I was talking to a client the other day about CVs and how so many candidates could do with help regarding how to format, edit and present their skills on paper.
The standard format is 2 pages with personal statement, education, experience and interests.
Yet, having been trained in the ‘dark arts’ of marketing and sales, I am acutely conscious that many candidates aren’t aware of the power of wording and visual formatting.
When I first started in recruitment in 2008, we were trained on how to improve the CVs we were sending to clients just by changing formatting and using salesy adverbs like ‘successfully’ achieved or ‘effectively’ managed, using more facts and figures, more data etc…
But tinkering with a CV is a dangerous game…
Whilst I could understand why we were refining CVs before sending them to clients (the average time it takes to decide on a CV is 6-7 seconds) I also felt that it was misleading the hiring manager in the long run. A CV that read in such a polished fashion would then not translate to an interviewee that used contrasting language to present themselves.
K.A.G. are renowned for helping our candidates to present themselves to employers in the best possible way; but in THEIR best possible way not ours. We don’t put fancy language in their mouths, we consult on how a CV could be improved, but ultimately it is the candidate’s responsibility to represent their expertise in a format that is true to themselves.
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