Poorly presented CVs are preventing well suited candidates from landing their ideal jobs as employers are snowed under by a record number of applications. Although the total number of jobs being created currently has gone up, the majority of them are part-time, suggesting that number might fall again after the Christmas period. If that’s the case, I believe we will notice more people than ever applying for a small pool of full-time jobs in the New Year. In my experience with candidates, as many as one in five, would be perfect for a job but are missing out because they are under-selling themselves in their poor quality CVs which don’t do justice to their personality and life experience.
In many cases, the ideal candidates aren’t even invited to interviews – they’re simply overlooked. This is because a paper CV in isolation just isn’t enough to get the message across. Most employers would agree that finding the right candidate is as much about who they are as what they’ve done, particularly at senior level, and the traditional CV can’t always convey the former very effectively.
In an ideal world, where recruiters and employers have endless time and patience, they’d meet every serious applicant face to face. Realistically, this is never going to happen, so recruiters need to help candidates find alternative ways of getting noticed.
When permanent positions do arise it’s imperative that candidates give themselves every edge, as there will almost certainly be some stiff competition out there. It’s hard to communicate professionalism, charm and sense of humour over a Word document, but ultimately it’s these qualities that will get you hired. Candidates need to look for alternative ways of presenting themselves, to make sure they don’t miss out.
