Do you think of a CV as exciting? Interesting? Absorbing?
Here’s an idea to help you make your CV more exciting – to employers, even recruiters. And if it’s more exciting, it’ll get more attention. And with more attention likely come more job interviews, more and better job offers.
Are You Trapped on This Road to Nowhere?
So, do you think of a CV as exciting? Probably not. And especially if you’re in accounts, admin, finance, law or engineering. Even IT. Yawn! And yawn again!
And yet … in a hectic, busy, cluttered, crowded job market, we expect to send out a 5 page CV full of technical detail about our “duties” and “responsibilities” and expect it to be read?
Yes, recruiters get faced with CVs containing sometimes identical bulleted lists (if they’re lucky) of duties. No-one seems to be putting their hand up and saying: “Hey, I’m your guy!” Instead they give 5 pages of bland, repetitious detail and effectively say to the recruiter or hiring company:
“I could be the one, I could be special, but I’m not going to tell you why or how – in fact I’m not even sure why or how myself – so here’s 5 pages, maybe you can figure it out.”
It’s a road to nowhere.
1 Idea Can Turn You Around
Now, just because you’re in Finance (or law or engineering, etc) doesn’t mean you have to be boring. Money isn’t boring. You get hired not because you can “do” auditing, accounting, engineering, legal stuff or admin etc. – BUT – because you do it well, you provide a benefit, you improve things, you’re a doer, a results getter.
You’re a cog in a money making machine: you get clean audits, you save money, you eliminate risks, you eliminate backlogs, you provide quality financial data to the CEO, you build bridges on-time and on-budget, you prevent law suits, you make sure invoices go out on time, you make sure money is collected.
This is exciting stuff to a business owner who needs it. So …
- If you streamlined the dept from 12 people to 6 and increased productivity – people need to know
- If you recovered R2m from SARS last year – people need to know
- If you set up BI systems that have improved data availability from 4 weeks to ‘real time’ – people need to know.
- If you improved on-time invoice send outs from 74% to 96% – people need to know
- If you improved collections, reducing 120 day accounts by 73%, say so, people need to know
Not coming out and saying that in a crisp way, not putting these facts in the spotlight in your CV helps no-one.
Metrics … figures … tangible results … these are the things that make a CV exciting to an employer. And to a recruiter they mean that they have the ammunition to sell you with. Spotlight them. Feature them. Highlight them.
Food for Thought:
“Success comes from focus. Winners focus. Losers spray.” Steve Chandler
My 7 year old son, Ethan dropped his Lego pirate ship this morning. He was upset. Inconsolably. But he managed to focus, and before long had rebuilt it. And even better one. With 8 cannons! Focus is cool.
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