Social Media & Your CV
Another year passes, and the collective might of social media and LinkedIn have still failed to consign the CV to the graveyard. It seems that now, more than ever, that the CV is seen as a focal point for candidate engagement, with LinkedIn and Social Media profiles providing supplementary information, such as how many beers or glasses of wine you are willing to be photographed with on a school night(that’s a fib but worth thinking about).
Sifting a CV
According to HR News, recruiters are now even more ruthless when sifting CVs with the amount of time spent looking at any one CV is now probably 5 seconds or less. What makes matters worse is that it is very rare for a CV not to have passed through some sort of filtering system, and therefore the CVs that the recruiter is scrutinising, has been shortlisted.
So why didn’t the computer shortlisted CVs make the final cut?
The 4 Main Reasons Your CV Was Rejected
- Poor attention to detail – spelling mistakes and especially letter drops such as manged (managed) or hte (the).
- Buzzwords – there is a fine line between a legitimate use of strong adjectives on your CV and being over zealous with your descriptives. Do you inspire or are you awe-inspiring?
- Too long – If your CV is over 2 pages long.. There are still only a select number of reasons why you can go over 2 pages with the main reason being that you truly are remarkable, a singular global authority. If you are not, and you break the rule then you are considered smug, self-righteous, narcissistic and unable to be concise.
- You didn’t tailor your CV to the brief – basically, you could not be bothered to make some adjustments to match your CV the advertisement or the job brief. This also endorses the narcissist theory in point 3.
The way forward seems to be indicating that more emphasis than ever will be on the written CV as the lead source of information. It seems that the last decade has provided us with a revolution in how we can communicate via social media with anyone on the planet, or read something on a phone or a tablet, but it has also made us realise that a well-written CV offers more tangibility than a LinkedIn Profile. It allows you as an candidate to shine as an individual, providing that you put in the effort.