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THE
CAREER DOCTOR
HOW
TO KEEP YOUR CV OUT OF THE BIN IN 2006 |
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Many people take
time over the Christmas holiday to dust off their CV in
preparation for a possible job move. Here’s Rowan
Manahan’s advice on how to get onto the
shortlist.
Samuel Goldwyn famously
said, “If you can’t write your idea for
your movie on the back of a business card, then you ain’t
got a movie.” As you sit with an ancient Curriculum
Vitae in front of you, or with a blank file open
on your PC, it can be somewhat perplexing trying to decide
how to shape this oh-so important document so that it
will have maximum appeal.
It has probably happened
to you in the past; you applied for a job that sounded
perfect for you; you had the requisite qualifications
and oodles of great experience and yet you didn’t
get called to interview. Someone, in their infinite wisdom,
decided to file your CV in the ‘circular filing
cabinet’ rather than putting you forward for interview.
Why? Why do so many CVs end up in the bin?
I read CVs every day
– some for career management and outplacement clients
and many, many more when I am sitting in the hiring chair
working on behalf of a client company. I can tell you
in a few short words why so many CVs don’t make
the grade: IT’S BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE MAKES
MY LIFE EASIER THAN YOU DO.
Someone else has taken
just a little more time and a little more trouble to pitch
their CV just a little bit better than yours … and
so, they make it to the short list and you do not. I wish
there was a blueprint for how to do this; it would be
great if there were hard-and-fast rules; but there aren’t.
There’s just common sense, a bit of canniness and
meticulous attention to detail.
I think that the phrase
“Screening and Selection” is a misnomer and
the hiring process should be called “Screening and
Elimination.” Any advertised position from
a half-decent company is going to attract a goodly number
of applicants, so this early part of the screening process
is a numbers game, plain and simple. If I have 100 applicants
for a middle management job and I intend interviewing
eight to ten of them; as I go through my first pass of
the pile of CVs, am I selecting or eliminating? It’s
a numbers game! With no malice in the world, I am going
to dump 90% of the documents from my in-tray. Your challenge
as you sit in front of your PC is to not give me a reason
to dump yours.
Here, in no particular
order, are my top seven reasons to bin a CV and the boo-boos
to avoid:
1.
ALL ‘TELL’ NO ‘SELL’
A ‘telling’ CV is one which
focuses solely on responsibilities and duties on the job.
These documents tend to read like a job description. Problem
is, the reader will have a strong sense of your responsibilities
and duties the instant he or she sees your job title.
Management Accountant, QA Analyst, Sales Rep, PA, Brand
Manager, HR Executive. Read 20 CVs from people with each
of these titles and you will see a very high degree of
repetition and crossover in their job descriptions.
Learning Point:
The reader is interested in two things: (1) What special
responsibilities did you have, aside from the ‘usual
suspects’? and (2) What did you make of your responsibilities?
From a pool of 50 HR Execs, it is probable that only a
few made a real difference on the job and it is that difference
that the reader is trying to discern. If you had anything
special in the way of responsibility or assignments cascaded
on to you, focus on those in your CV: “Along
with the usual responsibilities (blah, blah and blah)
I was also tasked with yadda, yadda and yadda.”
Now the reader is getting interested! Stick in a section
titled Accomplishments or Contributions
and provide details of things that changed or improved
as a result of your efforts and before you know it, you
are on the short list.
2.
TOO LONG
The translation of the Latin term Curriculum
Vitae is ‘the lap of a life.’ But your
CV should not be a life history. No professional reader
has the time or inclination to wade through pages and
pages of your ancient history. By all means, for a first
draft, include your entire academic and professional history
plus everything in your extra curricular life; but as
you get ready to send it off, it’s time to start
trimming.
Learning Point:
Most professionals should be able to condense the juicy
bits of their working lives down to about two pages. Some
like to keep it to a one-page Résumé (or
Sam Goldwyn’s business card), but that is very hard
to do, both in terms of content and look-and-feel. Unless
you have had professional help in composing it, a one-pager
can feel just a little skinny to the reader. Brevity is
always appreciated, paucity is not; so allow yourself
two pages and spend 50% of your space detailing the last
five to seven years or your last two roles. Jobs from
further back in your history can be reduced to a couple
of lines – one or two big highlights only. (Exception:
academic, scientific and medical CVs. These frequently
run to 30+ pages with details of publications, research,
presentations and references.)
3.
IRRELEVANCE
As I grind my way through the pile of
CVs looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, I
have a check-list of (say) seven absolute must-haves for
the ideal candidate and you only have four to five of
them. Bye bye.
Learning Point:
Read the advertisement! Really read it. If it says “essential”
or “must have” and you don’t have it,
save everyone’s time and don’t apply.
4.
CARELESSNESS
Spelling mistakes, glaring grammatical
errors, formatting inconsistencies, obvious ‘search
and replace’ mistakes. If you are careless on your
own behalf on your own CV, what chance is there that you
will be polished and professional on behalf of your new
employer? Dumped!
Learning Point:
Proof and proof again. Get outsiders to proofread your
written representations. Remember, the CV and cover letter
has to shout your value from the rooftops to me, the reader
– and I don’t care about you, not a bit. It
will depend on the job and depend on the reader, but most
professionals will take a very dim view of any whiff of
carelessness at this stage in the selection process.
5.
HARD TO PULL THE INFORMATION OUT
A busy person making their way through
a tall stack of CVs wants the key information up front.
I smile when I come across the rare CV that tells me most
of what I need to know in a first look-through of the
opening page. If I am having to flick back and forth in
your document to get a sense of your current role, your
qualifications and your track record, there’s something
wrong with your CV. Human beings are a self-centred species
and most job-hunters are very obviously self-centred.
Hence, most CVs end up in the bin.
Learning Point:
Take your hat off for a moment and put on the hat of the
person who will be reading your CV. Try and look at it
coldly and objectively. Now imagine you are tired and
stressed and that this is the 75th CV you have read today.
Is the must-know information easy to get to? Highlighted
in some way? Clear?
6.
LOOK & FEEL
There are two identical cans of baked
beans on the shelf of your local shop. One is in mint
condition and the other’s label is a little torn
and the can is slightly dented. 99% of people pick …
?
Learning Point:
Design matters. Packaging matters. You wouldn’t
show up to the interview in a Metallica T-shirt and torn
jeans; don’t expect your CV to make the cut if it
is in any way below par. This is a really dreadful and
asinine reason to be disqualified from a selection process.
If you’re not skilled on the PC, ask for advice.
Read a book. Get professional help. (see a full article
on this subject here)
7.
WORDY RATHER THAN WORTHY
I think it is fair to say that human beings
are fundamentally lazy and, in the 21st century, we seem
to be less and less inclined to read. People seem to forget
this on their CVs and produce long, winding sentences
and thick, obtuse paragraphs.
Learning Point:
Recognise this and get proficient at crisp, terse business
writing using bullet points wherever you can. Introductory
paragraphs should be short (2-4 lines) and, if you are
using multiple paragraphs, make sure there is plenty of
white space breaking them up.
AND FINALLY ...
You want to get on to the short list?
Make my life easier! Be the right candidate
for the job - right qualifications, right experience,
right personal attributes. Let me know that you are madly
keen to work with me. Let me know you are polished and
professional. And finally, let me know that you understand
what a pain in the ass it is to read a pile of 100 CVs
by engineering your CV around my requirements, my concerns
and my issues.
Your CV is a living document
right up to the moment you lick the stamp or hit the ‘send’
button. Keep drafting, fiddling and playing with it. Keep
canvassing opinion on it. Identify what works for you.
If it doesn’t work, follow up to find out why and
then go back to the drawing board.
Rowan Manahan is managing
director of Fortify Services and author of the best-selling
career management book Where's My Oasis? (Random
House). Details from www.fortifyservices.com
original article here