Part I
Pitching Your CV in a Fierce Marketplace
In this part . . .
You find trends and developments impacting your CV that you absolutely, positively must know about to remain competitive in the whirling landscape that is recruitment today. This part presents easy understanding of the best CV moves in an era of technology transition.
Chapter 1
The Generic CV Is Past Its Sell-By Date
In This Chapter
Understanding the radical change overtaking CVs Fighting back when technology isn’t your friend Welcome to our book. If your job search isn’t going well even though you’ve submitted dozens of CVs, then you’re in the right chapter. In this chapter, we offer new insight for you with a quick update on how to thrive in a landscape where recruiting processes have turned digital but CV practices are stuck in analogue.
In a New Era, the Targeted CV Rules
At some point in a hunt for better employment, everyone needs market-driven job search communications. That is, everyone needs a CV or something very much like a CV that comprises the following elements:
A summary of your current, most recent and past employment Your education, training, awards, achievements or affiliations Personal information about your nationality, how many children you have and marital status is discouraged.
The CV tells the buyer (employer) these types of critical facts:
Why you’re an excellent match for the job What skills you’ll bring to the organisation Why you’re worth the money you hope to earn Your capacity for doing the work better than other candidates Your ability to solve company or industry problems However, conquering the job market is getting trickier and requires more effort than the last time you baited your hook. Even if you were job hunting fairly recently, CVs and related techniques that were revolutionary in the savvy jobseeker’s toolkit 12 years ago are headed for ancient history. The generic CV is at the top of the list of job search tools nearing extinction.
This almost-extinct generic format charts your employment history in reverse chronological order, as most CVs do. Many people make the mistake of cramming everything in with the hope that the employer will pick up on the relevant data for the positions they seek, no matter if the employer finds this information on the third page!
In modern recruitment, employers don’t have time to wade through pages of detail. In steps the targeted CV. This format specifically places relevant information to the fore. For example, if you insert a Key Skills box at the top of the first page, make sure to emphasise those skills relevant to the position you seek. Employers will scan the box first and begin short-listing you as their eye moves down the page.
If you have a generic CV lying around in a desk drawer somewhere and are tempted to use it, don’t! Although a generic CV casts a wide net to snag the attention of many employers – and saves time for those who are too busy getting through the day to keep writing different CVs for different jobs – it’s not effective in a fierce and competitive market with e-databases that search with ferocity for those ‘key’ words. A targeted CV is a marketing tool that convinces the reader that your work will benefit a specific employer and that you should make the short list cut of candidates invited in for a closer look.
Unlike a generic CV, a targeted CV format:
Addresses a given opportunity, making it easy to see how your qualifications are a close match to a job’s requirements. Uses powerful words to persuade and a clean design to attract interest. Plays up strengths and downplays any factor that undermines your bid for an interview. Industry consultants observe that companies are weary of sifting through too many CVs and instead will substitute e-CVs, screening questions via the web, and assessment instruments (tests) in deciding who gets offered a job interview.
Market Forces Zap Unqualified CVs
The word got out, slowly at first. And then – whoosh! – millions of jobseekers found out how easy it is, thanks to the Internet, to instantly put a CV in the hands of employers across the country as well as across town. Post and pray became the jobseekers’ mantra as they learned how to manipulate online CVs and click them into the digital world as quickly as fast-shuffling dealers lay down cards at casino poker tables.
The move toward mass posting of CVs online began back in the first phase of the World Wide Web, which retroactively is termed Web 1.0, a time frame of about 1994 to 2005.
But the Net’s CV sludge got yuckier and more frustrating when commercial CV-blasting services appeared on the scene. Almost overnight, it...
