THE CAREER DOCTOR HOW TO KEEP YOUR CV OUT OF THE BIN IN 2006

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