Is your CV letting you down?

Job applications not working out? Maybe your CV is letting you down. As a professional CV-writer/Career Advisor with 20 years’ experience in recruitment I have read thousands of CVs. Writing a CV is not an easy task and many novices make the same mistakes. These mistakes fit into three broad categories: information overload, modesty and plain stupidity.

Let’s start with information overload. Picture the scene: the recruiter is sitting at his desk and starting to review applications for the job they have been retained to fill. They open the CV attached to the email and begin to read.....the CV is 8 pages long. The candidate is not invited for interview. CV’s should be short. Two pages is ideal, three pages is OK for more senior executives but only if you are really senior.

It is important to have a short CV as recruiters - by this I mean in-house and agency gatekeepers of all kinds – will often read a CV in seconds rather than minutes. The CV should be easy to understand and the gatekeeper should be able to ascertain what kind of candidate they are dealing with in moments. A CV should have instant page 1 impact and the reader ought to be able to understand your offering as a candidate straight away. Longer CVs make this more difficult. Remember, the CV is a sales document and not an exhaustive list of every duty you’ve ever had. Skills-based, or functional CV’s; also facilitate against understanding and are often chosen by those with career gaps and other reasons to muddy the waters. Recruiters know this. Functional CVs are, on the whole, just irritating.

To avoid information overload also leave out the jargon and acronyms; fair enough if you are in a major industry and are using universally known stuff – GSM and VAS are OK in Telecoms for example. In-house, company-specific jargon and phrases are a big “no” but are surprisingly common in CVs.

Information overload is also caused by the inclusion of unnecessary detail. We don’t need to know certain things and it may be illegal in some countries to use these details to select candidates. No age, marital status, religion, race, or mug shots please (for most professional CVs in most countries).

Modesty is the second area of major CV-writing weaknesses. The CV is a sales document. Don’t just list your duties, list your accomplishments. Use verbs. Think: what did you achieve? What value did you add? What time did your innovation save? Maybe have a separate list of achievements. Also, many CV s do not include searchable key words. CVs and online profiles are often searched electronically; make sure your key words feature throughout the CV.

Finally, let’s deal with plain stupidity. This bit is easy. Don’t make spelling mistakes, watch your grammar, avoid silly or cute email addresses, don’t list irrelevant and eccentric hobbies and include your full contact details. I would also avoid writing in the first person and a final point; keep the design, typefaces and colours plain and simple. Where design is concerned less is usually more.

My Career Advice company DJMRO offers senior, professional CV-writing as well as two unique careers packages for executive job-seekers; Individually-tailored CV Marketing Campaigns and DJMRO Career Boost. See my Linkedin profile and www.djmro.com for more info and contact me anytime to discuss how I can help boost your career.