If you're a hiring manager you're probably as frustrated as I am at sifting through many rubbish CV's where the candidate is either not suitable, or I just can't 'interpret' if the candidate is suitable or not. This is hugely frustrating as it's such as waste of time! In fairness, the people who write their CV's usually spend a lot of time on them, crafting a beautifully worded, precious, and detailed document they mistakenly think I'll read, absorb and care about -- I won't. If it ain't clear: Delete
I'll tell you what I do: Like most people, I skim them, for 20-30 seconds at best! First I look at the quick "Executive Summary" the candidate usually kindly provides -- they typically say nothing, but include terms like "self-motivated, team player, performance driven, highly effective..... etc. Let's be honest, we're hardly going to write "deliberately awkward, unfriendly, lazy good for nuthin'...., and needs to be horse-whipped out of bed every morning" are we! So that really doesn't help much. So then I skim the current job -- are they currently doing something which approximates to what I'm looking for -- if yes that's helpful. If not, was the previous job close to what I'm looking for...? If not, why am I still reading this CV? -- good point: Delete!
If the CV is still open and I've not trashed it now I'm 15 seconds in, how often do they job-hop? Five jobs in three years.... ummm, okay, well we've all made the odd career mistake, but does this person really change employer more frequently than they change their underpants? Even if I think the candidate is a good fit professionally, personally they're not a good fit if they constantly change jobs -- but here's a common error on CV's. If you change jobs WITHIN the same company, make it clear on the CV: Job Title -- Manager Professional Services ASEAN. Cisco Systems . Job Title -- Product Manager ASEAN. Cisco Systems. Many CV skimmers (such as myself) simply look at how many jobs the candidate has had of late, without appreciating some of these are internal moves/promotions within the same company. Many CV's are accidently rejected for this reason: Delete!
So now we're 20 seconds in and if I've not filtered the CV to my trash file yet, then I'll look at the functions the person performs under their job title. Today one CV hit my desk -- it had 34 bullet points under the first Job!! 34 frigging sentences of 'stuff' this person claims to do! Am I seriously expected to read this? Of course not, so I skim, "TCP-IP, Branch Solution, Team Manager...." But where is the data-point I need -- how many staff do they manage on their team, how big are the systems installed? Missing: Delete!
So what's the answer? Well personally in the spirit of kindness to my fellow humans I should call all these people individually and offer to coach them on "how to write an effective CV" but then there's just not enough time in a day, so I delete, and open the next CV in my In-box. However, an answer is now at hand - I can now use a service that maps a person's professional profile to that of the job I'm looking to hire for. It's found at www.hydrajobs.net and it revolutionises the ability to match a job to a suitable candidate, and furthermore see their career aspirations. So if you've read this far and you're an IT professional and looking to advance your career go to this site and fill in your profile (no charge). If you hire staff in the IT industry then go to this site and load a position your trying to hire for (no charge -- to search a position, only to buy). Six million people in the IT industry in Asia just in the Channels space alone -- churning at ~20%per year. That's 1.2 MILLION people writing sloppy CV's in the hope of getting hired this year. So is the CV dead -- YES: Delete!
Gary Kinsley is the founder of www.Hydrajobs.net and chronic sufferer of trying to hire the right people by deciphering ambiguous Curriculum Vitae's.