Why CVs nowadays are totally useless

Unless they properly tell your story, instead of a bunch of bullet points.

As an ex-marketer, stories are very important to me. I used to recruit when I was a Senior Brand Manager and then Head of Brand, for my teams. CVs never looked quite the same, yet when I received 50 CVs to skim through, it felt like a chore. I find CVs to be a bunch of details with no story, quite robotic in a way.

The recruitment process is currently stuck with this CV formatting for a few reasons:

• Power. The candidate may associate the recruiter with a position of power (decision making). Therefore they complain blindly with the system’s current requirement even if it isn’t working well for them. Candidates fear getting a little more creative to suit their profile and portray them authentically, and instead they stay within the old system’s guardrails
• AI. We’re now living in a world of automated processes. It helps recruiters to have systems that can automatically pick CVs that contain certain keywords that are essential for the candidates to go through the more human interview stages. I’ve heard instances where the CVs had to be reformatted in such a way that it didn’t benefit the candidate’s portrait, but it did fit with the way the AI systems works, so….authenticity vs fitting the box.

If you’ve ever recruited anyone, you’ve gone through this process of sifting through CVs. Have you never thought that they all looked the same, you were reading the same descriptions of roles over and over again? At the end of the day, we’re talking about people. Yes, we go back to this same aspect – people. Many people may have in fact done very similar jobs. But the reason that brought them to this similar role may differ. The way they approached the role may differ. What happened around that time and after may differ. What they brought to the role is likely to be different.

And guess what, you can’t see this in a CV. So, as a recruiter, how to select a handful then, what criteria should you base your selection on? As a candidate, how do you know if your CV is an authentic portrait of you, your skills, your talents, your edge, your YOU?

Why I hate CVs as they are done today? They focus on the what, not the why.

Everyone knows 1 and 1 makes 2. I’m less interested in the 1 than I am in the “and”. Yes, CVs are historically supposed to be an account of your education, professional experience and potentially a little tiny space dedicated to what you enjoy between 5pm until 9am. A bottom corner space for this because hey, surely playing netball every week will not make you a stronger candidate for the SBM position?

I’ve heard people high up dismissing candidates because they played passionately rugby every week, and so they assumed they wouldn’t be committed enough to their job. My jaw dropped that day. When I had interviewed the person, I thought this was such a great attribute to have: a passion, a team player, sports values etc…something he COMMITS to every week.

Wouldn’t it better if a CV had all your dots AND all also a few highlights of what connects them?  A few tips to go from your current CV to a more authentic story of yourself:

1.      Add a summary of who you are (not just your professional portrait) at the beginning of your CV. Concise but to the point. Make the recruiter job easier by making it punchy and authentic, something they’ll remember easily.

a.      Think of the recruiter who will go through 50 CVs or more. They don’t have the time to read them in depth. Giving texture to all your dots that makes sense and is memorable is key. Some like to describe each job description with in the shortest way the impact they’ve made in that period of time in this role, 2/3 areas of responsibilities, then 3 concise achievements. How else could you tell this story?

b.      Use formatting to make the reading easy and memorable: be concise, a maximum of 2 pages is well enough, use bold font to highlight critical elements, add a small logo of companies you have worked for (it breaks the texty look of the CV and adds colours to liven it up).

2.      If you like using columns, use a thinner column on the side of your CV pages to add the connections of all your dots:

a.      Don’t just list your hobbies, describe them in such a way they’re a natural link to your person, your behaviour, your personality. Use adjectives to introduce them: what does “foodie” say about you? What does “loves to travel” make of you?

b.      Add a testimonial from a recent employee / colleague / manager (search what you’ve got on LinkedIn or make a request), write their title and the year they said that about you. It adds a great level of authenticity to your portrait.

c.      Don’t repeat information if you’ve got space. Once is enough. Use spacing and formatting instead to aerate your document. 

I’d love to hear how this little experiment has gone for you! Message me here: [email protected]

Speak soon!

Mags, your Leadership Coach

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