Jobless Contractor
This jobless contractor has not had an interview for 9 months and has asked for our advice on his CV.
Stephen – I have been out of work for nine months and have not 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 IT Surgery
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 – 5 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.
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 received 70 odd CVs, I gave them about half-a-minute each in order to whittle it down to about a dozen. The rest went 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.
Good Skills on CV
You may have good skills, but you must take steps to make sure that your CV is one of the dozen given serious consideration, not the five dozen dumped 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.
Presenting CVs
I took the view that those presenting the CVs were making their own luck – good or bad.
It is no surprise that you haven‘t got a job Stephen. If Tolstoy (of War and Peace fame) ever did a CV, it would have looked 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.
For more great advice on getting contract jobs click on Job Hunting.
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