How to get your CV noticed

Be brief, be brilliant and be gone.

700.

The number of applications we received for a role in my team recently.

700 applications in 2 weeks. One role.

That’s a A LOT of CVs, covering letters and portfolios to go through. So how on earth are you going to get noticed? How are you going to ensure you are top of the pile?

As a hiring manager, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly and I’m here to share my top tips. The job search is a set of hoops, each one different from the previous and even more tricky. This, people, is the first hoop: get your CV noticed and an invite to interview.

Now, repeat after me: “be brief, be brilliant, be gone” a quote mostly attributed to President Woodrow Wilson, often spoken but less frequently followed and we’re going to change that today. Say it again, write it down and hang above your desk (I use Post-it notes, they work a treat) you are going to follow this logic as you review and mostly likely redo your CV and covering letter.

Sounds simple? In a way it is, but let’s unpack it a little more…

BE BRIEF

Mark Twain once said, “I didn’t have the time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Amusing and yet so very true. It takes longer to write a short letter, than a long one because it requires discipline and intention and that takes time. No one has the time or energy to read long CVs (700 applications remember?) there is an unwritten 2 page rule for CV length for a reason, don’t underestimate the editing process.

I promised an in-house recruiter my CV the same day after quick first chat, two mistakes here 1) not being prepared with my CV ahead of that call but 2) forgetting that it would likely take me a day at least to get into shape, as it currently was 4 pages and mostly notes a whole load of duplicated long-winded sentences. Taking the time to obey the 2 page rule, make it brief and brilliant, was vital in securing the all important first proper interview with Google, who were certainly not going to hang around for long. I worked late into the night to get it delivered before the next working day as promised.

Words matter

It should come as no surprise that content is king in a CV. Sure, you can make it pretty to catch attention, but if the substance isn’t there, it will be all too easy to dismiss.

No word wasted

I am British so I feel I can say without causing offence, we do like to use a lot of words to say something very simple, so this one might be tricky for us and certainly is for me. Recently I completed a course with Good Shout (more to come on this), and their motto is ‘no word wasted’ and this 100000% applies here. Be intentional with the words you select and be impactful – less is more. The majority of CVs I see could say what they need to say in about 1/2 the words and space (2 page rule everyone) This might take some heavy editing, I encourage you to take the time to do so, it will be well spent.

Job description buzzwords & SEO get you noticed

Marketing is rife with buzzwords. Whilst it might be cringe, there are certain phrases and keywords that any hiring manager are looking for, so make it easy for not only them to see at first glance, but also the bots… welcome to 2024 friends where many companies use SEO now to filter first rounds of CVs. Simple tip on using them - read the job description (JD), note the words used and reflect those in your CV. If the JD has ‘brand storytelling’ or ‘omni-channel marketing’ listed as part of the role and skills, yep whack ‘em in, in the appropriate area of course. Make them stand out, bold works wonders if you like that style of highlighting key words. SEO is not my area of expertise so have a read here instead for more CV SEO tips.

Use results based sentences

More often than not, the first piece of advice when I read a CV is to make it more results based. In a nutshell, this means replacing general statements with outcomes, so you delivered a 360 degree campaign? Wonderful, what was the result, an X% increase in sales? An X% increase in Brand Awareness? By highlighting your achievements, this gives credibility to your ability to achieve results. These are also often where interviewers find good questions to ask more and dig deeper as outcomes are more significant than the delivery of that campaign.

So once you have identified and listed your task-oriented statements on your CV, make sure you revise them to become results-oriented statements. Show what you achieved using specific details. You don’t need to know exact budgets / numbers but give a ballpark.

Own the gaps

I’ve noticed a trend for people feeling ashamed about a break in their CV. Let me tell you this, there is nothing to be ashamed about. Things happen, jobs end, people take breaks - a good company will not judge this. Be open about the period of time and be prepared with an answer if you are asked about it. Don’t apologise for it, it happened and it’s OK, own it and you are more likely

BE BRILLIANT

This might sound obvious but your CV is your opportunity to shine, so be brilliant. Show why you should go through to the interview, how?

Show YOU

Lots of CVs look and sound great but are lacking in one very key element, memorability. There are a few ways to be memorable, my tip is to make it authentically you, whatever that means for you. For me, I use my profile section to write a little about me that’s not just the same formulaic stuff everyone else writes, you CV should reflect YOU. Personally I’m a fan of a Post-it and a sharpie and if you’ve read my previous newsletter, you’ll know that I applied to Tony’s Chocolonely with a hand drawn post it of myself in lieu of a photo. That small act of showing myself made me stand out (the hiring manager told me once I’d landed the job) but it also felt true to me. I didn’t think about it too much, it just felt like ‘me’. Stand out from the crowd by being yourself.

Do NOT be humble

Now is not the time to be humble. You want an interview? You’re not going to get it by being passive in any sense of the word. Some great advice I got recently from my previous manager at Tony’s (I have a new one now, very exciting!), was when I was updating my job description for my mat cover and she asked me to rewrite as if a man were writing it. Rereading it, I noticed it was filled with shrinking language and absolutely not reflective of my capability or intention for the role. I rewrote it whilst imagine my partner writing his and the outcome was quite a lot better. The same logic applies to your CV. Another example of not shouting about skills - a copywriter I had a lovely chat with a few weeks ago was native in French and English, as were chatting she mentioned she was native in French as well as English and wrote copy in both languages too. After being impressed, my next thought was how did I miss this on your CV? The answer was it was buried in a paragraph, a little diamond in the rock. This was her USP, a really important piece of information that would have stood out to me.

PLEASE shout about your achievements because if you don’t, who will? We want to hear how great you are but if you need more advice on this I highly recommend reading the book ‘Fuck Being Humble’ (the first She is Creative Non-Fiction Book Club book) by the incredible Stefanie Sword-Williams, check out her platform Fuck Being Humble.

Design

Use a template to design you CV, there is absolutely no shame. In fact, I urge you to, if you are not a designer. Hell, even if you are a designer, use a template - they are some really great ones out there plus it will save you time and energy that can be better used to focus on content. Check out Canva and Etsy (I bought the one I use for a fiver) pick one that stands out to you, and go! You can tweak and play with it to suit your content and make it your own.

I would recommend a template that has columns, especially if you have more than a couple of years experience, it will give you more space to cover all the necessary core elements, like contact details, education whilst allowing more room for your all important profile, skills and experience. Think of messaging hierarchy when writing and designing, give the most space to the most important parts. Sounds simple, but you’ll not believe how many CVs I see with a whole half a page on their contact details and a headshot alone.

Make sure you have space at the end to add in a 'personal accomplishments' or 'interests' section - you don't have to call it this - but this is a spot to share something fun and interesting about you here, remember we talked about being memorable ;-) I love asking someone about their interests and I’m not the only one. Give people a reason to want to ask you a question and get to know you more, when you get to interview it will also help build a rapport. An ex-colleagues fun fact when he joined was that he came third place in a National Chilli Eating Competition, the story didn’t end there and was riveting. You want to hear more don’t you? That’s my point. I’m not suggesting you take part in a chill eating context to have a good story, and no it wasn’t exactly on his CV… but it could have been and I’d want to know more. Top tip - please do not tell me you like travelling and reading. Everyone ‘likes’ travelling and reading, it’s so prolific on CVs people seem to think it’s what we want to see. I hate to break it you, we don’t.

Many people tell me they have a designer friend create their CV for them, and as lovely as that sounds it’s not practical and will fast become problematic. You will need to create a great template, and then various iterations tweaked as necessary for each job application. So unless you have Adobe Creative Cloud and are familiar with how to use it, the process will become a single point of failure if you have to rely on another person being available (and happy) to edit each time you apply for a new job. A CV is a live and evolving document, having an easy to use template in a programme you know how to use will set you up for success. Create a solid template you are happy with and new versions can be edited quickly and as necessary for each job application.

My pet hate? Any kind of scale to display your skills, the likes of the below example tell me nothing, a simple list will suffice.

Please, no.

If you are a designer, I am going to assume you can use Indesign and why would you tell me you are anything but great at it? Also, the scale is completely irrelevant because it’s made up (by you), a hiring manager can’t judge it against any standard because it doesn’t exist and above anything else, it’s a waste of space when you have so little to capture attention.

Lastly, don’t over design your CV. Common misconception that it needs to be all singing, all dancing, legibility is preferred. Much like words, good consdiered design can take some time to get right but just simple layout with a hint of colour used for your name (I used to change mine for each application depending on my vibe that day) and maybe some of the headings works just fine.

A note on photographs - a very common ask more so in Europe and something that should, in my opinion, be scrapped to avoid any subconscious bias when hiring. If a template you like has one, just delete it.

Go the extra mile

There is a reason Marta Puerto recently went viral with her video CV. Take a look at her page, it’s a masterclass not only in thinking outside the box but CV writing too. The video itself is just SO GOOD, what a way to highlight your skills and capture attention. I’ve seen a few excellent applications in my time, a content creator shared a video CV with me, completely tailored to the company I was working at, it was genius. Proactivity and creativity - things that a creative hiring manager looks for, show an innovative approach and you’ll be on a winning streak. You don’t have to be a video creator or reinvent the wheel but think of something that might just to push the needle on that memorability scale.

A recruitment agency sent my last agency a see through glass box filled with treats. The catch? It was locked, we could only get the code if we organised a get-to-know call with the recruiter. Cue long discussions about the box, how to get in without calling, the delicious treats inside, how great an idea it was. This was approx 10 years ago and I can recall it easily. Memorable.

Now, there’s a fine line between bribery and getting noticed so please keep a balanced point of view buuuuut if you’re thinking of sending cupcakes, I’ll take them 😂

A word on unsolicited visits

Please don’t show up unannounced. Cute, but no. Previously considered as a way to be remembered, I guarantee this will just piss people off. How many of us drop in unannounced anywhere these days? We don’t we text or call first, same logic applies here. Someone once showed up on my work doorstep pre-covid and panic quickly followed; had I forgotten a meeting? “who? and they want what?”, cue general confusion all round. It was pretty much a lose lose situation for both of us. Personally, I’d always rather a cold DM over this and would bet a lot of people are in the same boat, so reach out drop someone a LinkedIn DM or email, be clear and upfront about what you are looking for, how they can maybe help and I bet my bottom dollar you are likely to have more traction.

BE GONE:

But not for long…

Be gone has two meanings here:

1. Leave them wanting more. You’ve created a brief and brilliant CV, a short and snappy cover letter, before you press send check and make sure you’ve not given everything away, instead tease some information, pique the hiring managers interest and give them a reason to want to meet you. One way to do this is to literally say in your covering letter ‘ want to know how I XXX? Drop me a note to find out more’ it’s compelling language right? Litter your covering note and CV it, where appropriate.

2. The ‘follow up’ - application submitted, now you are in the waiting game. One thing you MUST do is follow up, in due course and in an appropriate way. What I mean is, do not expect a response within 2 hours and do not follow up on the next working day. Patience is key, though hard, please exercise it. If you’ve not heard anything within 2 weeks, follow up with the hiring manager. Likelihood is there are a huge number of applicants, that’s OK because that friendly nudge from you, might just put you to the top of the pile…

Some other pointers:

Covering letter rules

Covering letters are a such a waste of everyone’s time. Controversial opinion, but hear me out. I don’t read them properly. Why? Because 99% of them say the same old thing. They have become untrustworthy to me. I have received hundreds of covering letters with people telling me they like mealkits or chocolate. Great, you and the rest of the world (ok maybe not mealkits but definitely chocolate). Please make them not a waste of anyone’s time, tell something new, stand out. There’s a theme here hey? I skim read a lot of them and expect a lot of people do so follow the same rules with covering letters for CVs, be brief, be brilliant, be gone. Think about how you can capture attention in just a few sentences, state your intentions whilst keeping it short, snappy and to the point. Keep the reader engaged just long enough so as to intrigue them. Please don’t submit

Don’t put anything in your cover letter than is not on your CV, I occasionally offer to review CVs for people, we then talk through my feedback together and hear that an important nugget of information has been saved for the covering letter. Nooooo! For the reason that I just gave, these are often skim read if read at all, everything should be on your CV. Everything.

Break the monotony for the hiring manager, 700 CVs is a lot, plus 700 covering letters? Ouch. When applying for the HelloFresh job, the job description asked something along the lines of ‘Are you up for the challenge’, so I started my cover letter with something along the lines of ‘Am I up the challenge, hell yeah! Here’s why…’ notice no, ‘To Whom it May Concern’ or ‘Dear Sir or Madam.’ Simple but nevertheless effective.

Be in it to win it.

Remember you’ve also got to be in it to win it, don’t be put of applying LinkedIn kindly informs us how many applicants a job has - don’t be put off, I’m told this actually just counts people that click on the first button they might not actually apply. If anyone can verify this for me, please do. Anyway all this to say, you won’t get an interview if you don’t put your hat in the ring. If this is you, needing a kick…. Apply for that job!

Well done for making it this far, this is just a few of the top tips based on the frequently asked questions I get, as well as some of the traps people fall into. Writing your CV and covering letter is like a jigsaw puzzle with multiple pieces that you have to pull together, but spending that extra time and care on it to get it right, will be 100% worth it. If there’s one thing you should takeaway from this newsletter, aim to stand out from the crowd. Be the blue duck.

Image via Medium

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For the past three weeks I’ve been having some thought provoking conversations with women who are looking for work through the Let’s Connect programme but also through people reaching out and asking for advice 121. It’s been eye-opening for me, as much as I hope my own experience, tips and advice are useful, I too always take away a nugget of wisdom from each individual so I’d like to thank those that I’ve spoken with. This newsletter wouldn’t have fully come to life without those inspiring discussions.

I hope there’s something relevant for you in here, any specific questions please feel free to reach out either in the comments below or via the all new Substack DM function. Please don’t forget to share if this might be useful to someone you know, I’d really appreciate it.

As always, thanks for reading,
Emma :-)