A different Type of CV- How to stay ahead

Covid-19 has been a game-changer for everyone and anyone within their industry. We know for a fact that the world will never be the same again and we need to start to embrace the way we move forward. Covid-19 has opened my eyes to the importance of the digital era and the difference it can do within days.

A simple backstory:

I have been working recently for my aunt's restaurant (queenofwok) during this time to help develop her online presence due to COVID-19. (background: I have zero IT background). But I had google. Honestly, if I had to do a speech I would thank google first. Her usual sales during normal days could go up to 3-4 thousand but COVID-19 hit and she is only doing 300-500 on good days for the last 2 months. That is 10% of what she can do on usual days and I can only imagine how our other hawkers and F&B owners are doing. After this, I set up her website, Instagram, and Facebook, and we are back on the 2000-4000 margin. I am not an IT guy and I know nothing about coding or UI/UX. But google and of course some of the lovely candidates I have spoken to taught me how to develop and within 3 days and we were back up and running again.

This case is not to show I'm now a genius with computers (obviously I am not) but the willingness to change and take the opportunity to ride on the digital era is so important. AND! It is so easy! within a day I learned how to deal with google business, Analytics, web programming, and social media market. All this information is available and ready to be consumed for anyone willing to learn.

This brings me to this. What if we started to put ourselves as a website? A cv website? Sounds familiar? Only tech and design candidates have done this but why not the rest?

Imagine just for a second, you're an interviewer and your candidate gives you just a URL or QR code to scan and immediately, you're able to have an interactive manner to understand the individual from "about me", "projects", "works" etc.. Just think about it for a second. What comes to your mind about the candidate?

Creative? different? independent? interesting? talented? proactive?

Aren't all these the traits interviewers look for anyway?

Everyone today has been trained to consume data/ information from the internet within seconds and this is through using our phones, working on computers, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. This means that we all have that skill-set to "Consume" digital information. It's a different language that we need to embrace. We can consume websites, photos, and even this article within minutes. So why isn't this the best way to start an interview process? A website that has every information needed to be consumed by hiring managers.

So here are my five reasons why you should start doing a website cv:

1. It's easy to consume

Candidates often have an issue of cluster Cvs that are hard to read and difficult to understand as they just collate everything they have ever done onto one sheet.For example, the most common cvs i see are company name, tenure and R&R (Roles&responsibilities) and they just dunk it into one page and hope that is enough and want to show more during the interview. Putting it on a website forces you to copy write, breakdown, and segregate your content to a more interactive manner for the consumer. Simply breaking your work/life down into Experiences, Projects, about me, and contact me makes it a lot easier for hiring managers to get a better understanding of yourself than to scan through heavy writing on typical CVs. The whole point is to speak their new language. The digital language. Because honestly, we always talk about first impressions and when you send the cv, the impression has already started. The interview has already begun. hiring managers have already started to analyze, judge, and make an impression from your word fart of a cv.

2. Instead of applying to firms, firms can apply to you

We rely heavily on job boards such as indeed, jobstreet or even linkedin to know more about companies and jobs online. But how do companies learn about you? We tend to just have a cv or a well-written Linkedin page but that's about it. What more can we show off to the consumer (hiring managers/HR)? Companies/Recruiters want to look for new talents that are different from the last so why not start by being different? People can view and share your profiles. Instead of keeping a copy of your cv as a confidential document, why not put it out there and show the world of what you are capable of doing? it's honestly no different from having a LinkedIn profile as you are still sharing about your professional life but having a website allows people to approach you. Creating your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) allows companies to land on your profile and help market you better which creates a wider demographic for clients to land on your page. Privacy concerns? You give the same privacy and information to LinkedIn so what's the difference? Just put similar content but more interactively to showcase your work. Even if you are not an active applicant, you allow companies to actually see your work and potentially headhunt you better. If you want to be private, you can create a passcode and give it to your designated market.

3. You get Immediate feedback

I think one of the biggest concerns is that candidates do not get feedback about their CVs from hiring managers and this in return, creates a gap that stops candidates from understanding what can be improved. Common feedback is that, are HRs even actually looking at our CVS? Do Hiring managers spend the time to read through? and why do they stop?

Websites allow you to collate this data as all the platforms now such as wix, weebly, Squarespace have the analytics to show you who has seen your page, how long, and which part do they stay at longer. This means we can get feedback immediately on how to improve. If the consumers are exiting your page within the first minute, you know that you have not to market yourself enough or as interesting as you should be to keep them in. Also, for example, if multiple visitors were to click on the "Projects Page" and have stayed longer, this immediately gives you a signal that you need to keep your project page as content interactive as possible. If they view your "about me", "projects" and "work experience" and don't go to "contact me", it is a signal as well. And lastly, if they go to the "contact me" page after viewing everything, You know that people have intentions to contact you. isn't this valuable feedback that you're showcasing yourself effectively?

4. Awareness

I listen to a lot of key speakers in the market about development such as Tom Bilyeu, Brendon Burchard, Gary Vee, Jay Shetty, and many more. The most important thing that they always talk about is "Awareness". Today, are you aware of the position, the influence, and the impact you can provide as a person, an employee, or even as a friend? Creating a website for yourself shows you of all the things that you potentially didn't know you have been lacking. For example, people are dropping off your page because you lack content. If you lack viewership, then you lack marketing. If you lack content, then it means that basically, you do not have enough experience or you're not doing enough to keep your profile at "value". The world has changed and we need to be open to such constructive criticism to accept and mold ourselves into the best version we can be and to improve, we must first be aware of where we are. Start to ask yourself, Who am I? What information do you want others to attain from viewing your cv? Just by being aware of the current impressions you give, it allows you to better understand and fine-tune your profile to increase the value that you want to bring across to the consumer.

5. Difference

The world may not be as open to this form of method because as basic human beings, we are afraid of changes. But the brightest and the game changers are always the people that wanted to make a difference. TO DO things differently. If we want to be hired and to stand out from the other people, then ask yourself this question. WHAT MAKES YOU DIFFERENT? How are you different from the last project manager working at another company? What makes you, the mechanical engineer, different from the last? You design better? How? How do people know? Show it! People want to hire differences because they believe in game-changers. We want to have someone come in to make a difference. I think this is the most common thing I hear from hiring managers. So it's time to show that you can be different, from the start. From your approach to showcasing yourself to showing different aspects of how you see your work, this is important.

To end off, I do believe that it takes time for this to come as a change but I do believe that if you are a candidate that is suffering from no feedback from hiring managers or just can't seem to understand why you aren't getting any interviews... Take this approach and let me know how it goes! If you do need help doing a website now for yourself and want me to help to build an online CV for you, I will be more than happy to help!

If you still don't get what I am talking about, check out one of my buddy's website cv to see how you can showcase yourself better. www.sersiong.com

Feel free to contact me via Linkedin or [email protected] for a millennial's perspective on HR movements.