CVs are Dead...

...interesting if you write them properly and don't make the same shitty mistakes that I see over and over and over again which make people reading your CV want to claw their eyeballs out, fall asleep or down a bottle of vodka in the hope it makes more sense when they're incapacitated.

Let's start at the beginning though.

A few weeks ago, a LinkedIn member (Matt Swain) wrote a post saying CVs are dead and that he thought personal branding was the new way to get yourself a role. And whilst I disagree with the majority of this, one part did resonate with me:

I've highlighted it but for the purposes of inclusivity, here it is again: "CVs are outdated - they all look and feel the same and they don't really demonstrate what someone else is really capable of (they're pretty boring too)." Matt isn't wrong, is he?!

What are your creds on this one, Stokes-Waters?

Ok I know I'm not a recruiter. Or a hiring manager. I can't remember the last time I wrote my own CV to be honest. So you might be thinking, "What the bloody hell do you know about this, Ames?"

Well, I work in sales.

The thing people don't realise with the whole 'finding a new job' process is that you're basically doing a marketing and sales job on yourself. Getting your name out there is the marketing bit and getting hired... well that's just the same as landing yourself a sales deal. And I've made a career of doing those things.

When we're writing a CV, we need to be constantly thinking about our target audience. Who is the person on the receiving end of this? And what is it that they're wanting to read? Just like any document or piece of content that we write, we can make it super interesting and appealing to our audience, or we can try and bore them to death with irrelevant information, overly complex words, and reams and reams of text.

So here are my top 5 tips for getting your CV from sh*t... to sh*t hot. ?? ??

Tip #1: Write for the job you want, not for the job you have.

Over the last month or so, I must have read around 50 CVs. One of the services I offer on the CTT Discord is reviewing resumes. And I can tell you now that not one of the CVs I have read recently has said what role someone is striving to be in.

Your personal profile needs to say what role you're looking for and how you're currently working on getting there. If you want to be a Penetration Tester and you've not mentioned your passion for offensive security then how am I, as the reader, supposed to know that's the area you're interested in? Osmosis doesn't work in this instance, unfortunately.

All too often, this is the kind of profile that I get sent. Once I have a call with the person, I find out loads of interesting things about them that they've just failed to communicate. Your CV is your shop window, so get all your wares out to attract your target audience.

The way I structure coaching calls is to understand firstly where someone is now (i.e. what is your current situation? Degree? Home life? Job? Qualifications? Interests? etc.) and then find out where they want to get to (i.e. what is your dream job? And WHY?). From there we build a plan together for how to reach that goal and make some realistic and practical targets to make sure we can track progress.

It's the same thing with a CV. We need to explain to our audience what we're currently doing, what our aspirations are and what we're doing about getting to that point. Here's an example:

Now we have set our stall out as someone who wants to be in the offensive security side of the industry, we need to make sure that the rest of our resume aligns with this too. If you've worked in a supermarket or behind a bar while you were studying, that is great! But I can tell you that no one (and I mean literally no one) that's hiring a Junior Pen Tester cares that you handled financial transactions and were responsible for re-stacking shelves, even if you were amazing at it.

If, however, we can take some of the things we might have done whilst working in a store and look at what the transferable skills are that we used as part of that role, then we can start to make our CV look relevant, even where our experience is limited.

If we can take this principle and apply it across our whole CV, ensuring we are thinking about what the role is we're applying for and how the information we're conveying relates to that, then we'll be in a much better place.

#Tip 2: Don't Use Too Many Words

There's a reason people tell you to cut your CV down to two pages. When a document is too long, no one bothers reading it. We need to keep our CVs succinct, relevant, interesting. When we start to venture into four and five pages, there's a definite lack of self-awareness starting to show.

Most hiring managers, particularly in the cyber sector, are getting hit with tens if not hundreds of CVs. At the junior end of the market, there has been a huge influx of new talent coming in to the industry which means that entry-level and junior roles are often over subscribed when it comes to applications.

If you can't market yourself in a page, showcasing relevant and useful information to help the hiring manager make a decision about your profile, then you're running the risk of losing out on the role.

I have CVs with whole biographies added 'to fill the page up', people listing jobs from as far back as 2010 in a completely different sector, or whole stories about how someone moved up the ranks against all odds even though their manager was a bit of a wanker. Seriously, hiring managers do not care.

Keep your CV to the point. It's a potted history of your employment and education, with some marketing boomf about how fantastic you are thrown into the mix. It is not an autobiography,or a chance for you to explain (with all the gory detail) why you got passed over for a promotion for that bitch Susan... and it doesn't matter if you don't actually list every job you've had since you were 15.

It is totally fine to explain the last 2 or 3 roles you've had, and leave it at that. You are (or should be) including a link to your LinkedIn profile anyway so keep your CV relevant.

Tip #3: Don't Use Too Few Words

Ok I know I'm at the risk of sounding like Boris here... use words, not too many but also not too few, make sure you do write words but keep the words to a limit. BUT, it is important that you actually do include information about yourself.

I am constantly astounded by the amount of CVs I see where the education section looks like this:

If you have spent the time, effort and MONEY to get yourself a Bachelor's or Master's Degree, even if it's not in a relevant field, make sure you write something about it. I see people who have got BSc and MSc in Cyber Security, Networking, Computing, etc and they include no information about what that course covered or even what grade they got.

Again, a hiring manager hasn't got psychic powers and isn't going to go and look you up on LinkedIn if you're not including basic information. So I'd always recommend including, like with your professional experience, some key and relevant information that will support your application for the role.

The amount of people who message me saying "I've got a degree in cyber. Give job" is beyond ridiculous. So let's make sure you have the best possible opportunity to stand out and get noticed. Adding the right level of information should help you with that.

Tip #4: We Judge Books By Their Covers

It's a human thing. We can't help it. If your CV looks like shit, people won't be focused on the content. They'll be focused on the fact your CV looks like shit. I got sent one today that was very badly formatted - multiple fonts, alignments out of whack, columns all over the place. I couldn't concentrate on the wording. I advised the person to reformat and come back to me when it was clearer.

You won't get that second chance with a hiring manager. They have too many CVs to read. And if you can't be bothered to get your CV in ship shape to apply for a job, what is your attention to detail and presentation going to be like when you're working with customers?

Now, I know that document layout, spelling, punctuation, grammar, graphic design, etc might not be your jam. That's totally fine. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Some of us are dyslexic and find some of this stuff impossible. No one is asking you to become a graphic design and grammar whizz over night.

But trust me when I tell you that getting your CV proof read by a friend or family member is one of the best things you can do. Having a potential employer point out that you've spelt your own name wrong is not ideal, right? This stuff matters.

If you want some help with this side of things then there are a few resources available that you can use free of charge:

• Grammarly - the free version will spell check and sense check your writing. Please don't rely on this tool though, it is an advanced spellchecker but it uses American English and doesn't 'read' what you've written so some of the suggestions are... interesting. Always ask another human to give it a read for you too.
• Canva - there are hundreds of free templates here to help you create a fantastic looking resume. Type CV or Resume into the search bar and pick a style that suits you!
• Capture the Talent - we have provided some FREE resources to help you look shiny for your next job application. Head to the Resources section of our site and you'll get access to templates for CVs that can be edited in PowerPoint (and contain some suggested text), along with guides for making your LinkedIn profile sparkle and our blog where we share content about technical and complementary skills to support your learning!

Tip #5: Consistency is King

I've mentioned LinkedIn a couple of times in this blog already I know and if you haven't got yours up to date and looking shiny then I suggest that you take a couple of hours out of your day to make some changes to your profile.

It is highly likely that if your resume catches the eye of a hiring manager, they'll be doing a search on Google to see what social media pops up for you. If your LinkedIn is untended, unloved and, worse still, doesn't match up with what you've said on your CV then you might be shoved to the bottom of the pile again.

So make sure whatever you've written on your resume matches what you're telling people on platforms like LinkedIn. Discrepancies can be a cause for concern, so it's best to be consistent, transparent and honest about who you are and what you bring to the table.

Hopefully this has given you some food for thought. If you're interested in getting into cyber security, want some advice on your CV / LinkedIn, or just want to come and be a part of a community of nearly 1,500 cyber professionals, students and enthusiasts, head over to the Capture the Talent Discord and come and say hi! What are you waiting for?!