Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2012, with paper CVs in mind. Today most applications are sent online and often screened by applicant tracking software, so the advice about paper color and graphic design may not apply.
A CV is put together with hope; it’s the result of years of study and experience. I’ve handed mine in at hundreds of companies, and after waiting an indefinite time, I keep noticing, in despair, that nobody calls me for a test or to join their company.
I’ve talked to friends and colleagues; some of them have already been called and others have even landed jobs. I’m doing something wrong and I don’t know what it is.
I’m going to help you think through the problems that might be causing this, before you reach the point of despair, and I’ll tell it in the first person, from what I personally experienced.
CV design and format
Every day I received between 15 and 20 different CVs. By the end of the week there were a hundred, and by the end of the month, you can’t imagine, especially when I had to find candidates for a particular position. It’s true that I sorted them by qualifications, by town and so on. Even so, for one position I had to go through some two hundred candidates.
They were all white sheets, all with the usual sections; only the font and the candidates’ photos changed. In the end they looked like photocopies to me. I admit that some candidates may have slipped past me, since they were all so alike.
Do you know which ones caught my eye more than the rest? The ones that were different: because of the color of the paper, the graphic design, in short, the one that was different and broke the sameness of the rest. Advice: let’s think about how most people do it, and be different.
Academic and complementary training
Imagine how many people can finish the academic year with the same degree. Add the students in their penultimate year who start looking for work, plus those who graduated last year and still haven’t found their dream opportunity. We end up with a huge number of candidates with the same diploma, degree or other qualification.
Let’s face it. They all have the same study plan, the same subjects; their performance may vary, though it is backed by their ability to adapt to the job. With so many identical candidates, what sets one apart from another? How do I choose between them?
Well, one thing that sets them apart is complementary activity: courses, seminars and cultural activities related to the position. Imagine we’re looking for a good accountant. Every graduate in business studies or business administration has solid accounting knowledge. How do I choose? Now imagine that one of them has done some additional training. There we have a way of screening people.
Hobbies and other activities
We put on our CV that we like walking, reading, doing puzzles and solitary activities. What are we telling the HR specialist who reads our CV? That we’re individualists who do things on our own, which, read by HR, means we’re not used to social relationships, and are therefore hard to fit into sales positions or teamwork.
Now the opposite reading: we play on a football team, we’ve set up a club for cultural activities. What we read here, and what sets us apart, is that we work in a team, that we like culture, that we research and take the trouble to look for extra information. These are ideal people for teamwork. They are ideal as innovators and for non-repetitive jobs, because they’re used to fending for themselves.
Let’s turn it around. Suppose we’re looking for someone for a repetitive job. What activities might they have that suit this position?
Perhaps you’ve recognized yourself in some of these examples. We’ll keep exploring these topics in more depth.
Further reading
- Resumesimo: create a CV that stands out from your “competition”
- How to spot a bad worker before hiring them
Featured image: Dean Hochman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
