The CV Redemption
Ask any recruiter (internal or external) or HR Manager what their biggest frustration is with CVs, and the response is usually the same....
FORMATTING
For some reason, virtually every...single...person applying for a new job doesn't stop to consider whether the information in their CV is readily accessible.
What does this mean?
That it is EASY TO READ.
It sounds simple, but this is the biggest single point of failure in almost all of the CVs I review.
I've developed hernias before trying to decipher what someone actually does for a living (slight over-exaggeration, but you get my point).
So, to help you avoid some of the most common pitfalls, here are a couple of things to AVOID when you're brushing up your CV:
1) Boxes and Tables
If your CV includes boxes and tables, the odds are it currently looks like a dog's breakfast.
Boxes are often too small, too big, placed somewhere conspicuous, and just generally look terrible. Ditto for tables, even if they are transparent, the document just never looks 'right'.
I'm confident there are examples where this isn't the case, but I certainly haven't seen any.
Another key thing to remember is that often recruiters, and possibly HR departments, might want to take the content of your CV and re-format it into their own specific style.
They might do this for several reasons, but an increasingly common one is so that hiring managers can be supplied with 'blind CVs' to help remove unconscious bias from the recruitment process (e.g. if you can't see someone's name or dates they studied, you can't make assumptions about age, gender or race).
Therefore, if your CV includes boxes and tables (or possibly lots of lines circa Word 2005), you may be creating A LOT of work for someone who, ideally, you want to keep on your side :)
2) Dates
Call me old fashioned, but I still read the English language from left to right.
Perhaps other people consume text in a different way (say, hung upside down in a cave like a bat?) but I think the majority will follow this method.
Why then do a HUGE number of CVs have the dates listed on the right hand side?!
As a recruiter, HR Manager or hiring manager, these are the key things I'm trying to understand 'at a glance':
- Their rough career history and trajectory (e.g. when they worked for specific companies, if/when they were promoted)
- How long they worked for each company (or in each position)
- When they last completed formal (school, college, university) or vocational (role specific training) education
To do this I need to quickly scan the dates of your employment, and if I have to spend a long time (sometimes it feels like a lifetime) to do this, it can be very frustrating.
Remember, your CV is only there to get you an interview.
With that in mind, you should make it as easy as possible for someone reviewing it to find the information they need so they can say 'yes' to an interview.
By removing barriers for them to say no (e.g. terrible formatting), you give yourself a much better chance of getting an interview!
Summary
When in doubt, keep it SIMPLE and make sure it is easy to read at a glance.
Remove all unnecessary or frivolous additions to your CV - if it doesn't absolutely need to be there, it's likely doing more harm than good!
Next Time
In my next outing I'll be focusing on 3 key tips to help you FIND the right role (which you can then send your beautifully polished CV too)...
Cheers,
Paul
Founder, SaaSCV - more info available at https://www.saascv.com/
