How to make your CV blingalicious, yet professional? Here is HOW!

How to make your CV blingalicious, yet professional. Here is HOW!

Not getting any job interviews? There are few reasons why: most likely your CV is not showing all of your amazing qualities and achievements and it is little plain and/or your LinkedIn profile is not up to date and maybe not up to the standard either. Naturally there are few other things that matter like: strategizing your job search and sending it to right people and companies, using your network and building credibility and expertise by being an active participant on LinkedIn or having a blog that will reconfirm your knowledge and expertise in your area. But your first step should be your CV - make it perfect first! Article about optimizing your LinkedIn profile and how to approach job search via it and growing professional exposure would follow soon.

Here are few tips on how to help your CV and yourself to get noticed among other applicants and land that interview invitation.

I receive high number of requests to check/feedback read proof CV or help with job search lately and unfortunately/fortunately I’m no CV or job search consultant and can’t dedicate much of my time for as many "good deeds" or I would/should have made living out of it, but I do want to help out and share my knowledge. So, I decided to write this article to have a check point list for you, optimizing your CV to go through. If it is compliant already, then you got excellent CV, if not then read thoroughly and implement changes, once you did I would be happy to review it for you, if you didn't, then you will receive same feedback- go and read this again. If you can do it yourself- excellent! I salute you, if you can't or don't know how to there is a way to fix it. There are tons of CV consultants on the market but those few excellent experts, that?I know of and can highly recommend would be Lina Hariri and Hannah Mason locally (UAE) and Kirsty Bonner internationally. Do find them on LinkedIn and invest in your CV. Why? If writing is not your strongest side, do hire a professional, do invest in it as it will pay off most certainly tenfolds. Without excellent CV you are spending or rather wasting your time and your savings(hopefully not) and money throwing profile of yours in all directions, registering on all those job database websites and getting more and more frustrated, without giving it a chance to be noticed, because there are some elements on it missing that are not getting you through that "interesting candidate, we should meet him/her" door.

If you are determinant however to do it yourself here come a few simple tips from top of my head that you can proof read yourself. Why am I sharing those tips and giving you advice? Because I have been doing it for the past 8 years or more and I know how important it is to have a resume that will make recruiter/HR think: "he/she sound interesting, let’s meet them"

1. Have your CV 2 pages long at a maximum. Please don’t send a story of your life on 5 pages, nobody has time to read it. Eloquence is a must?have quality in most of jobs, unless you chose a writing profession. Keep it short and simple KISS and get me/recruiter intrigued with keywords that will ensure you will be invited to interview.

2. Whatever you are composing, do find someone (preferably native English speaker), who can proof read your CV in terms of punctuation, grammar and that what you wrote does make sense actually. You are shooting yourself in a leg by: "Profissianal" experience section or stating that you were working in "Consluting" company or marking yourself as "Enterpuner". Of course it is nice to have a moment of laughter when reading those, but you are not giving yourself any favors by not prioritizing this.

3. Have smiley, friendly professional photo on your CV. It’s a must in UAE. Why? Without discriminating and in all honesty there is an overwhelming number of candidates applying for the same job and with no chance to see through each CV and meet every applicant I would filter out CVs without photos as I egoistically want to save myself and my time from taking a chance and seeing someone for a "blind date" interview. I want to see your face and see intelligence, friendliness, sanity and whatever energy you are sending out on it. It is not a beauty contest by no means. I don’t care about your color or religion and I am not going to put you on the shelf with nationality label on it, but I do care that you know what does professional photo looks like relevant for your industry and what does it mean to look professional and presentable. If you are in creative industry, then show your character, creativity, be fashionable, and show your personality that is ok. But general rule of thumb that selfies, filtered images or photo from bar or your latest holiday or passport photo, where you look utterly scared on (nobody looks good on those) or “duck lips” or way too casual attire is not what you would consider a professional photo in any industry. This is a professional document and not a profile photo in your Facebook or Instagram. By looking at your photo I also want to possibly know/assume, that you will fit in into team environment/culture (it is an intelligence/compatibility test in a way). As a general rule of thumb your photo ideally should be of your face mostly and upper body in a professional attire, relevant for your industry with clear background or professional background but shaded out, so focus is on you, your face and smile. Smile is extremely important as it builds initial rapport. Ladies, I would highly recommend to cover your chest and avoid displaying cleavage or have bare shoulders showing (especially in this region) and not display entire body or legs and not look like "Halloween make up queen" either. This sends wrong message. The same rule applies on LinkedIn profile. If you want a contact of a great studio to make professional portrait CV photo in Media City in Dubai do get in touch privately and I will be happy to share, as I am not advertising any services here, but just recommending it as used it myself in the past and they are very reasonably priced around AED 200 for image, so it’s worth investing in. Get your inspiration for CV professional headshots here: https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=business%20headshots&source_id=94eTUlw3&rs=srs

4. Have a professional looking and easily readable e-mail ID that is easy to retype without mistakes and doesn't question your intelligence either so e-mails [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected] or raju9874_pk@ mail.com is not ok. You might have made it when you were 18 and love it and its ok, but use it in your private life. Your ideal email id should be a combination of your first and last names.

5. Do have your phone number mentioned on you CV with country code. If you are applying in UAE do get a local number. It is highly unlikely a recruiter will be approaching somebody outside of country (unless it’s an executive role and can’t be sourced locally) as there are tons of qualified candidates available locally. You don’t want to minimize your chances.

6. You do not have to mention on your CV either your age or marital status. Those are things from the past and should not affect your hire-ability, in UAE those questions are allowed to be asked during the interview. You do not have to display your full home address either, we are not going to visit you and those things should be kept private anyhow, but you could mention your location in terms of country and city. Your nationality/citizenship should not matter at all and reason to be discriminated against, but I would mention it as a general practice here in GCC and because, let’s be honest, it does play a certain role here, even if it should not have. I could only come up with one example, that would maybe make logical sense, but that I do not personally find justifiable, but sometimes in entire team for example consisting of a certain nationality, head of the team might be reluctant to consider candidates from other nationalities or sex, justifying it that it would disrupt its balance and as HR you can’t do much, even if you are against it and mixing up the team is always a good idea.

7. If your LinkedIn profile is up to date (and it actually should be) I would definitely include it in top section as I always do check it and it gives me tons of information about person: cross check in employment dates ( we all received CVs where actual dates were forged, but candidate would not dare to do it on their LinkedIn as his ex-colleagues are there etc.), recommendations from his/her current or ex colleagues (best and most undervalued tool- if you didn’t have any start requesting them from people you have worked with), profile section, educations, endorsement and skills will all be there on your profile as well as articles candidate have posted, their recent activity, blogs, references to their personal websites etc. Its invaluable marketing tool for you as candidate, so make sure it is up to date. I don’t judge you for not having it perfect, but I analyze what it tells.

8. Do change your LinkedIn profile to network of the country where you are applying in. Many recruiters will filter out candidates outside of network when screening candidates CV. Why? Oversupply of locally available candidates. If you get 4000 applicants for an accountant position based in UAE, it is not likely I will be considering candidates from other countries or I will be filling this position for 6 months and I know head of accounting will not be very happy as he/she requires team addition yesterday or at least in a month time.

9. When applying via company websites and uploading your CV into their database, they will often screen CV by automatic matches of keywords provided by company against candidate's resume. It will produce CV's with highest percentage of match against position. Do make a version of your CV ATS compliant for such applications. What is it: https://www.topresume.com/career-advice/what-is-an-ats-resume. Google what it is or get in touch and hire professional CV consultant. Job consultants Lina Hariri, Hannah Mason in UAE and Kirsty Bonner internationally would help. Unfortunately very often CVs that have beautiful graphics, logos and templates would fail ATS compliance as detection programs would find them unreadable. Here your amazing CV would go to waste. In this case I would have 2 CV versions made. One simple one - your upload it for applications, when applying directly via websites, LinkedIn of big companies and one great one for direct applications. Why do companies use ATS screening? Because they receive thousands of applications and to go through all would prolong hiring process for months - this is not feasible.

10. Do have profile/introduction/about me whatever you call it section right at the top of your CV where you should tell in a few words and concise manner what you are great at, what do you search for and what can you offer to company. It is sort of an "elevator pitch" to catch recruiter’s attention. Give me a concise summary, so I don’t have to dig myself for your competences and abilities and draw parallels what you could do for company and whether you are actually a match.

11. Edit/adjust every CV for every job you are applying. See what skills recruiter/hr. looks for (see exact words, competencies, necessary certification, programs etc.) and see if you acquire them or somewhat knowledgeable, if you do, blend it in. Don’t lie, if I need SAGE experienced candidate of 2 years minimum and you don’t have any at all or you just read an article about SAGE and think that you have an idea, it’s not ok to write that you do.

12. Every professional occupation should have following information: your job title, company name, company industry, country, city and period of employment. If you want you could also include to whom you were reporting to if it was CEO or CFO, somebody O in other words, it assumes level of responsibility. It is also not bad to include company logo there, it stands out and international big companies do have reputation and it assumes pay scale level as well - bonus points.

13. If your career is consistent within one industry do give more/most descriptive content for latest role, if you jumped a lot or your CV is running out of 2 pages space, then in other roles a title, company name, industry, period of employment, city and country would be sufficient.

14. Don’t give me stories of every little thing that you did at your job, I know that you did/can do things, because I have an idea that this is what people would do when holding those roles, but do give me areas of your particular competencies and expertise. For HR person for example put into sentences and mention important things like: onboarding, benefits, payroll, L&D, those key words would allow recruiter to understand what are you specializing in, what is your expertise. I don’t need to know that you are updating databases or communicating with employees, I know that you do. Think of keywords that show your expertise and knowledge in particular areas, not routine tasks. I know that if you finished school you are likely can do anything in the office, from making copies to answering the phone- give me some "juice" instead.

15. Here comes very important part. Your achievements at every job. Right under the title. Do have couple of sentences under each title that summarizes your accomplishments at this particular role. Basically what extra value you brought to company besides just doing your job. Companies want people who are proven to be over achievers and adding value and making money for them, not just do their jobs. If I was to choose between one who has proven track record of adding extra value I would chose him/her over candidate who just can do his/her job. He/she might have been over achievers as well, but they didn’t tell me about it and I can’t read minds.

Now I know that it is not easy, some people are shy and not everyone is great writing?about their achievements, somebody might not even recognize that they did over achieve and delivered great value added to a company (normally those are those hard working ones) but achievements story telling is basically your best selling point and should be clear concise and real, it should not feel like bragging, but as a fact. Therefore I would highly recommend to hire a professional, who can help you to put it in writing such as Lina Hariri or Hannah Mason locally and Kirsty Bonner internationally.

Summarizing them is extremely important, so I- recruiter don’t have to dig for it and connect the dots. Examples: designed and developed new Initiatives... implemented new system... brought 20% more revenues in year 2018... Increased client database by %... started company's social media presence... increased sales by %... you might think that it’s just your job, but it’s your achievements, don’t underestimate yourself. You went an extra mile. Little example here: As a marketing degree graduate strategist was hired to identify, evaluate, develop and initiate marketing and PR activities in order to improve xxx brand image, increase revenues from F&B and attract more loyal returning customers. Utilized xxx popular location and helped to achieve impressive financial returns and venue popularity boost by developing and introducing brand new creative "dine & entertain" concept: organizing weekly events, such as book readings, music concerts, art display and lectures and private art events, that were promoted via social media etc. This was achieved by initiating a thorough research, evaluating financial aspects involved, designing attractive dine &wine packages and collaborating with new local artists, who were looking for exposure and by having prepared a meticulous strategic marketing plan, that was executed on the budget by mainly using social media, free collaboration and word of mouth.

16. Do diligently mention your educational background and additional educations you are getting, courses you are attending, participating in honorary initiatives etc. relevant or not relevant for the job. Why? Because I know that you are prioritizing your growth and continuously developing and learning something new. I would know that you are firing those neurons and your brain is working and you are proactive. Nothing wrong with someone who doesn’t, but if you do its bonus added to you as candidate definitely.

17. Do have “about me” section that will tell more about: who you are you outside of work, what excites you, what do you love to do, who are you as a human being. It shows that you are human and also creates greats points of rapport with recruiter and a fantastic ice breaker.

Don’t just write that you love trekking, write that you have trekked Everest basecamp. Don’t just write that you love travelling, write that you have been to 45 countries. Don’t just write that you love reading, write that you particular areas of interest is xxx. Don’t just write that you are volunteering, write that you have participated in blood donation initiative or helped to build clinic in Nepal. Don’t just write that you love diving, but write that you are PADI advanced and master diver, who dived in xxx countries. Be little more specific, it will show recruiter your personal traits. Don’t lie about things just because they do sound good on CV, be genuine about it.

18. Do mention all languages you speak or write and define a level. Do not write that you speak Arabic and all you know is InshAllah and MashAllah it would not do you any good.

19. Similar goes for technical expertise, be honest about your proficiency. I am not going to test you whether you can create an excel table during interview, but if most of data is being processed through excel and you barely know how to extend column width, it will not look good when you will start working and it will come out clear.

20. If you got blogs, websites, projects, podcasts, interviews, awards, articles mentioning you, initiatives or your creative work, papers you published, e-books or social media etc. that you are proud of and can display and is accessible publicly add a section that will include reference to those. This is a way for me to get to know you better and reconfirmation of your expertise and for you to display your additional talents, expertise and achievements.

21. Do your best to create CV that is visually pleasant to read, has nice font, clear sections divisions and not too messy and has bit of color too. But don't go overboard with different fonts and graphics. You would be surprised how many dull CVs recruiter and HR professionals are receiving every day. But reserve it for direct forwarding, as I mentioned earlier keep ATS compliant CV for everything else. Free Canva fancy resume builder https://www.canva.com/create/resumes/ Free ATS compliant resume builder kindly shared with you by Hannah Mason https://theenglishmeetingroom.com/product/cv-template/

22. Do write an appealing but not too long Cover Letter, where you would briefly explain , who you are, what you are great at and achieved professionally and most importantly what you are looking for and what you can offer to the company and why you are interested in that company specifically ( do research their website, vision/mission statement and read articles that will tell you more about it), so company feels that you are not just shooting in all directions, just because you have to pay your bills, they want genuine interest. Cover Letter often makes a difference as you would not imagine how many people don’t do it and just throw their CVs into recruiter inboxes asking to be helped to find a job. Write one excellent one and adjust for every job you are applying.

23. When creating visually pleasing CV's I would highly recommend application called Canva it costs peanuts but making you stand out, however it’s not really ATS compliant.Free Canva fancy resume builder https://www.canva.com/create/resumes/ Free ATS compliant resume builder https://theenglishmeetingroom.com/product/cv-template/

And lastly and most importantly don’t stress yourself over not being able to create an amazing CV by yourself and not having creative writing flow and marketing skills and juggle words around. Story telling takes practice and yes some are more gifted than others and even if you can’t be great in everything, you are totally amazing in other things (that should be emphasized in your resume skillfully) and that’s why you should/can hire professional help from people who are and will make you “all stars” candidate and help you to show your professional value and personality and qualities and talents that will shine through. They are also there to prepare you for interviews and practice them. Why to invest in it as it’s not cheap? You won’t be cutting your own hair right? Think about it from financial point of view: foregone earning opportunities by staying unemployed and instead choosing to be investing in yourself and professional services that will pay off tenfold in terms of your hire-ability and your confidence and you as a result landing greater and better job with super companies and start seeing funds coming into your bank account rather than just leaving or having an opportunity to change your current employment for whatever reasons you need to, whether it is better pay prospective or a nicer working environment and greater career opportunities. There are many Job consultants out there and you can find one that you feel is right for you, just follow your intuition. Check out their LinkedIn and see what their post and how profound is their knowledge and then just choose.

All the best of luck in creating your bestselling pitch - advocating your own greatness!

Humbly yours,

Lena

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