Your CV: Innovative New Ideas

Read this interesting piece on (http://www.theadclass.com/jobs/10-tips-writing-remarkable-resume) – article written mainly for the creative/design/advertising sector but …

Here’s a great observation, applicable to all:

Most people think the purpose of a resume is to get you a job. Wrong. The purpose of a resume is to get you an interview. Similarly, most people think the purpose of an interview is to get you the job. Wrong again.

The purpose of an interview is to connect with a human being (i.e. the interviewer) on a personal level and leave a remarkable impression on them (as in – worth making a remark about).

So how do you put that to work? Dunno. But it connects in a big way with so many comments I’ve heard from employers (they’re just regular PEOPLE after all, like you and me) – they don’t want just cold, hard facts. Some insight into “you” – who you are, what you stand for, what your personal approach or philosophy is.

Good to try to incorporate some of that into your CV especially. I always try to do that for my clients. But it’s always best for the applicant to do that themselves – they have to ‘defend’ it at interview level, it’s gotta be consistent with how they come across at an interview. And genuine! Not contrived.

I’ve sometimes included an “end-off” statement at the end of a CV – in inverted comments, a personal statement of some sort – something that says: “here’s what you can expect of me if you get  me on board” or “here’s something unique from my experience that will give you, the employer, something extra” or “here’s my unique sales proposition”.

Something like that. Between inverted commas text gets attention. Making it brief is also good. And centered in the middle of the page perhaps.

Here’s a radical new idea (well it’s not a new idea really – even I have mentioned it before and it’s been the topic of at least 1 other job hunting book). It’s by Seth Godin – a marketing “Guru” who makes a living telling it like it is and looking ahead to see what’s next. In the article below he reveals 2 things.

1. The radical idea – you’ll see what I mean.
2. How it really works when you send out your ‘average’ CV (or resume as he calls it)

See what you think (I’ve included in brackets some clarifying comments):

[Warning!! This is NOT for you if you feel uncomfortable with anything new or unconventional. It’s not for everybody. To make it work WILL require a whole new way of thinking from most job hunters out there.

Why bother having a resume?

In the last few days, I’ve heard from top students at Cornell and other universities about my internship. (Mr Godin offers an internship – so people apply to him for the post.)

It must have been posted in some office or on a site, because each of the applications is just a resume (CV). No real cover letter, no attempt at self marketing. Sort of, “here are the facts about me, please put me in the pile.”

This is controversial, but here goes: I think if you’re remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume (CV) at all.

Not just for my little internship, but in general. Great people shouldn’t have a resume (CV).

Here’s why: A resume is an excuse to reject you. Once you send me your resume, I can say, “oh, they’re missing this or they’re missing that,” and boom, you’re out.

Having a resume begs for you to go into that big machine that looks for relevant keywords, and begs for you to get a job as a cog in a giant machine. Just more fodder for the corporate behemoth. That might be fine for average folks looking for an average job, but is that what you deserve?

If you don’t have a resume, what do you have?

• How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects?
• Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch?
• Or a reputation that precedes you?
• Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up?

Some say, “well, that’s fine, but I don’t have those.”

Yeah, that’s my point. If you don’t have those, why do you think you are remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular? It sounds to me like if you don’t have those, you’ve been brainwashed into acting like you’re sort of ordinary.

Great jobs, world class jobs, jobs people kill for… those jobs don’t get filled by people emailing in resumes. Ever.

Some of what you’ve just read will have surprised you. You may doubt it. Dismiss it. And that’s fine. If you’re happy being ‘fodder’ for the ‘corporate behemoth’. Some people love it. They love the processes, policies, procedures. They love convention and order. Predictability. Organisation.

But the truth is … the world doesn’t care. The corporation doesn’t care. Maybe years ago it used to (debatable). But now … your company may have Employee Wellness programmes, in-house Gyms, psychologists, hair dressers, creches, etc – but actually you’re on your own.

So … never give up control of YOU. Keep a record of your good work. Measure yourself. Learn how to sell your value, skills, knowledge (even though for now it appears you’re ‘safe’). Develop skills that solve difficult, real problems. Be a provider of solutions.

Get or keep interested in many things. Keep alive in yourself the idea that one day you will work for yourself, on your own terms and make a good living doing so. Keep looking for opportunities. Keep learning. Get used to danger. Take risks. Get used to the feeling. Know that staying in the ‘safety’ of a large corporation is frequently AS risky as going it alone.

Sorry – I got a little off the point here on my favorite topic – but the essence is: be aware that you’re a business. And you’re in a competitive world. Don’t take a back seat in your own business. Build something that’ll last. Be smart about it. Everyone’s got a CV. At least make sure yours sends out a strong, confident, focussed message (that’ll instantly put you ahead, believe me) – not just some boring list of your past ‘duties’ and ‘responsibilities’.

Are there little things you can do to make a quick but effective difference in the attention grabbing, interest generating, interview winning power of your CV?

Sure there are. And they have much to do with the first impression your CV creates. When your CV is received, opened and looked at for the first time, whether in print or on a computer screen – that first 1 second is critical.

It’s a moment when no words are read. But many early judgements are already being made in the mind of the reader – who said the world was fair!!? But now you know!

So with that knowledge you can choose to play the victim or exploit it.

What does that one first glance at your CV say?

Here’s what it can say about you – that you’re:

• Neat.
• Professional (code for organised, trained, of high standard, adhering to good practices and codes of behaviour).
• A clear thinker.
• A good communicator.
• A person who’ll easily fit into a business environment – and contribute to it immediately.
• A person who has high standards and that when dealing with colleagues, clients and superiors you’ll be reliable, organised, clear, and you’ll be a credit to your employer.
• Highly computer literate.

And that’s before even a word is read. Pretty good going. But wait … let’s calm down a little and see the harsh truth.

What happens often, too often, to too many people, good people, people perhaps like you, is that the first impression they create isn’t the one described above. Here’s what you may be doing and here’s what that may be saying about you:

• It may be saying nothing – your first page may just grandly announce you – of how much interest actually is that to an employer? This kind of grandiose cover page could be judged as an unprofessional whim.
• You may put a great big picture on your first page – of you, or it may be clip art. You may have a page border of castles, cars, or diamonds. But won’t the reader just conclude that these are just tacky (in poor taste) attempts to create a big impression to hide the fact that your skills and qualifications are just average, or below average?
• Your paragraphs may not be aligned – or may be aligned with spaces instead of tabs – or aligned with 5 tabs instead of one (takes a little extra effort but the visual effect is worth it). The conclusion may be drawn that your computer skills are lacking or that you don’t know how to work properly with MS Word, or worse, that you just don’t care.
• You may have crammed your CV full of detail and it’s gone to 10 pages. The glancer may conclude that you’re someone who can’t get to the point, who can’t express him/herself clearly and concisely.
• In your long list of “duties and responsibilities” there may just be random points. Could the reader conclude that logical thinking and proper organisation aren’t strengths you possess? Absolutely.
• In an attempt to get to the nirvana of the 2 page CV, you may have used a very small font, single (or less) line spacing, and no paragraph spacing. You may just come across as someone desperate to comply, willing to sacrifice readibility for the 2 page CV – which is really missing the point altogether.
• You may have use a font that’s very big – and they may conclude you have eyesight problems, or that you’re very old and your sight is fading.
• You may have used a common format – a template, or a formate copied from your school textbook. These formats shout “average” – they put you in a box, they limit expression. Use them if you have to – they’re better than nothing but just be sure, again, that your alignments and all the stuff mentioned above is done perfectly.

You get the point, right? Your CV can speak without words – just a glance can speak volumes.

And yes, these are snap judgments people may make, rightly or wrongly, after just a glance at your CV. But that glance sets the tone for any further reading of your CV. You want it to be positive.

Badly constructed, worded and word processed CVs won’t do that for you – the reader may move forward, but with an irritated, unimpressed, negative mindset. And in a competitive job market that’s not going to help any.

Get your CV checked by someone you know is ‘hot’ on designing professional documents, ‘hot’ with MS Word and word processing, ‘hot’ on knowing how to format things, how to space words and sentences and make a document look smart.

Give attention to these ideas, tip, tricks – whatever – and you’ll get much better, quicker response to your CV send-outs.

Or, of course you can get it written professionally – click here to read more on my CV writing service.