Champagne and Razorblade #4

The power of the CV

Being a very active and involved person on LinkedIn as well as a recruitment professional, I very often find myself coming across things on the platform like “CVs don’t matter anymore” or “It’s unfair to base your opinion a piece of paper“ or “Your LinkedIn profile should be your CV” or “It’s such an old-fashioned method”

I disagree – shocked I know.

LinkedIn is great for displaying yourself professionally and connecting with industry relevant people you wouldn’t necessarily meet under normal circumstances, but let’s be honest, LinkedIn is a social media platform, and social media is social media at the end of the day. It is something that only portrays the best of the world we run in. It should in no way replace a CV. That and not everyone has a LinkedIn profile, with a lot of people saying they don’t understand the point of it.

The reason a CV is still around in today’s digital age is because it works, it is a tried and tested method, one that more often than not gets results.

In my experience, behind every person who says a CV isn’t necessary or isn’t relevant, is someone with a bruised ego who didn’t make it past the CV stage. But my argument to that is, you wouldn’t invite someone into your home, unless you knew anything about them. And it works the exact same in business and recruitment.

The CV is the window into a person’s career history and personality. Whilst a CV has been around for centuries in some form or another, the first CV being accredited to the legend that is Leonardo Da Vinci – the father of invention and creativity – dated 1482. His CV reportedly had ‘rock flinging and creating lightweight bridges’ listed as skill. Pretty solid in my opinion.

Fast forward to the 16th century and they were adapted by travelling workers and merchants to introduce themselves to local lords or guildsmen, highlighting what they could bring to their local community.

From that point they weren’t used too much. However, just before the start of the Second World War they started making their first professional appearances within business, a shame that they pretty much counted for nothing when the war started in 1939 – considering everyone in some way, shape or form worked for military, with propaganda being a great marketing tool. After the world recovered, they became a formalised document and every applicant needed to have one and it has been the same for the last 70 years.

Here we are in 2022, and CVs get a bad rap, and people believe they shouldn’t be judged on a small representation of themselves, but recruiters are professionals who are experienced in finding strong and suitable candidates, sometimes with very little information to go off, or in how to read between the lines in what people are saying about their experience and themselves.

A long-held belief of mine, previously mentioned above, is that a CV is a window into your career history and personality. Why just a window? It is widely known that recruiters spend on average no longer that 6-10 seconds looking through each candidates CV, so you need that window of opportunity to shine.

Another reason I use the “window” analogy, is because just like the ‘eyes are the window to the soul’, the CV is the window to the professional you. And like the eyes, the CV should be full of excitement, mystery and attractiveness. Not something that gives away the whole game, but makes you want more, something that gets you invited in. As a recruiter, it should draw you in and have you asking questions. Speaking as the aforementioned, there is nothing better than finding a CV like that, it gives you something to get excited about. It makes you want to speak to the candidate. As a candidate, if you can make recruiters want to speak to you, then you are winning.

You are standing out; you are being memorable.

And as the saying goes, a good CV can open many doors, but a very good CV gets you across the threshold.

And THAT is the power of the CV.