You might not buy into all the new year, new you hype, but you should seriously consider putting a new you on paper each time you apply for a new job! Here is why...
Your CV is often the first thing employers will see of you.
First impressions count so to understand how important your CV is, I would like you to have a day dream for a minute. Imagine actually being there to present your CV to a potential employer and watch the shortlisting process in action. Rev up your imagination and off we go!
You are standing in a corridor in a long line of one hundred other applicants. You are holding your CV in its A4 format and the rules have been made clear; you will walk through an office in which one person responsible for shortlisting candidates sits at a big desk in a stuffy room. When it is your turn, you will approach the employer and hold up your CV for them to glance at. The employer will take a few minutes to scan through the important parts of your CV before deciding whether you keep walking towards the exit or whether they ask you to wait to one side for closer inspection.
Your turn arrives. You hold up your CV that has been spell checked, reformatted several times, critiqued by a colleague and two friends. The extra effort paid off and you are gestured to wait in a corner. There are already fifteen other potential candidates waiting there patiently and several more get squashed in before this stage of shortlisting is over.
Next, the employer asks the remaining applicants to repeat the process. This time she spends longer looking through each CV. After each CV is checked, the employer asks applicants to wait in one of three distinguished groups. Mostly the employer is quick in their decisions but on the odd occasion a big smile or agreeable nod emerges as a particular applicant is ushered to the area closest to the employer. The employer quite sternly escorts one of these groups to leave.
The employer returns to the room, you can see them really scrutinising each CV and thinking about how the individual would fit the role and then shuffling people around. You realise that your posh font will not be enough to cut it this time! After a little more time four others are asked to leave and you, still standing, now feel rather relieved. There are just nine of you remaining in this room. You are feeling confident that you have made it to interview but suddenly the employer does something strange. She pulls you and one other person out of line and as you hold up your CV’s she looks at a job description. She starts highlighting parts of both CV’s. Then she looks at the ceiling, shakes her head and calls in a colleague who does the same. You are ushered toward the door and out of the process! The last eight were invited for interview.
You were so close, so very close.
It really does help to be aware of the process that your CV will go through in order to land you an interview. While putting key skills at the top of a CV and setting out clearly will aid those initial shortlisting decisions, the one action that can really put you in the final shortlist group is matching your CV to the job description.
If you have found your ideal role or have had some knock backs, adjusting your CV to the job is essential. This ensures you make a very positive first impression!
Need some expert guidance? Please get in touch and I can help you with this and more.