When you send your CV — you send because of inspiration or desperation, or out of curiosity (which is still a mild form of inspiration). With either of motivations — you look to receive some sort of feedback and reaction. In order to receive the reaction positive FOR YOU here is
7 tips to let your CV work for you and not against you.
1. Limit yourself to 1–2-page CV max (no cheating with smaller fonts or crowded lines — the less information, with more precise information — the better)
2. Using keywords is practical and important.
You can submit your CV electronically and it will be processed by an algorithm or can be processed by an HR person who would skim it. We SKIM using written anchors (keywords). Keywords are your industry and job-specific terminology. For engineers, teachers, management consultants or people in sales are different. Where to look for them?… In the JOB DESCRIPTION.
3. Not getting personal.
As a rule of thumb until within a specific country, the disclosure is a requirement, you do not share your date of birth, gender, nationality, marital status.
4. Less is better.
For experienced candidates: do not list ALL job experiences you’ve got. Pick only those tenures that tell a cohesive story of “why you are the most suitable candidate for your prospective employer”. Even if this results in some gaps in employment history — you show your RELEVANT experience. When people put multiple unrelated jobs or their brief experiences across diverse 4–6 sectors it might create an impression that you are not strategic when it comes to your career and you are just jumping from place to place, you lack the depth of industry or job knowledge. Don’t give the recruiter an opportunity to doubt you.
For fresh grads and early-stage professionals: if today you do not have a list of standing out internships with prestigious companies, put your academic experience first and then your extra-curricular projects. While describing your role within those projects highlight competencies for the specific job/career using keywords (used Job Description)
5. Focus on the value you’ve created, not just things you were doing.
While detailing your job experience (2–3 bullet points under the organization and position name, focus on articulating the value you’ve added to your employer, its specific department. E.g. Don’t mention how many events you facilitated to arrange, specify how many of them received “exceeding expectations” result. Don’t say how much in sales you did for a company (absolute number varies from company to company and doesn’t tell why you are special), show how much % of monthly revenues you’ve contributed.
You need to make the person holding your CV get inspired and confident that you are the right candidate to be referred to HR or hiring manager, by bridging you to the team.
6. Reminder: Be honest, never lie.
7. The very last tip. Be lucky.
I often recall one Russian anecdote (I am not able to produce neither original one in a funny matter nor its translation) yet the message would be clear:
An HR manager has a task of picking up top 10 candidates from a huge pile of CVs. She feels stuck. The director comes and asks what was going on. To her complaint that there were too many CVs, he takes and throws half of the CVs to the trash bin. HR is shocked, “So we don’t look for the top 10 in that part?”. Director: “It looks they didn’t have luck today. And we actually don’t need losers” The anecdote might not reflect the best companies hiring policies but is very realist, revealing brutal life truth. Often, very often, your CV gets overlooked deliberately or accidentally because you didn’t have luck. The remedy for that? Make yourself lucky,
Making yourself lucky.
Prepare yourself to contact many organizations, submit many CVs to find yourself in a lucky part of the pile.
Your door opener for any organization is not HR, it is any person who works for that company and believes you are a good fit.
Build your network (work on it when you look for a job and while you are feeling settled and comfortable in your current job position). You do it digitally or via offline events, discovering and creating new networking opportunities.
Guard your reputation from early on. Poaching is a crime in wildlife but poaching is a strategy by companies to attract great employees of their competitors. Every colleague you interact with during your internship or job is your potential door opener in the future.
Alert for fresh grads and early-stage professionals — to receive your FREE copy of Full Guide on how to launch your career in 2020 visit https://www.youthcareerguide.com/