send me photos – I paid to have a professional shot done of me, but so many people rely on a photo produced by a family member. If you are the president of a professional body, or chair of a local society, wouldn’t it be worth investing a little bit of money to get it done well?
I offer complimentary CV reviews via my web site. Some people have never had their CV critiqued and it can be useful for them to get an external view.
I’ve recently reviewed a CV from Paula.Two key things I noticed from the CV was the headings were very large – font 18, the text was in a small font, size 9 and there was a lot of wasted space with the CV covering 4 pages.
The key thing to remember with CVs is that the person reading it is only going to spend a minute or so with an additional review so it has to grab attention quickly. It’s also important to remember that the CV is just to get you an interview, you have time to impress further when you meet with the interviewer.
Less is definitely more – you want the space to make your points stand out and include the most relevant details not everything.You also need to think of the covering letter as the companion to the CV and include relevant details on what you seek and why in the letter.
I’ve written some guidance about writing CVs on my web site.
Alongside presentation it is also important to think of what you achieved, not copying out details from the job description. You need to step back and think about the job, what did you do that made a difference?
Any thoughts or questions? Do get in touch or comment below.
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Denise is an award winning careers coach, winner of a National Career Award
for working with adults. She helps people find career satisfaction using in
depth assessments and discussions. She then helps people get the job using
effective job search strategies. You can read more via the links above, or
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