Have you thought about where your CV is going, who will be reading it or what they are looking for in your CV? Like marketing teams align products to attract their right audience, so should you with your CV, LinkedIn and introductions. Every single one of your interactions is an insight into what the hiring manager could expect to see from you if they were to offer you the job.
As we mentioned before, hiring teams get flooded with CVs on a daily basis and with there being more choice than ever before hiring managers will have hundreds or even thousands of CVs to shortlist from. To make the cut your job is to submit a beautifully presented CV that contains the relevant information in relation to the vacancy. To grab and hold their attention your most important page is page 1!
It’s been reported that you have as little as 8 seconds to grab your audience’s attention so we’ll go in to far more detail of how you can use psychology, subliminal messaging and visual aids to convey your value to a hiring manager.
It’s always good to have an insight into the hiring manager’s company, who works there, the language they use and what types of backgrounds they look for from a successful hire. Recruitment is not a hiring manager’s first job, they have a day to day position that they still need to keep up with while they recruit… plus they are a man short, so they are usually under some serious stress! On top of that they have hundreds, even thousands of eager job seekers flooding their inboxes.
Tailoring your CV to their specific job and company cuts through unnecessary page fillers and keeps them focused on what they want to know and hear. Just like horses have blinkers, you need to keep them focused on what is relevant to their needs.
Don’t be in a rush to send your CV before it’s ready, hiring managers NEVER employ the first CV they see. 1st impressions count so it’s wise to take some time to research your audience first to get it right, first time!