Oct 21 2008
Here is what NOT to do folks
In these stormy economic times, many people have been cast out into a lonely unemployed ocean. While every person’s experience of being jobless differs, here are a few notes on what not to do with your CV and the task of pitching your personality well:
Don’t summarise.
Your CV is a precis of who you are, elegantly slanted towards the job that you’re applying for; assuming that didn’t apply for hundreds. It’s a showcase of your professional life so far, and it gives a good impression of who you are daily, from when you’re standing in the kitchen making coffee, to when you’re seriously pitching ideas in the boardroom. My dad once said to me that out of thousands of applicants he hired a girl because she helped to bring up her three younger siblings,and because it showed a strength of character that was perfect for the job. You never know what you might need to say on your CV; think carefully, and remember to wrap it up.
And conversely: tell them all.
Don’t tell your employers your dog’s name; they don’t need to know it. Keep it slick – a nice two-page CV looks good in PDF, although acadamic and doctor’s CVs are a different story. Include the information that is strictly relevant to the job at hand, and remember to thoroughly research the job before you apply for it, lest you include information that is not relevant – that decreases your chances sentence by sentence.
Post yourself everywhere
Don’t undervalue your worth. Pick and choose where you’d like to be, and then put your everything in there. Network with the people you’d like to approach via LinkedIn, and get yourself an introduction. Your CV posted on a job board is a spam magnet, and a mark that your network isn’t as robust as it could be. That is not the impression that you should be making if you’d like to land the job of a lifetime.
Be afraid of paper
Emails can get lost in the corporate quagmire, so don’t be afraid to print yours out in some discreet colour ink, slot it into an envelope and leave it with your new boss’s secretary. Junk mail filters are more dangerous than ever, but put on a friendly face, and perhaps the boss will read your CV and you’ll get shunted to the top of the pile.
Don’t mention money
By the second interview, or depending on the process, the third – ask how much remuneration you’ll receive. This is central to your work, job satisfaction, ambition and motivatiion. Don’t let your employers trick you into thinking that family values come into any corporation in 2008; money makes the world go around, baby.