We’ve previously described the cover letter and the CV as the candidate’s ID card when looking for work, and as the first impression they give the company where they’re seeking a job.
These two elements are as important as they are vital. In a selection process, a bad cover letter or a poorly presented CV can be enough to exclude you from the following stages. When a company is looking for an employee and receives hundreds of applications, anything can be grounds for removing a candidate from the process. In a way, as selection specialists, we have to eliminate candidates, and this can be one reason to do so.
These two elements are important, and I’ll say it again. They are also a source of mistakes, intentional or not. Some are bigger than others, but at a given moment they can be decisive.
My experience
In cover letters and CVs I’ve read sentences like “I’m available at any time of day, except during siesta hours“. Unbelievable, but true. What company is going to call someone who cares more about their afternoon nap than about the job?
There are others that reveal people’s true worth. “I don’t know if there is any reason why you should hire me…” How easy it is to say no to this candidate! So-and-so has no reason to be selected: not punctual, not efficient, not detail-oriented, not a hard worker. Again: “I don’t know if there is any reason why you should hire me…” So… why look for a job if you don’t know whether you should be hired?
“My phone number is 666 XXX XXXC”, so you call, and keep calling. It never rings, never connects, until you realize the number they gave has ten digits instead of nine (Spanish phone numbers have nine). Which one is extra? The company manager trying to hire them doesn’t have time to work out the right number and gives up on giving them a chance.
Be careful not to make these mistakes
Your CV should be in chronological order, for both education and work experience, from the most recent to the oldest. Any other format confuses the recruiter and makes their job harder. Disorder points to a disorganized person and is, in many cases, grounds for rejection.
The same goes for spelling mistakes. Errors in a text as short as a cover letter are a bad sign. They give a negative, uneducated and uninterested image of the candidate. Remember that this is the first image of you the company receives, and your future as a candidate there will depend on those first impressions.
The candidate’s photograph and the look of the CV are the recruiter’s first impression. If you catch their attention in some way, they’ll notice you and study your application with more attention and care. So let’s not throw away opportunities with bad photocopies or poor presentation. It’s like dating: your future with the girl of your dreams depends on her first impression of you.
Don’t write long CVs. Two pages at most. At the very least, present a summary CV. If you then want to go into detail about each academic or work experience, as a kind of appendix, you can, but the first impression should be clean, polished and concise. Be careful with how you describe your work and academic background: it can backfire if the HR specialist who receives it misreads it.
Featured image: Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
.jpg){kind=link}