What's Wrong With My CV? Here's a Checklist.

You're not getting any calls.?

You feel anxious and stressed because you want to leave your current job.

The lousy boss is mistreating you, the colleagues are pissing you off, or the long hours you are clocking without any appreciation.

Whatever it is, you want to move on.

You have been sending out multiple CVs but with little or no response. So what's wrong?

After coaching others on CV writing for over 4.5 years, and having been a candidate myself, here is my checklist of the common issues.

1. CV length?is too long and too short - writing a novel isn't get you to an interview. The CV is a test of your written communication skills. Sell yourself with no more than four pages. 2 pages may not do you justice.
2. Grammatical and spelling errors?- no one wants to read a document riddled with errors. We have the technology to help. Try Grammarly.
3. Your CV is?not speaking?the ideal job description. Using ATS (Automatic Tracking System) to filter out CVs, you need to have the keywords in your CV. However, word of caution, don't put all the keywords in there for the sake of it. You need to have experience.
4. Cover letter?not submitted or well written - I will always encourage a cover letter to explain why you are an excellent fit for the job description. Do tailor this to every application. Better to have it than not - the hiring manager can decide whether they want to read it.
5. No key achievements are listed, or they are part of doing your job - key achievements are what sets you apart from other candidates. These are outcomes you have driven, busing your skills and are NOT part of doing your job; if you can quantify it, even better, whether it's in $ or days or hours or the number of steps.
6. The format is too simple, and a lot of space is wasted.?
7. Font size?too small - people try to fit so much information onto that CV that they reduce the font size to 10 or 9. Even though we are paperless, we still print CVs to go into the interview as hiring managers, so cater for that.
8. Not selling yourself?- if you don't know what you're selling, how do you expect the hiring manager to understand? What are your strengths, attributes, skills and work practices?
9. Listing your tasks in bullet points?(and lists of them) - just because you do a task doesn't mean you are good at them! Tell the hiring manager why you should be hired.
10. All about me?- yes, you should be selling yourself, but we also want to see how you collaborate. So balance the "I" with some "We".

Review your CV and see if it has these issues.

Want to know how to fix it? Let me send you my "5 Steps to An Effective CV" to give you some guidance.

Direct message me.