Contractors Plea for Help
This contractors plea for help is from Stephen.
I have been out of work for nine months and haven‘t had an interview for the past 3 months. I‘ve posted a copy of my CV to you.
Could you look at it and tell me if you think that there is anything wrong with it? I hope you have time to read it all.
Dr. McLaughlin’s Comments
No, I didn‘t have time to read all of your CV, and I‘ve got more time than employers have.
Your CV is too long. It shouldn’t be more than 2 pages. Try thinking of your CV as a sales brochure and sell yourself and your main skills.
Try doing it in a completely different way. Write down the skills that you think are most marketable and most recent, and try and sell yourself on those.
CV Trawl by Employers
Don’t expect employers to trawl through your CV looking for what they want. You’ve got to make sure that it jumps out at them right away.
Any time I got 70 odd CVs, I gave them about half-a-minute each in order to whittle it down to about a dozen. I put the rest straight in the bin.
If I couldn’t find what I wanted from the CV, i.e. the skills and experience that I was looking for, within that 30 seconds, I got irritated and dumped it.
May Have Good Skills
You may have good skills. However, you must take steps to make sure that your CV is one of the dozen that get serious consideration, not the five dozen that go in the bin.
My apologies to those who think that I was being unfair, but I just didn’t have time to give 70 odd CVs ten minutes of my time each. I took the view that those presenting the CVs were making their own luck – good or bad.
It doesn’t surprise me that you haven‘t got a job Stephen. If Tolstoy (of War and Peace fame) ever did a CV, it would look something like this.
Make your own luck, and make sure that when an employer is giving your CV 30 seconds of his time, he or she can find what you do and what you are good at.
Otherwise it‘s the bin again Stephen.
My apologies for seeming so harsh after this contractors plea for help but one might call it tough love.
For more advice on how to do do your CV effectively click on CV Advice.
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