No-one has the Time to Check ALL the Facts….

[Joywtseo421]

Oh but the facts will be checked! If your CV makes the cut through whatever keyword grinding software is being used, the checking process begins, and as your application proceeds toward the inevitable offer of a job, the checking will become more……stringent!

It will start with your references, next comes your Facebook or Twitter feed, to verify whether the person they have on paper corresponds with who you are IRL. Recruiting is an expensive and time-consuming business, when it comes to candidate selection, recruiters are even more than ever, measuring twice and cutting once. I have even heard of Linkedin profiles and personal blogs being vetted, not looking for radical behaviour, just seeing if you would be a good fit.

Obvious…but Google yourself, are you happy with what you find?

I’ll Just List Everything!
‘The Recruiter will just go through everything in my CV and see where I will be a good fit….right?' Wrong! Listing absolutely everything you have done back to the 1970s is not the way to go. Firstly, for some ATS, excessive afghanistan phone number resource word-count is a knockout factor, secondly, a CV Carpet Bomb is hardly targeting a CV at the vacancy specifications, and thirdly, recruiters are not known for their propensity to scroll through a CV of Bayeux Tapestry proportions.

Trim, crop, tailor!

I’ll Show my ‘Outside the Box’ Thinking…
Box

I’m all in favour of showing [in real, measurable terms] how creative and innovative you are, but there is a fine line between ‘outside the box’ and ‘out of your box’!

Random and multi-coloured fonts, vertical text, images [with the exception of when a photo is necessary], logos, watermarks…I have seen my fair share of CVs that are a little off the beaten track, so be careful if you have this in mind.