We can rebuild him. We have the technology [to write a better CV].

Since I last wrote, it's been...wild. I've had a job offer withdrawn within a week because they lost a few clients (sad for them as much as it is for me). I was invited for an interview and then ghosted by a multinational consulting firm after confirming I was available on the date they proposed. I've had successful and unsuccessful interviews that have both gone nowhere. I've even [unsuccessfully] applied for jobs that require about half my experience, just to put the feelers out there. And I've applied to so many job postings on LinkedIn that I'm now applying for ones I've already applied for.

And then there's been the fallout from the SVB collapse, which I'm sure has kept plenty of tech specialist agencies or practices awake at night, worrying if their clients will be affected and unable to continue working with them. In the UK, those fears have been abated by HSBC's purchase of SVB UK, but the sector remains volatile, and recruitment has probably slipped down the agenda for many.

The upshot is that I'm no closer to long-term employment than when I started. If anything, it feels like I'm further away from it. But is there a reason for this?

Let's talk about CVs

One could be my CV. I'm forced by circumstances to consider that I might have become overly reliant on recruiters in recent years and let my CV slide into mediocrity. Because its the recruiter who sells you and then sends the CV - presumably a sanitised version in their branded format - to the hiring manager for background. I'm not always convinced they've been read when I enter the interview room (virtual or otherwise). But now the recruiter/head-hunter well seems to have run dry, I'm feeling a little exposed.

The last time I got constructive feedback on my CV was in the lead-up to landing the gig at Platform, and that was over four years ago (props to April Kearns for being that really helpful recruiter). Since then, I've reviewed dozens if not hundreds of CVs from prospective employees in my capacity as recruitment lead, but have I taken the time to analyse which of these stand out the most, or have I just gone on intuition and gut feel?

When I started this process a couple of months ago, I asked every recruiter I spoke to if they had any feedback on my CV. It may or may not shock you to learn, dear reader, that not one provided any feedback. It must be bulletproof, then! So I thought nothing of it and have been firing my CV out left right and centre ever since.

Well, apparently it ain't all that and a bag of potato chips (bonus points for identifying the movie reference there). When applying for a job on a job board recently, there was an option to have my CV analysed by TopResume , inevitably to sell me some CV writing service, but I was curious. The feedback was...mixed. This becomes problematic when I'm not pursuing a job opportunity through a recruiter but going directly to the source.

Visual presentation and organisation

The visual presentation was described as 'uneven', but they (or 'it', I have my suspicions) liked my use of bullets. Kind of. You can have too much of a good thing, apparently. TopResume also said I didn't need a note saying 'references available on request' as this was assumed. So that all sounds fixable, find a decent template and punch things up.

Resume writing

TopResume's feedback on my resume writing was a little more scathing, with a career summary that needed to be stronger and with the CV, in general, lacking the kind of active language that would 'bring your work to life'. Now, this is pretty criminal for someone who prides themself on their ability to tell a compelling story through the written medium. But I get why. The foundations of this CV are...ancient. It reflects an older (or is it younger?) version of me when I first applied for jobs.

Back then, the arbiters of my destiny (that's a fancy way of saying CV reviewers) were my parents. My dad's career history could best be described as high risk, high reward. As a sales rep for innovative medical technology companies, the solutions would either fly, and the company was bought, or they would crash and burn. Either scenario often led to redundancy and the kind of golden parachute payments that meant he could afford long stretches of unemployment between gigs. But this meant that my Dad's CV had to be in pretty decent nick.

He always told me it should be written in the third person and that the word 'I' should never appear anywhere. But my recent reading of CV etiquette tells me that this can be impersonal. And you know what, I agree! My CV always felt stilted and sterile. There was no sense of personality. It was...just the facts. Except for the special interests section, where being UK Rock Paper Scissors Champion 2011 continues to this day, to be a great icebreaker in interviews (if the interviewer has read that far down). The world has changed, and my CV needs to keep pace.

CV scan test results

I've long advocated for automating mundane functions in the PR industry, so I certainly wouldn't begrudge recruiters using Applicant Tracking Systems (or ATS). This is the raw data pulled from my CV by such an ATS; the results are disappointing.

The ATS has slashed my experience in half. It only seems to be counting the information up to and including my time at Babel, which I left in December 2015. This has consequences for the level of jobs it believes I've had, and therefore my Management Score is pretty middling. The management score is calculated from position titles and based on the title's wording, not the experience described within the position description. Regardless, it needs 7+ years of job titles to make its assessment relevant.

Furthermore, while finance and investor relations factor into my career, they have yet to be the focus. That 'technology' doesn't make an appearance at all is troubling.

Build back better

There are a few caveats when taking all of this in. TopResume's assertion that 93% of all hiring managers use resume-scanning software must be taken with a pinch of salt. I don't know what most small-medium side agencies I've engaged with do, especially if they don't even have an HR department. But for in-house opportunities, there's an argument that you need to consider how your CV is being assessed before it gets to human eyes.

Secondly, TopResume is an American company, and I wonder if their assessment of recruitment practices translates to this side of the Atlantic. But it has certainly given me lots of food for thought.

So while I rebuild mine, the purpose of this article is not to encourage you to go and splash out on CV writing services, automated CV analysis tools or a new CV template. It's to consider whether or not just topping up your CV with the latest hits of your career is doing you a disservice. Because I get the distinct impression that mine is harming my career prospects.

Quick tip, when looking for a new CV template, make sure you can download it as a word document. Because believe me, there's nothing more infuriating than reformating your CV for a snazzy new template only to realise it is useless once you've downloaded it. Take it from someone who has learnt the hard way!