What Does Your Professional CV Say About You?

When you hear the saying “a picture tells a thousand words”, this means that a picture can tell a story just as easily as a large amount of text. The same is true about your professional CV. Your CV can tell the reader a lot about the type of person you are and the type of worker you will be.

During one of my earliest roles as a recruiting agent, I was asked to find a shortlist of 5 candidates to fulfill a HR position. The position was an entry level role for a very well known and respected investment bank and although the client had instructed several requirements that they wanted in the right candidate (e.g. Bachelor Degree), the most important aspect was to find a candidate that would be the “right fit” for this company.

We began our search for the candidate by placing a job advert in one of the online job portals. Within 3 hours we had over 150 CV's sitting in our inbox. By the end of the day we had another 400 CV's (at that stage we decided to take the job advert off the Internet). With our client urgently calling us wanting to know how soon they would receive CV's of potential candidates, we had the task of trying to sort through the huge amount of CV's and find the top 5 candidates.

How to stand out from the competition:

First impressions count! It is estimated that a hiring manager or recruitment agent will spend no more than 15 -30 seconds reading through your CV before either deciding to continue reading or pressing delete. Unfortunately there is not one secret that will guarantee your CV will stand out from the competition, but there are many factors that will get your CV deleted. In my experience the first thing I look for in a CV is professionalism.

Spelling Mistakes and bad grammar:

It is an unforgiveable sin to have any spelling errors on your CV . Spelling mistakes and bad grammar send out a negative signal that that the candidate is careless, does not take pride in his or her work and lacks the professionalism that the client demands. Without even reading through more of the CV I would delete this CV.

Layout and Presentation:

It is an undisputed fact that if a hiring manager has two CV's sitting on the table, they are instinctively going to be drawn to the CV that is professionally presented and easy to read. No matter what the CV's say, the first impression is already made. If both candidates share similar skills and experiences, just take a guess at which CV the hiring manager is going to choose.

When you sit down to write your CV, remember one thing. Your CV is your representation. This 2-3 page document is all you have to prove to the hiring manager that you are the right person for the job.  Present a professional picture and make sure that you stand out above your competition.