I don’t know about you but Covid-19 and the lockdowns gave me plenty of time to think and do a lot of things. Updating my CV is one of the things that I thought about. Even if you’re settled within your current job/role, it’s still a good idea to keep it fresh for promotions within the company and in the event that you have to move on. Sadly, I would admit that I have little to no success rate with CVs, and honestly, after I jam-packed my CV with all of the work and experiences I had, I probably would not want to hire me either.
I have been around a long time and did many things and have swayed and bobbed with the changing times of the CV creation. Just out of high school with no experience – the debate then was how can I sell myself and land a job with no experience? The other debate then too was should I add my age, nationality, race and religion? Those things were a no. Then as I moved on and got more ‘educated’ and more experience, the trend then was to write as much stuff as you possibly can about the job description of your role and all your training on your CV… because gosh darn it …. I studied all of this and did all of that, right?!!! Then, a little bit later, the trend became to write how much money I helped the company to make and how I contributed to the company’s development and make it a success. And it really sounded good and impressive until I got no call backs from ‘proper jobs’ and I wondered why. As I was about to change again to the growing trend of nicer formatting with maybe a picture (you know the ones I’m talking about) … I decided not to. I decided to stop and really study what I was doing and what I was saying.
Yes I believe that companies/hiring officers like to know that an individual can perform on the job and they would like to know that you have worked before but the reality was that a lot of hiring officer may not have had as many certifications, training or work experiences as I did. Nor would they have liked to be ‘outshined’. Regardless of any machine that your CV is put through to come up with the initial list of interviewees, the final CVs are going to be reviewed by a human being just like me or you. A human being who may be overworked and underpaid but doing the job of selecting a person who may be earning more than them, a perceived more fulfilling role or working right alongside them. Being an employee almost all of my life I decided to try the entrepreneur experience to see what that was like and after a couple months of trial and error, I realized that with the majority of CVs that I created before, I probably would not have called myself for an interview either.
The reality is that CVs are important and is supposed to show who you are. If you are writing that you helped your previous employer to earn $2 million dollars in revenue annually or that you helped to raise its ranking against its competitors, then maybe you may want to consider starting your own company. Some people like this style of writing but I still believe in the saying ‘Keep it Simple Stupid” especially since the CV is supposed to be only 2 pages. By all means share enough about yourself to generate interest, and invest/spend time on good CV formatter to create a lasting impression but keep it up to date. Every single company you have worked for does not need to be included but it should say what work you’ve done in the last few jobs or so.
